Under President Obama, the Senate is the single roadblock to passing the Employee Free Choice Act. That's why the bill was such a big part of the campaign against Democratic Senate candidates in 2008. And it's a fair bet that's part of why Norm Coleman is receiving so much national Republican support in his sore-loserdom in Minnesota -- Al Franken is a needed vote for Employee Free Choice.
Obama's Cabinet selections mean that there are a few Democratic senators who didn't have to take positions on this issue during the campaign, though -- and at least one of them is wobbling. Newly-appointed Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has been refusing to commit at town hall meetings.
Several members of Colorado's House delegation have made their support clear in no uncertain terms, leading the state's AFL-CIO head to say of one that:
Betsy Markey, one of the people that has probably more incentive than any of the others to sit there and hand wring and hide in the weeds about this stood up front and said I'm going to cosponsor. I believe in it.
That's what political courage looks like -- as unfortunate as it is that supporting basic rights for workers in the workplace requires political courage these days. And Markey's not alone.
In the wake of November's election, Darcy Burner wrote to supporters that she had been "looking at how I can most effectively spend my time advancing our shared values." In this video, she does just that, saying:
It seems fairly straightforward to me that one ought to support the basic rights of workers to organize and form unions to represent them in bargaining with management, so I think Senator Bennet ought to be supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.
She's joined by CO-06 candidate David Canter, whose campaign is running a petition to urge current members of the Colorado delegation to support the bill.
Michael Bennet got his job without facing the voters of Colorado -- the same voters who gave Mark Udall an 11-point victory despite the millions of dollars of advertising targeting him for his support of the Employee Free Choice Act. He should take a page from Betsy Markey, David Canter, and Darcy Burner and support giving workers the freedom to join unions if they choose, without intimidation or foot-dragging from the bosses.