Labor Relations Today : Labor & Employment Lawyers & Attorneys : Contract Administration, Collective Bargaining

Bloomberg News today runs a report "'Stay Union-Free' Pushed by Target, Michaels as Obama Law Looms."  There is no real new information in the piece, but the following passages refer to the current approach of the retailers mentioned in the headline:  

Minneapolis-based Target, the second-biggest U.S. discount retailer, updated its anti-union video for employee training to explain the consequences of the bill, company spokeswoman Donna Egan said in an e-mailed statement.

“If proposed labor relations legislation is adopted, allowing third-party involvement or interruptions to our business, our business could be impacted,” Michaels Stores of Irving, Texas, the world’s largest arts-and-crafts retailer, said in its earnings filing this month.

As long noted, once the debate over healthcare legislation is completed, the Congress is expected to take up EFCA once again.

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At the Huffington Post, Sam Stein reports on Labor's current view of the administration in "Big Labor, Big Concerns: Obama's Approach Causing Tension."  Set against the AFL-CIO's and SEIU's activities in the healthcare legislation deabte, the piece notes Labor's frustration with the President's "punting of the Employee Free Choice Act until 2010."  Notes Stein:

Labor leaders are loath to publicly criticize Obama, in part because they remain acutely aware of the benefits of staying in his (and WH chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's) good favor. But in private, there is a growing "frustration," as one union official put it. And as it became clear that the Senate was settling on a health care bill that taxes high-end plans (which cover many union members as well as other workers) and includes no additional government-run plan for insurance, a hint of that frustration seeped to the surface.

"What I want the president to do is to work with the conferees on the issues that he has said from the very beginning are important to him and say we have a chance to get some of those done, particularly the ones that relate to making sure that people who don't have insurance will be able to afford what is made available," SEIU President Andy Stern declared in a conference call this past week. "We need his moral suasion. We need his personal involvement and we are totally convinced that what we want done is what he wants done. And all we can do is maximize the effort."

Implicit in the remark was that, up to this point, Obama had provided neither the "suasion" nor "involvement" needed in the debate. It was hardly the most controversial of statements. Indeed, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) echoed the sentiment days later. But coming from Stern -- the closest of the president's labor allies -- it was, as one union hand pointed out, "hard to dismiss."

Elsewhere, both the SEIU and the AFL-CIO delcared the U.S. Chamber of Commerce the "Scrooge of the Year," reporting on the "award" bestowed by union 501(c)(3) group, Jobs With Justice:

The Chamber has spent millions of dollars lobbying against legislation that would benefit workers and families like the Employee Free Choice Act....

The Chamber tweeted it's acceptance speech:

Union group names us "Scrooge of the Year" -- here is hoping we get it again in 2010 for more #efcafail (@jwjnational)

And The Truth About The EFCA blog links to this thorough 2009 re-cap of legislative opposition to the Act prepared by the House Committee on Education and Labor Republicans: "A Year's Worth Of Reasons Not To Enact EFCA."

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Yesterday, Politico suggested that supporters of EFCA might find some renewed sense of optimism as Congress moves beyond the healthcare debate in 2010.  That optimism was equally reflected in AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's declaration that the labor movement "will pass EFCA."

Today, however, The Hill is reporting on an interesting legislative strategy development regarding the House of Representatives:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has privately told her politically vulnerable Democratic members that they will not vote on controversial bills in 2010 unless the Senate acts first.

After a year of bruising legislative victories that some political analysts believe have done more to jeopardize her majority than to entrench it, Pelosi is shifting gears for the 2010 election.
 

Specifically about the impact on EFCA:

Pelosi’s promise could dim the prospects for other White House priorities as well, including the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — known as “card check” — and the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” prohibition on gays serving openly in the military.
 

“There’s not going to be a ton of stuff legislatively next year either way,” a House leadership aide said. “But on EFCA — even though the House has demonstrated its ability to pass it — and on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Senate is definitely going to have to act first.”
 

The House passed EFCA during the last Congress, but members who voted on that bill were well-aware it had no chance to be signed into law by President George W. Bush.

Now, this isn't a totally new development regarding a "Senate First" approach to EFCA, as House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced the likelihood of letting the Senate lead on the issue back in March 2009.  Still, bloggers and internet news services on all points of the political spectrum have responded.

NewsMax reports that union leaders are frustrated with the Obama administration:

Congress has shown no urgency to act on the bill that would make it easier for unions to organize: the Employee Free Choice Act.

Even after Congress is done with healthcare, there’s no guarantee it will act on the union bill. That’s because moderate Democrats may oppose it, especially with the 2010 elections looming. 

FireDogLake questions the strategy:

It’s true that the House has taken the first bite on a host of bills this year, from education to health care to climate change to financial reform, passing basically a substantial chunk of the Obama agenda, with little to show for it. So the Senate does need to walk the plank every now and again.

But consider the leftover items here – immigration reform, labor law reform (Employee Free Choice Act), gay rights (DOMA and DADT repeal), budgetary issues which include taxes, etc. How broadly do you define a “tough vote”? And what will the House then do while waiting for the Senate to act on all of this?

And some, like Harper's Magazine's Ken Silverstein aren't placing all of the impetus on either the House or Senate:

Even less convincing is the argument that Obama can’t get anything done because of a weak Democratic congress. Fine, it’s a lousy congress, but the president sets the tone and signals his priorities. As I noted yesterday, Obama was a big backer of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) when on the campaign trail (when he needed union votes). He’s barely mentioned it since taking office, and so that central demand of labor has gone nowhere. That’s not all the fault of Congress.

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Back in August, AFL-CIO President (then Treasurer-Secretary) Richard Trumka told a webchat audience that efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act would probably not advance any further until after Congress was through with healthcare reform.  As the debate over the healthcare legislation soldiers on, Tuesday's Politico noted "For labor, there's always next year":

To be sure, health care reform has been a goal of union leaders for a long time, and they are still working with Congress to win passage. But labor’s top priority — passage of the Employee Free Choice Act — was in trouble almost the moment the Democrats were sworn in, stalled by the unexpectedly long effort to fill their filibuster-proof Senate roster.

 

First, labor advocates had to wait until the contested Senate race in Minnesota was settled and Democrat Al Franken was seated. Then the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) caused further delay.

 

Backers of the bill are hoping it will re-emerge as a congressional priority once health care moves from center stage. But even then, it’s unclear whether Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has been able to hash out language acceptable to the moderates and conservatives in his caucus — a task made all the more difficult by the looming midterm elections.

 

Still, labor advocates remain hopeful.

There has been nothing reported about specific conversations on alternative approaches to the bill since September, but President Trumka remains committed to resuming the push in 2010, as he expressed during another webchat on Tuesday.

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