Card check bill a minefield

The misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act" proposes that we ditch secret ballot elections that for the most part determine whether workers want to join a union. Instead, the union backed bill--Hey, the unions probably wrote it--would authorize a simple, but hardly private, petition drive instead.

It's what I call the "Free to Peek" bill, but it's commonly known as "card check."

The Democrats promised fast action on card check, but knowing that the bill is a lightening rod for anger, they've pushed it into the summer.

As for the bill getting the necessary 60 vote supermajority for passage, the DC Examiner reports that may not be easy. The Democrats have 58 members in the Senate, and two Democrats who voted "Yes" last time, Arkansasans Mark L. Pryor and Blanche L. Lincoln, might vote differently this summer.

Then there is Arlen Specter (R-PA), who pleased Harry Reid (D-NV) by not only voting for the stimulus bill earliers this month, he voted for card check last year.

Reid cannot necessarily count on Specter this time. Specter is running for a fifth term in Pennsylvania. It's a heavily unionized state, but business groups have threatened to bankroll a strong primary challenge to Specter if he votes in favor of it again.

"On that issue, they have thrown the gauntlet down," said Franklin and Marshall College political science professor Terry Madonna. "If Specter supports it, small businesses are going to abandon him. If he votes against it, I doubt he will get the endorsement of the [AFL-CIO] union. No senator is more on the griddle than Specter on this issue."

But Reid can count on Roland Burris (D-Blagojevich) on card check. That is, if he is still in the Senate this summer.

Yesterday the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an editorial explaining its opposition to card check, as did the Denver Post.

Related post:

"Card check" update: Not so fast, says Obama

Technorati tags: labor democrats politics unions business card check Arlen Specter blanche lincoln mark pryor