The battle begins over unionization rules
By: Stephen Keating11/6/2008 - 4:56pm
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for unions to organize, will get a new look in the Democratic-controlled Congress and by President-elect Barack Obama, who told the AFL-CIO in April that he would make it "the law of the land."
To push the cause, American Rights at Work, a pro-labor group based in Washington, released a survey from seven Senate battleground states: Colorado, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Oregon. It was conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc.
The conclusion?
A majority of the 2,104 respondents polled by telephone favor the EFCA. The results to one of the questions not published are linked here.
Interestingly, Colorado was the only state where the "strongly favor" and "somewhat favor" responses added up to less than 50 percent.
That survey question doid not explain the complicated rules on unionizing a workplace nor how EFCA would shift from a secret ballot to a more open (critics say potentially coercive) card-check process.
But American Rights at Work is touting the survey as proof that advertising attacks against successful Senate candidates who back EFCA - including Colorado Sen.-elect Mark Udall - were ineffective.
“No matter how hard corporate interests tried to mislead voters, it just didn’t work. State by state, millions were spent, but the fact remains the Employee Free Choice Act never became the wedge issue corporate interests sought," said the chairman of the group, David Bonior, a former Michigan congressman who is also part of the transition economic advisory board that is meeting Friday with Obama in Chicago.
EFCA opponents include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, headed by Thomas J. Donohue.
"I don't think you can make a very rational argument" for taking up the labor legislation on top of efforts to stimulate the economy, Donohue said today, reported the Associated Press.
Donohue is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the Grand Hyatt Denver at an event sponsored by the Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck law firm.
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Here's hoping that the EFCA will also help to encourage
Here's hoping that the EFCA will also help to encourage Americans to be Americans by buying American! Organized Labor has for many decades led the way in encouraging people to protect American jobs by buying MADE IN USA. Under Veterans Administration care for Sleep Apnea, I recently needed a new mask for my CPAP machine, and was provided a mask made in China. Simply unacceptable situation in my opinion. New bumper sticker?: "Lost YOUR job yet? Keep buying foreign!"