EFCA Round-Up: "Business Leaders for a Fair Economy"
Investors Business Daily reports the "Card Check Threat Alive and Well":
Card-check supporters have begun a new lobbying effort that targets a few wavering senators including Democrats Dianne Feinstein, Arlen Specter and Mark Pryor. The idea is to put the squeeze on Congress instead of taking the case to voters.
It may be one reason why card check has morphed into new incarnations, the latest a "compromise" bill from Feinstein. She has proposed a mail-in card-check format, which still amounts to a denial of secret ballot. Curiously, Feinstein backed away from her own compromise Thursday, raising questions as to whether she was being manipulated and wanted out.
The other prong of the card-check lobby has set up a supposed "grassroots" group as a fig leaf for the same old Big Labor interests.
A new group calling itself "Business Leaders for a Fair Economy" has gotten press for its novelty value as a 1,000-member business group that actually favors card check. Its Web site says it's paid for newspaper ads in The Hill, Politico and Wall Street Journal, all closely read by the political set, urging Congress to pass card check.
Others are also skeptically commenting on the AFL-CIO's latest project launch, the Business Leaders for a Fair Economy. The Hill, recipient of some of the organization's ad dollars, notes "Industry Questions Pro-Card Check Business Coalition":
But advocates for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the Workforce Fairness Institute, two opponents of the bill, say the businesses that make up the coalition all have union shops and the new coalition’s goal is to increase labor’s ranks so its unionized members would not have to compete as much with the smaller labor costs of non-unionized firms.
“Invariably, these business owners are already unionized. So the bill would provide a competitive advantage for them if it got passed and level the playing field by having their competitors forcibly unionized as well,” said Brad Close, vice president for public policy for the NFIB.
And Labor Relations Institute (LRI) questions:
I know you’ll find it shocking, but the Chairman of this front group is CEO of American Income Life Insurance Company whose employees - according to a quick LRI Online search - turns out are represented by OPEIU Local 277. It’s easy to see why once you’re stuck with a union why you’d want to make sure everyone else was too - but I wonder how many non-union employers are on the list of 1,000 Employee Free Choice Act Supporters? I’m guessing not many.
