Legislative Status On July 17, 2009, after forcing an all-night legislative session, Democrats on the House Education and Labor Committee approved partisan legislation calling for a government takeover of our nation’s health care system. Democrats secured passage of the bill over bipartisan objections, with three Democratic members joining all Republicans in voting no. Key Concerns The Education ... Read more »
How fast can the Employee Free Choice Act go from zero to 60 votes? That’s the question Roll Call tried to answer in a report Tuesday. The congressional newspaper says Senate leaders are considering an idea to rush the bill through the chamber as fast as possible to avoid debate and opposition: “As Senate Democrats struggle to hammer out a compromise bill on union organizing, Majority Leader Harry... Read more »
The Employee Free Choice Act will create forced government contracts; it will deny workers the right to a secret ballot (or maybe rush union elections); and it will kick an economy that’s already down. And its supporters want to pass the proposal anyway. That’s what Steve Forbes concludes in a piece he wrote for today’s Politico. The editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine says that supporters are acti... Read more »
If you didn’t know any better, you might assume Dave Baloga is totally behind the Employee Free Choice Act. He is a journeyman with more than 28 years in the Graphic Communications International Union, a subordinate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As a union member, you might assume he’s solidly behind the act, which has been so heavily lobbied by Big Labor. You’d be wrong. In a let... Read more »
Leave it to National Review to cite not one but two literary giants in its opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. The brainy conservative opinion journal noted, as have others, that the name of the act would make George Orwell proud. (In his classic novel 1984, Orwell wrote about a government that used phrases such as “War is Peace” and “Freedom is Slavery” to lull its citizens into submissio... Read more »
Sniff…what’s that odor? The “new” Employee Free Choice Act does not pass the smell test, two newspapers say. Both the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Harrisonburg, Va., Daily News-Record decried the act’s stench of bad lawmaking in editorials – even after reports that one of its smelliest features, “card check,” would be removed. Senators are being tight-lipped about this alleged compromise, so ... Read more »
The debate over the Employee Free Choice Act is about many things. It’s about a worker’s right to a secret ballot, of course, as well as jobs. But it’s also about forced government contracts, a “disastrous” part of the bill that has taken center stage now that there are reports its “card check” provision could be removed. There are several reasons to oppose binding arbitration, but Investor’s Busi... Read more »
Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act should take a long, hard look at Michigan before moving forward with the proposal – especially in this struggling economy. That’s what The Detroit News suggested in a Sunday editorial about one of the most destructive features of the act: forced government contracts. The News knows its stuff here. Michigan enacted a similar law in 1969, Public Act 312. It... Read more »
Even though the “card check” aspect of the Employee Free Choice Act received a major blow last week, it’s no time to celebrate. A Wall Street Journal editorial today offers a glimpse of some equally bad ideas in the “new” card check, which is currently brewing in the Senate: "One proposal would slash the time for an organizing vote, requiring that it be held within five or 10 days after 30% of wor... Read more »
A worker’s right to a secret ballot became a little safer today as a handful senators dropped their support of the “card check” provision in the Employee Free Choice Act. But while this appears to be good news for workers, rejection of the politically toxic proposal may merely be camouflage for an agenda to impose alternative revisions to workplace law that would be equally threatening to workers ... Read more »
