House eyes bill to ease labor organizing

House eyes bill to ease labor organizing

	Published : Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:29 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - A sharply divided House took up legislation Thursday that would make it easier for labor activists to organize workers and could give a boost to flagging union membership.

The Democratic majority had the votes to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would take away the rights of employers to demand secret-ballot votes on recognizing a union. But majority Democrats probably lacked the two-thirds margin needed to overcome a promised presidential veto.

Labor groups, which have made the bill their top legislative priority this year, contend that secret-ballot elections have become a means for employers to intimidate workers into rejecting unions. Business groups have actively campaigned against the bill, saying it is an affront to democratic principles and would give high-pressure organizers unimpeded access to workers.

The legislation, also called the card check bill, would certify a union as soon as a majority of workers at a plant sign cards authorizing it. Currently, employers can require elections, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, on whether a union should be recognized. That often can be a time-consuming process.

The legislation also toughens penalties against employers who violate worker rights during organizing drives and sets up a binding arbitration process to prevent companies from thwarting a new union by bargaining in bad faith on an initial contract.

'There is no fear quite like the fear of losing your job,' said Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, a former labor lawyer. She cited studies concluding that one out of five labor activists involved in organizing gets fired. 'Less people are joining labor unions because far too often irresponsible employers have perfected coercive tactics to fight their creation.'

But Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, asked 'how intimidating workers through harassment, lies and fear tactics into signing these cards improves workers' conditions.'

Labor organizations cite employer coercion as a major factor in the steadily falling percentage of American workers who are organized. Union membership has dropped from 20 percent of wage and salary workers in 1983 to 12 percent in 2006. Discounting civil servants, that percentage is 7.4 percent, the Labor Department says.

The union movement lost 300,000 dues-paying members last year alone, said bill opponent Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill. 'But just because only 12 percent of Americans now choose to pay into a union is no reason to attack our rights as Americans to a secret ballot.'

The White House made a similar argument Wednesday in issuing a veto threat. 'It is a fundamental tenet of democracy that individuals are able to vote their conscience, privately, free from the threat of reprisal.'

But unions and their Democratic allies said workers already face the threat of reprisals from their employers in the run-up to elections.

The labor rights group American Rights at Work said 80 percent of employers hire union-busting consultants and 90 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., is sponsoring similar legislation in the Senate, where it could face a filibuster from Republicans.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, in prepared remarks for a speech Thursday to the Conservative Political Action Conference, said House Democrats would pass the bill on a party line vote. 'But I can assure you that it will meet a different fate when it gets to the Senate.'

The bill is H.R. 800