Posts Tagged ‘EFCA Autopsy’
Card Check Already Getting A Post Mortem?
The Minnesota Independent is already doing an autopsy of the campaign by union officials to push the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. Two caveats: the paper is obviously sympathetic to the misguided legislation and the bill is actually far from dead. But the look at union efforts is interesting. A couple tidbits:
“It’d be really really nice if the Democrats would grow a little bit of a backbone,” said Martin Goff, organizing director for UNITE HERE Local 17. “We have the House, the Senate and the presidency. Yet these guys start going to their second, third and fourth positions before the Republicans even ask for it. I’m disgusted actually.”
Bernie Hesse, an organizer with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789, is similarly put off by the backpedaling from Democrats.
“Why did we do all this work?” Hesse asked. “That’s kind of a weird way to bargain, to start taking stuff away before they even start marking up the bill.”
And…
Rachleff is not at all surprised that Democrats appear to be backing away from the most controversial element of the legislation and believes that labor leaders are complicit in the decision to drop card check.
“Various union leaders signaled to the Democrats that it was OK,” he said. “It’s just a sorry-ass situation. The leaders of the existing labor organizations, they have to find things to make it look like they’re doing something. Pushing the Employee Free Choice Act became something very convenient for them to look like they were spending their members’ dues on good things.”
Just thought we’d pass it along.
