Employee Free Choice: Hoyer Predicts Quick Passage

Good news on a Fox News program? Surprisingly enough, yes. Steny Hoyer went on Fox News Sunday yesterday, and not only defended the Employee Free Choice Act as a critical labor law reform, but predicted its quick passage in the new Congress (warning: link goes to Fox News transcript):

WALLACE: Big labor's top priority is what's called union card check, and that would be eliminating the right to a secret ballot in determining whether or not you're going to organize, unionize, a working place.

I love the way that you're smiling already. Are you going to move on that in the first month?

HOYER: I'm smiling because of the way you phrase it. It's the Free Choice Act, of course, and what it does is...

WALLACE: Well, union card check, free choice. Both sides have their best — their euphemisms.

HOYER: Of course, and you used one side. That's why I was smiling.

WALLACE: And you used the other. OK.

HOYER: Well, my point being that we believe that one of the problems that has existed in America is that working people have had a very, very difficult time in getting represented by unions in the workplace.

Workplace has resisted that. The NLRB has not been very vigorous in assuring the lack of unfair labor practices. So we believe that the employees — if over 50 percent of them sign and say, "We want to be represented by a union," they ought to be able to be represented by a union.

Let me say that many, many employers currently under existing law recognize such signatures right now and start to bargain and have a union representative.

WALLACE: Whatever you call it, Congressman, are you going to pass it in the first month?

HOYER: I don't know about the first month, but we're going to pass it early.

As Jane Hamsher notes, it looks like the corporate-Republican astroturf complex may have overplayed its hand by running a multimillion-dollar campaign smearing Democrats on free choice last fall -- with the result being galvanized Democratic support of real labor law reform. But if that wasn't good enough, Hoyer smacked down the bogus right-wing talking point about the Employee Free Choice Act and NLRB elections:

Again, let me stress, Chris, nobody's going to take away the secret ballot. The employees currently have and will have the opportunity to opt for a secret ballot. They don't have to sign the card. They can say, "Look, we'll have an election, and we may vote." But they have that choice right now, and they will continue to have that choice.

Nice stuff from the House leadership. We occasionally give Hoyer grief around these parts, but he deserves kudos today.