Card Check Alternatives: Debatable
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 by adminApparently some politicians didn’t like that the public got educated and angry about the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, so they are trying Card Check 2.0 without time for the public to discuss the issue. Roll Call reports:
As Senate Democrats struggle to hammer out a compromise bill on union organizing, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is sketching a process for railroading the bill through the floor as quickly as possible to prevent Republicans from rallying a major campaign against it, senior Democratic aides said.
If the reforms are good for working Americans, wouldn’t it stand to reason that they are worth taking time to consider and have a public discussion over? Well, consider this quote from Roll Call’s report (behind a login):
“This is not the kind of thing where we could have a long, drawn-out rollout. We’d have to say, ‘Here’s the deal,’ and then get to the floor and get it passed before anyone can mobilize against it,” one leadership aide said.
Anything that threatens to impinge upon employees or employers as dramatically as the labor changes envisioned by EFCA’s proponents is, in a word, debatable. Any attempt to rush it would be a disservice to constituents and reflects accordingly on the bill itself.
UPDATE 1 — Steve Forbes says there’s no room for debating this point:
“Our bottom line is that it is nonnegotiable that workers must have a say on the terms of contracts that deal with their wages, benefits and workplace conditions. And it is nonnegotiable that workers have the right to vote via secret ballot and be afforded enough time to make an informed decision about unionization.”
UPDATE 2 — Keith Smith from the National Association of Manufacturers says EFCA cannot be improved.
Tags: Compromise
