PEP, April 2007: The World of Work. Right to organize. Card check plan advances.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make organizing easier. But unions face an uphill battle in the Senate. Meanwhile, Bush threatens a veto.

As a bill to make union organizing easier goes before the U.S. Senate, President Bush has already threatened to veto the plan.

On March 1, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved the Employee Free Choice Act after a major push by organized labor. The 241-to-185 support for the bill reflected the renewed clout of the labor movement in Washington since union voters in November helped push out the right-wing, pro-war Republican majorities in Congress.

But even before the House vote, Vice President Dick Cheney said Bush would veto the act, which would establish unions if a majority of the affected workers sign a card rather than going through a cumbersome electoral process.

The administration and its anti-labor allies have tried to drum up opposition to the measure by claiming that it would take away workers’ right to vote on unionization by secret ballot.

But that so-called right has been totally undermined in recent years: Businesses routinely hire specialized anti-labor law firms and fire union advocates during representation elections overseen by Bush’s National Labor Relations Board. Academic studies show that management biases the election process by intimidating employees, forcing them to attend anti-union meetings, and threatening to move overseas if the union wins.

In addition to letting workers sign up for unions, the EFCA would penalize companies for interfering with their employees’ right to form unions and failing to bargain a first contract in good faith. The act would also provide for mediation and arbitration in disputes over the first contract. Employers would be forced to pay workers triple their pay if they were illegally fired during an organizing campaign.

“The future looks a little brighter to all Americans who have watched corporations celebrate record profits, but have themselves been shut out of the party, facing stagnant wages and soaring costs,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on the day the House passed the proposal. “A union card is the single best ticket into the middle class and, thanks to the Employee Free Choice Act, working people may finally have the chance to be a part of a union.”

84 percent of workers aren't in unions
The House vote on the EFCA came six weeks after the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its biannual report on union membership in the United States. On the day of the vote, the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research released a study that showed African Americans are disproportionately hurt by the decline of manufacturing, which has cut union representation of black workers from 25.3 percent in 1979 to 16 percent in 2006.

Once again, the BLS report contained dismal news pointing to the need for the labor movement to jump-start its organizing efforts as its numbers dwindle into irrelevancy. The report found that union representation in the private sector dropped to 7.4 percent in 2006 — the lowest in a century. Union membership in the public sector fell slightly, from 36.5 to 36.2 during that period.

In the combined private and public labor force, 12.5 percent of the workers are represented by unions, down from 20.1 percent of the workforce in 1983, according to the BLS.

On March 5, AFL-CIO leaders pledged to mount an aggressive campaign to pass the EFCA in the Senate, but labor faces an uphill — and possibly futile — fight to secure a veto-proof 60 Senate votes. In an interview with PEP, Jonathan Tasini, executive director of the New York-based Labor Research Association, said that the lack of support in the Senate makes passing the legislation unlikely even if the Democrats take over the White House in 2008. But he described the mobilization that secured the House’s approval as an important political step forward because it has created greater public awareness of the need for organizing and unions.

“It is unconscionable that Bush plans to veto the freedom of working people to join together for a voice at work,” said Gerald W. McEntee, president of DC 37’s parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “Without a legislative remedy, federally sanctioned harassment of workers will continue to be the unwritten law of our land. Bush has never met a workplace protection he did not wish to veto.”