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Will the Senate Wait on the Employee Free Choice Act until 2010?

By Brian Harris

With Twitter and several blogs buzzing, The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the U.S. Senate may not hold a vote until 2010 on one of the most lobbied bills of all time, the controversial Employee Free Choice Act. 

Among other things, the Employee Free Choice Act would make unionization much easier for employees by effectively eliminating secret ballot union elections and replacing them with employees signing union cards, a process otherwise known pejoratively as ?card check.?

While, to date, the focus in the media and on Capitol Hill has been the ?card check? provision, it is now another provision in the Employee Free Choice Act that appears to a motivating factor in delaying a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act.

According to The Journal:

While attempts at a compromise have made headway, less progress has been made on the bill's other divisive element: imposing a government-appointed arbitrator to set contract terms -- including wages and benefits -- if companies and newly formed unions can't agree within 120 days of bargaining. The legislation ? also would increase penalties on employers that violate labor laws during organizing periods.

Further complicating the bill's chances this year are the serious illnesses of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd -- both strong labor supporters -- and doubts about whether the two would physically be able to attend a floor vote. Democrats would need both of them to marshal the 60 votes required to thwart a likely Republican-led filibuster.

The article further quotes an unnamed source who says that there are not enough votes to pass the Employee Free Choice Act without Kennedy and Byrd.

With health care standing center stage right now, the Employee Free Choice Act is now playing second fiddle (or maybe no fiddle at all). John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO, recently declared that the Employee Free Choice Act is no longer number one on organized labor?s wish-list. Furthermore, with 2010 elections on the horizon, it is no surprise that several Senate Democrats who are up for re-election have been reluctant to take a public position on the controversial Employee Free Choice Act. Moreover, although unions would like to see labor law change ASAP, some suggest that organized labor may be waiting until after the upcoming elections, when Democrats could assume a stronger foothold in the Senate, to push the union agenda.

Although there are rumors that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., may try to expedite a vote on the act by including it as an amendment to an existing bill, the odds are that this one is going to collect dust for a while.

 Eric B. Meyer is a member of the labor and employment group at Dilworth Paxson. Readers can contact Meyer via e-mail and follow him on Twitter. This posting is for informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as legal advice on any matter or as in any way creating an attorney/client relationship with the author and/or Dilworth Paxson.

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on August 05, 2009 (boomark / email).