The U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded that concern among states about prevailing wage requirements has delayed implementation of a $5 billion weatherization program enacted through Democrats’ economic stimulus package. According to the GAO report, issued last week, “many of the states we reviewed reported that Davis-Bacon Act requirements—which have been applied to DOE’s Weatheri... Read more »
You can add South Dakota to the growing list of states that are taking a stand against the Employee Free Choice Act. Two state lawmakers said Thursday they will introduce a joint resolution preserving the secret ballot in South Dakota when the Legislature meets in January. If adopted, it will appear on the Mount Rushmore State’s 2010 ballot. The Argus Leader has the details here: “State Senate Maj... Read more »
The Employee Free Choice Act is probably not winning many supporters in Long Beach, Calif. – especially from tourists and business travelers who like a full night’s sleep. For more than two weeks, activists have been regularly protesting the local Hilton in an effort to organize the hotel’s workers through the public sign-up process known as card check – the centerpiece of EFCA. Lately, they have ... Read more »
Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, today joined colleagues in pressing for a vote on a proposal that would give Members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours to review legislation before it could receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. “The American people are tired of seeing bills cobbled together i... Read more »
A worker’s privacy. An employer’s freedom. The future of a wobbly U.S. economy. These are just a few of the issues at stake in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, but there’s one that particularly concerns the act’s biggest supporters: power. As Bloomberg News columnist Albert R. Hunt recently wrote in The New York Times, the future of Big Labor’s storied clout in Washington also rides o... Read more »
Rep. John Kline (R-MN), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, is calling for a congressional oversight hearing into allegations that officials with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the White House inappropriately used federal resources to promote a political and legislative agenda. Kline made his request in a... Read more »
We’re here today to examine the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009, a bill that would have major consequences for workplaces across the nation. As I understand it, H.R. 3017 is largely identical to legislation of the same name introduced in 2007. This panel considered the legislation two years ago, and eventually it was brought to a vote in the full U.S. House of Representatives before stal... Read more »
As a former Montana secretary of state, Bob Brown understands the history and importance of the secret ballot. In a recent essay for the Missoulian, Brown said the secret ballot in America started during Reconstruction as a way to protect former slaves from “brutal harassment” at the polls while exercising their new right to vote. By the turn of the century, the practice had spread to both Norther... Read more »
Voters use a secret ballot. Workers who want to create a union use a secret ballot (for now). So do prisoners of war. Most people probably aren’t aware of it, but POWs do have a right to the secret ballot – something that workers would not have if the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law. In addition to issues of treatment and medical care, POW voting rights are listed in the Third Geneva Conventi... Read more »
More evidence has surfaced to debunk claims about a compromise version of the Employee Free Choice Act passing the Senate. Sen. Mark Pryor hasn’t weighed in on the “new” version of EFCA. In fact, he hasn’t said much about the old one either. The Hill catches up with the Arkansas Democrat here: “Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told The Hill on Thursday he remains ‘stubbornly noncommittal’ on so-called ‘ca... Read more »
