Despite senator’s defection, area labor leaders hopeful about card check bill

Finally. Local business leaders and labor unions agree on something.

Both sides concur that the Employee Free Choice Act, a federal law designed to make union-organizing easier, probably will survive a key Republican supporter's Tuesday defection.

Newspapers and Web sites ranging from Politico.com to The Hill described Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's decision to rescind support of the law as a "major blow" and a "death blow" to the act.

But Cheryl Blomstrom, immediate past president of the Nevada chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business, said she believes the act still has at least a 50-50 chance of passage before the end of 2009.

"Clearly, Senator Specter is high-profile, and it clearly is good news, in my opinion, for workers," said Blomstrom, a Reno business consultant. "It won't be the last high-profile defection. But I don't think it changes the calculus" on the bill's odds.

The bill would allow a majority of employees at a company to organize by signing cards, a change from current practice that allows employers to demand secret-ballot elections before union representation is recognized. It also would boost penalties for retaliation against workers seeking to organize, and it would call for binding arbitration within three months if management and the union cannot agree on a contract.

Al Martinez, president of the Nevada chapter of the Service Employees International Union, said his group would marshal the support of Nevada legislators who cosponsored the law, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Reps. Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus, and "continue to educate congress people from coast to coast on what the Employee Free Choice Act is about."

"I believe there's a strong appetite for strong labor reform. That's what I continue to hear from folks all over Nevada," Martinez said. "I definitely think it's going to get passed. This seems like a setback, but I believe the act is something Americans want to see happen in our economy today."

Concerns about the bill's potential effects on the economy actually hurt its prospects, though, said Karen Boroff, a labor expert who also is dean of the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.

Given the recession, which is approaching its 16th month, legislators are especially wary of adopting measures that could impede economic recovery, Boroff said.

Still, Specter's change of heart isn't likely to convince labor unions to scale back advocacy of the act.

"I do believe they're going to continue to try to push this now," Boroff said. "Taking it into a second session reduces its possibilities."

Reid also said Specter's opposition does not mean the bill is dead.

"If anyone thinks they are going to bury card check because of Specter's statement, they should not think it is going to go away," Reid said.

He suggested Specter came out against card check to avoid a difficult re-election race, and he hinted that other Republican senators have said they might be willing to consider some sort of organizing bill.

Executives of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which sent representatives to Washington to lobby against the act, welcomed Specter's announcement.

"It's an indication that the realities of what the Employee Free Choice Act would do to both businesses and to employees is beginning to resonate with lawmakers," chamber spokeswoman Cara Roberts said.

Specter was the only Republican to support the act when it came before Congress in 2007, and unions hoped he might be the crucial 60th vote needed to overcome an expected GOP filibuster of the measure when it's taken up this summer.

In a floor speech, Specter called it a "very emotional issue with labor looking to this legislation to reverse the steep decline in union membership and business expressing great concern about added costs, which would drive many companies out of business or overseas."

Business groups, who have spent more than $20 million to lobby against the bill, applauded the decision.

"We are commending Sen. Specter for putting American jobs first and opposing card check legislation," said John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

But a coalition of three American corporations said Sunday they're open to a compromise with labor groups.

Starbucks, Costco and Whole Foods would let management keep the right to secret ballot elections and would not include binding arbitration, two of the key provisions in the Employee Free Choice Act. But the companies' plans also expands penalties, allows unions access to employees during nonworking hours and mandates a fixed time for elections so companies can't delay the process.

Boroff said boosting penalties and speeding up the election process would make for reasonable reforms, but giving unions access to workers off the clock could pave the way for a torrent of nonprofits, political parties and other groups demanding similar equal access, she said.

Neither local labor nor businesses embraced the corporations' proposal.

Blomstrom called the companies' willingness to participate with labor "foolish," and said relations between workers and employers are best handled directly, without labor groups as intermediaries.

Martinez said the plan "was written by CEOs for CEOs, and it more or less maintains the status quo."

Unions argue that reforms are needed to prevent companies from retaliating against workers who try to organize. Business groups claim secret ballot elections are the only way to prevent union intimidation to sign cards.

Specter agreed with business arguments, calling the secret ballot "the cornerstone of how contests are decided in a Democratic society." And he said the requirement for mandatory arbitration may subject employers to a deal they cannot live with.

His decision will make it difficult for Democratic leaders to move forward with the bill, which unions consider their No. 1 priority, but some business groups have labeled "Armageddon."

U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue warned that there would be other compromise efforts at labor law reform and urged Specter "to oppose these misguided efforts." Specter said he might reconsider his position if changes were made to the bill, but indicated that would not happen given the current economic crisis.

Specter sided with business arguments that increasing union membership would lead to increased job losses, making this "a particularly bad time" to enact the bill.

Review-Journal reporter Steve Tetrault and The Associated Press contributed to this report.