Scott Lehigh writes in Boston.com that: The early days of any new administration are carefully planned theater. What comes later is a better test of a new president’s skill, for that’s when he must start to navigate the jagged reefs that lurk just beneath the surface bonhomie.
One issue that could soon test President Obama is card check – or, as it’s also known, the Employee Free Choice Act. Passage of that legislation, which Obama supported as a presidential candidate, is a key goal of the unions.
Labor is hoping for action this spring – and that’s got some other Obama allies worried.
“The problem he is going to face is that card check is a top priority of the unions, who feel they were left out in the cold during the Bush administration, but it is a lightning rod to the business community, which believes it is anti-democratic and will increase the cost of doing business,” says Bob Sherman, a member of Obama’s transition team.
The act would require employers to recognize a union as soon as a majority of employees sign authorization forms or cards expressing their desire to unionize. Under current law, the National Labor Relations Board schedules a secret election when 30 percent of employees sign up. Unions view the change as crucial to reviving a struggling labor movement. As they see it, mandating immediate recognition of a union would greatly reduce the intimidation that workers sometimes face when they try to organize.
But the business community, whose confidence Obama wants and needs, is apoplectic at the prospect of easier unionizing. It has launched an advertising campaign charging the act would lead to union pressure on workers to sign an authorization card.
Related articles:
IFA comes out against Card Check from IndUS Business Journal
McGovern Joins to Defeat Card Check from Blue MauMau
McDonald’s urging franchisees to oppose card-check bill from Financial Week
