http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/07/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5169347.shtmlJuly 17, 2009 2:19 PM
Posted by Brian Montopoli
(CBS/AP) There has been a fierce battle this year over a piece of legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill the potential to revitalize the U.S. labor movement. On one side of the debate is organized labor, which has seen its rolls shrink dramatically in the past 50 years. Just 7.6 percent of private-sector workers now belong to a union.
On the other side are business groups, who say the legislation will cripple businesses by increasing labor costs at the worst possible time. (Here's Hotsheet's primer on the bill.)
On Friday, the New York Times ran a front-page story declaring a key provision in the bill known as "card check" -- which would mandate that a union is formed when a majority of a company's employees sign cards saying they want one -- effectively dead. According to the Times, moderate Senate Democrats killed the provision during negotiations, arguing that it is undemocratic because it effectively eliminates secret ballots. Since Democrats need all sixty of their Senate votes to overcome a filibuster of the legislation, these moderates -- among them Arlen Specter, Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln -- are key to the bill's passage.
But representatives on both sides of the issue signaled in interviews with Hotsheet Friday that they are skeptical of the Times report. Josh Goldstein of American Rights at Work said in an interview that it is "premature to make any assumptions about what's going on in negotiations when the people who are in those negotiations are clearly stating that there is no deal."
"As far as I know, majority sign up is still on the table," he said. "And we're still fighting for it."
And Mark McKinnon of the Workforce Fairness Institute, a business group, told Hotsheet, "I don't think it's so much a compromise as it is a trial balloon."
FULL story at link.