Union Legislation Drive Begins in Congress

March 10, 2009, 11:15 am

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would make it easier to form unions, said in an interview, “We have enough votes to pass the bill in the Senate.”

But then Mr. Harkin acknowledged, “I’m not sure if we have enough votes to overcome a filibuster.”

Showing how close the vote might be, Mr. Harkin said the bill would probably not come up for a vote until late April or early May, at which point he expects Al Franken to be sworn in as a Democratic senator from Minnesota. That would give the Democrats, including two independents, a 59-seat majority, but it doesn’t guarantee that all Democrats will vote with their caucus to clear the 60-vote filibuster hurdle.

Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions, is the main sponsor of the bill, and Mr. Harkin is the chief co-sponsor.

The bill, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, would make it far easier for Americans to form unions by giving workers the right to unionize as soon as a majority of employees in a workplace sign cards saying they want a union.

Business groups bitterly oppose the bill, fearing that it would create a surge in successful unionization drives. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups have sent more than 150 business executives to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to lobby against the bill, denouncing it on the ground that it would allow unions to organize workers by largely bypassing secret ballot elections.

Mr. Harkin was presiding over a hearing on Tuesday morning about the legislation, and hundreds of union members who were in town to lobby packed the hearing room to show support for the bill.

Mr. Harkin and George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, are scheduled to hold a news conference after the hearing to announce that they are introducing the bill in their respective chambers on Tuesday.

Mr. Harkin said he had about 40 Senate co-sponsors, while labor leaders say they expect Mr. Miller to have a majority of House members cosponsoring the bill.

Democratic leaders and their labor allies may have a hard time securing the 60 votes needed to overcome a Senate filibuster because several Democratic senators who once supported cloture, including Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have recently voiced ambivalence about the legislation.

Moreover, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the one Republican who supported the bill in previous Congresses, has also signaled that he might not back the bill this time around.

The wavering senators are the focus of intense lobbying from business and labor.

Steven Law, the U.S. Chamber’s general counsel and the official coordinating the chamber’s campaign against the legislation, predicted that Republicans and business had the votes to ensure that a filibuster succeeds.

“We got a jump on organized labor on this bill last year,” Mr. Law said. “As a result a number of senators who were said to support the legislation are showing buyers’ remorse.”

In that category, he pointed to Senators Landrieu and Lincoln, as well as two other Democrats: Mark Udall of Colorado and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Bill Samuel, the A.F.L.-C.I.O’s legislative director, predicted in an interview that the bill would be enacted. “We’re confident it will pass the Senate and be signed by the president.”

Mr. Samuel added: “I’m not surprised that some senators are saying they’re undecided because they’re getting attacked back home. It’s not unusual for a senator to say they’re undecided leading to a key vote.”

At the hearing, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, denounced the bill, saying it should be called the “No Choice Act’’ because, he said, it would eliminate secret ballots.

“If we’re looking for ways to be bipartisan in this town, this is clearly the most divisive issue in the Senate,” Mr. Alexander said. “It will divide us down the middle and slow down everything else that we want to work on.”

Union officials respond that the legislation would not eliminate secret ballot elections because it would let workers choose whether to form unions through card checks or secret ballot elections. Under current law, management has the power to decide whether to recognize a union through card checks or secret ballot elections.

Mr. Harkin said that enacting the Employee Free Choice Act was crucial to help rebuild the nation’s middle class. He said that under current law, it is far too easy for corporations to block unionization drives.

“If you want to look at who built the middle class in America, it’s unions,” Mr. Harkin said.