Bailouts and EFCA: "Obama's labour play"

Financial Post (UK):

As Barack Obama, the U.S. President, strong-arms the powerful United Auto Workers union into making major concessions in exchange for more auto-industry bailout money, elsewhere he's backing an initiative that could lead to the biggest resurgence in unionization across the United States in decades.

The U. S. President is firmly behind so-called card check, controversial legislation that would make it significantly easier for workers to organize.

Rather than go through the secret-ballot election process now in place that lets companies campaign against the union, workers could unionize simply by signing cards.

Passage of the bill, formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act, or EFCA, is a top priority for organized labour, which helped lead Mr. Obama and his Democratic party to a sweeping victory in the last election. It has enlisted actor Martin Sheen, who played the U.S. president in TV drama The West Wing, to help sell it.

Big Business is vehemently opposed to the legislation, arguing that unions could coerce workers into signing cards. Business groups also are fretting about another provision in the bill that would allow an arbitrator to set the terms of a first contract, including employee wages, if a company and its newly organized workers couldn't agree on a new contract within four months.

Mr. Obama's pro-labour push comes as the behemoth United Auto Workers Union could see its power significantly diminished as part of the U. S. government's demands that ailing automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC slash costs before they get billions of dollars more in taxpayer-funded bailout money.

Meanwhile, a bankruptcy filing by GM could threaten much of the union's very existence, although industry observers don't believe the President would allow the company's union representation to be wiped out.

"That would be almost political suicide for a Democratic president," said Robert Bruno, a labour relations professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While Mr. Obama may have had no choice but to play tough with the UAW, observers don't doubt his continued support for the card check bill.

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, it looked as though it was all but certain to pass. It has since gone into limbo, however, after Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector, a pivotal Republican vote the Democrats were counting on, announced he's now opposed to the legislation.

With the U. S. Senate now shy of the 60 votes it needs, Mr. Obama and other lawmakers could push for a filibuster, which would undoubtedly garner a lot of public attention and perhaps lead to the bill's passage. Or labour might offer some concessions to make the legislation more palatable to certain lawmakers.

"I don't think it's dead," Mr. Bruno said. "Arlen Spector switching his vote really complicates matters. But it's quite possible that organized labour could persuade the Democratic leadership to call for a vote and then require the Republicans to participate in an old-fashioned filibuster. They don't really happen anymore, but it could be a real donnybrook."

Others aren't convinced it will get passed as is.

"The smart money says that EFCA is not going to become law, but maybe some version of it -- an EFCA-lite -- probably will," said Michael Lotito, a lawyer in the San Francisco office of Jackson Lewis, which represents employers in labour law issues. "Instead

of card check, there could be faster elections and provisions for more robust mediation in arbitration."

The act has about a 60% approval rating from the American public.

While Big Labour has Martin Sheen on its side, Joe the Plumber -- a. k. a. Joe Wurzelbacher, who sprang to national attention when Republican Senator John McCain make him part of the presidential debate -- has been touring Pennsylvania to speak out against card check on behalf of a business group.

The Big Business lobby is arguing that more unions in the workplace could destroy jobs at a time when unemployment is surging.

Organized labour counters that places with card check provisions, including certain provinces in Canada, have shown no meaningful increase in unemployment when workers unionize.

Union supporters complain that employers dominate workplaces, adding that the legislation will help level the playing field by making it harder for workers to be intimidated by their employers.

Failure to get card check passed would be a stunning blow to organized labour, which hasn't seen such an opportune time to push its agenda in perhaps a half a century.

The United States, which has become increasingly pro-business since Ronald Regan was sworn in as president in the 1980s, has seen its union representation slip to less than 8%, down from a peak of 35% peak in the mid-1950s.

"There's not been any labour law reform here in decades," said Joel Rogers, a pro-labour law professor at the University of Wisconsin. "You could describe the pace as glacial, if glaciers weren't melting so fast."

If card check passes, union groups estimate as many as one million new union members could be signed up a year.

Mr. Bruno of the University of Illinois said union representation could start heading back to record highs over the next several years.

"Once you get the density up and add to it a company like Wal-Mart or one of the big foreign auto transplants, you would then have tremendous influence over the market," he said.

Barack Obama