WSJ: Obama Hasn't Put Much Muscle Behind EFCA
With Congress now off on recess, and much attention turned to the President's healthcare agenda, the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act has grown quiet the past week or so. In today's Wall Street Journal, Melanie Trottman writes "For Labor, Small Shifts, Big Wishes":
Labor unions, big backers of the president in the election, are still waiting for the big payoff.
Unions say Congress and the Department of Labor are making good on Obama promises to strengthen labor laws. Labor got the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a bill Mr. Obama signed early this year, to give workers more time to sue employers for wage discrimination. The stimulus bill extended unemployment benefits and allocated money for infrastructure projects that will employ union workers.
The government rescues of unionized auto makers General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC salvaged more for United Auto Workers union members than they likely would have received under a normal bankruptcy process.
But President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats haven't been able to deliver on one of labor's top priorities: passage of a bill that would make it easier for unions to organize more workers.
The Employee Free Choice Act is stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats, plus many employers who say it would cost them money and in some cases force them to move operations overseas.
Faced with a tough fight over his health-care plan, Mr. Obama so far hasn't put much muscle behind passing the free-choice bill.
