(The following article by Anya Sostek was posted on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website on June 21.)
PITTSBURGH — Several Democratic presidential candidates sweated through 96 degree heat in Washington, D.C., this week, joining 4,000 union supporters rallying on Capitol Hill to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Meanwhile, the Center for Union Facts — a pro-business group — spent half a million dollars on national television and print ads against the bill, which the U.S. Senate began to debate earlier this week.
But for all the hoopla, both sides admit that the Employee Free Choice Act, which would strengthen union organizing and negotiating, isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
The U.S. House passed the legislation in March, but supporters are unlikely to muster 60 votes to break a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
And regardless, the Bush administration already has said that the president will veto the bill.
So why bother with the big campaigns?
“This is a dress rehearsal for the first 100 hours of the next presidency,” said Bret Jacobson, senior researcher for the Center for Union Facts. “This is a glimpse into January of 2009.”
Unions identify the Employee Free Choice Act — which allows workers to form unions if a majority sign their names to voting cards rather than by using a secret ballot, strengthens penalties for violating the National Labor Relations Act and mandates mediation and binding arbitration if a first contract is not reached in 90 days — as one of their top priorities. And business groups view defeating it as one of theirs.
Even though the chance that the bill will become law this year is minimal, both sides say the vote in the Senate provides an opportunity to get their message across.
“Anytime we can get the public’s attention on an issue that generally flies under the radar, it presents a great opportunity to educate millions of Americans who might not know about it,” said Mr. Jacobson.
Even if they are unable to force a Senate vote on the bill, unions see even getting the bill this far as a major victory in a process that is measured in years, not months.
“This is, like it or not, how business gets done,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America.
“Just as with the minimum wage, it’s critical to demonstrate that we have majority support in both houses.”
It took about a decade before Congress passed a new minimum wage bill earlier this year, which President Bush did sign into law.
The Employee Free Choice Act was first introduced in Congress in November 2003. At the time “we knew that it would never pass with a Republican majority in the House and Senate and a Republican president,” said Stewart Acuff, national organizing director for the AFL-CIO. “We introduced it when that was the case though, to build real support for it. ? The support has grown faster than almost anyone believed possible over the four years.”
To build support, the AFL-CIO also is engaging in continuing grass-roots efforts. Since the bill passed the House in March, said Mr. Acuff, the AFL-CIO has made 45,000 phone calls, delivered 30,000 faxes and sent out 250,000 postcards.
In addition, it has encouraged state and local government entities to pass resolutions supporting the bill. The city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County both have passed such resolutions, and one has been introduced in the Pennsylvania House.
The Center for Union Facts has run full-page ads in the New York Times and USA Today equating the opposition of secret ballot elections by Bruce Raynor, president of the labor union UNITE HERE, with views held by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Ugandan president Idi Amin. The group also is running national television ads dramatizing an elementary school election without a secret ballot.
But with the Senate likely stalled and President Bush opposed to the bill, the next major step for the bill is the next election.
The AFL-CIO is planning to make the bill a centerpiece of its political strategy for 2008. “We will do all we can to focus the election in ‘08 on fundamental economic issues, including the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Mr. Acuff. “It is our No. 1 priority.”
Mr. Jacobson said his group has big plans as the battle rages on. “Depending on who is elected,” he said, “it could become a firestorm.”