Card Check Bill Moves Forward As Lobbying Battle Heats Up

Posted by: Jane Sasseen on March 09 - BusinessWeek

And the battle over card check is fully joined.

Things are heating up for the combatants on both sides of the vehement debate over the Employee Free Choice Act,the labor-backed bill also known as “card check”, designed to make it easier for employees to vote in a union at their workplace. Following several weeks of speculation over just how deep support for the bill is in Congress, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA), announced that they will introduce EFCA in both the Senate and the House on Tuesday, March 10.

The move took some Democrats by surprise. Many moderate, business friendly members of the majority have hoped to avoid a vote; they don’t want to antagonize labor, which helped get them elected, but they worry the measure could raise business costs and harm competitiveness as well. And despite President Obama’s generally strong backing of labor, Washington has also been full of speculation over whether the White House really wants to take on a contentious battle with business at a time when the economy continues to reel.

“We’re getting an earful from friends on both sides,” says the beleagured aide to one moderate Democratic Senator. “This puts so many folks in an awkward position.”

The bill's reintroduction coincides with an intensifying lobbying blitz over card check organized by the business and labor organizations that are battling over the bill. With the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee holding its first hearings on the issue on the morning of the 10th, both sides have flown in small armadas of local supporters to meet with their Congressional representatives in the coming days. Each side hopes to win over the few votes needed to claim victory.

The new bill is identical to one passed by the House in 2007, which died in the Senate when the Democratic majority, then limited to 51 seats, couldn't muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a fillibuster or a presidential veto. With passage in the House still assured -- and President Obama having reaffirmed his support for the bill to labor leaders at the AFL-CIO annual conference last week, all eyes are now on the Senate. Should one or two Senators from either side of the aisle defy their party, that will determine the outcome.

Here's how the math works out: The Democrats now hold 58 seats and it looks increasingly like Al Franken of Minnesota will win that contested seat. So they are fighting to keep on board Democrats wavering under intense pressure from business -- particularly moderate Southerners from right-to-work states. The pressure may be most intense on Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas; the state's biggest company, Wal-Mart, is among the leaders of the anti-card check campaign.

But even if the Democrats maintain all 59 votes, they still need to peel away one Republican. That's why the biggest fight centers around Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, says Tom Gallagher, the Washington policy analyst for institutional brokerage ISI Group. With the state's large labor population, he was the only Republican who backed the earlier bill in 2007. No other Republican appears likely to break away this time, Gallagher says.

For the business community, the opposite strategy applies: keep the pressure up on Specter -- who is already threatened with a tough primary fight from Pat Toomey, a more conservative opponent -- and try to win over one or more of those Dems unhappy with the bill.

To that end, a host of trade associations led by the U.S.Chamber of Commerce flew in roughly 150 executives from local businesses and Chambers of Commerce to talk up the problems they see if EFCA is passed; they'll spend Tuesday meeting with a handful of key Senators and House members before doing interviews with local papers designed to keep up the pressure on their representatives.

Not to be outdone, the Service Employees International Union has organized a competing "fly-in" with the AFL-CIO and other unions; they will also flood Capitol Hill with roughly 300 workers who will tell members about how they've been stymied in efforts to win the union representation they believe they need to improve wages and health care benefits.

As now written, the bill would eliminate an employer's ability to require a secret ballot if employees attempt to gain union representation. Instead, a union could be certified if 50% of those working at a particular site sign cards asking for a union. Andy Stern, the head of the SEIU, says the simpler procedure is needed to keep companies from intimidating workers who try to unionize, while Glenn Spencer, who heads the Workforce Freedom Initiative, a multi-million dollar effort by the Chamber of Commerce to stop card check, argues that the loss of a secret ballot will simply allow labor organizers to coerce their co-workers into joining a union whether they want one or not.

Perhaps even more worrisome for business, the measure would require companies to submit to binding arbitration if they can't come to terms on a contract 120 days after the union submits cards demonstrating that workers want to be represented. Stern argues that the strict limit is needed to keep companies from endlessly delaying implementation when the workforce opts for a union. But Spencer says that executives and small business owners fear the mandatory provision and short time frame will give negotiators who know little about their businesses huge sway over pay, workforce rules and other issues that could significantly undercut competitiveness.

AFL-CIO officials have said they believe they have the 60 votes needed to win, but many continue to question that claim.

SEIU's Stern is more cautious. He believes the unions have the votes needed to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for a full debate this time, though that doesn't necessarily guarantee success. "Sixty people will let the debate go on," Stern told BusinessWeek shortly after speaking to a group of roughly 200 workers protesting outside the Chamber of Commerce's Washington headquarters Monday afternoon. "We will get our day in court." With the outcome still so up in the air, only one thing is certain: the already intense lobbying wars are only going to get worse.