There appears to be an even odds chance that the bill will be introduced this week:
A top union official says there’s a "50-50" chance that House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) will introduce the bill this week, perhaps as early as Monday or Tuesday.
http://www.politico.com/...
However, since the House passed the measure last year and it failed in the Senate before new Democratic Senators were added in the last election, Speaker Pelosi would rather the bill originate in the upper chamber this time around:
The bill easily cleared the House in 2007 but fell nine votes short in the Senate. At the insistence of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Senate will move first and has scheduled preliminary committee hearings on the measure for Tuesday, although it’s not clear when Senate leadership will introduce its version.
In that chamber, it appears to come down to just a couple of key votes, especially until Republicans allow Sen. Franken to take his Democratically won seat in Minnesota:
As Big Labor and Big Business gird for a free-for-all on the Employee Free Choice Act, the bill’s fate increasingly hinges on Sens. Blanche L. Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) — two wavering moderates who would love to dodge the controversy.
It is still up in the air how they would vote, and depending on who you listen to key votes are either wavering, or in the corner for the middle-class:
Lincoln, for one, has told confidants she’s in no rush — and doesn’t want to move on EFCA until after the epic battle over reform.
"Right now, my No. 1 priority is strengthening our economy and putting 90,000 jobless Arkansans back to work," Lincoln wrote in an e-mail to POLITICO. "I’ll consider legislation to change union organizing rules sometime after it’s introduced in the Senate and before it’s brought to a vote."
Last week, AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel sparked a mini-firestorm when he told reporters that Landrieu, Lincoln and her fellow Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor were already on board.
Pryor more or less confirmed that account, saying he’s supported the bill in the past but would consider amendments to it.
Lincoln and Landrieu, on the other hand, were considerably more noncommittal.
And disappointingly, at least one "Democrat" has joined the enemies of the middle-class in opposing the bill before it has even been re-introduced:
That pressure has begun to take a toll. On Friday, centrist Oklahoma Rep. Dan Boren became the first House Democrat to declare his opposition to the measure — saying SEIU officials were "apoplectic" over his decision.
And big business and Corporate America are swarming Washington with their big money to try and peel off even more votes for an American middle-class:
Danny Diaz’s morning e-mails are back.
Diaz, until last month the relentless communications director for the Republican National Committee and reliable source of jabs at Democrats, now sends out a new "Morning Roundup" of attacks on the Employee Free Choice Act.
"There are groups springing up almost every week," said Rhonda Betz of Navigators Global, a consulting firm that started the first anti-EFCA group out of the gate, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, in 2006. "Some of it is a reflection of them identifying this as a fundraising opportunity, and some of it is a reflection of real stuff going on."
Among those fighting the legislation are Navigators’ Mike Murphy and pollster John McLaughlin, whose Coalition for a Democratic Workplace has spent between $6.5 million and $10 million since 2007, Bentz said. The coalition is backed by trade groups, including one representing the retail giant Wal-Mart, which another Republican consultant said is heavily invested in the fight.
Another business-backed group, the Workforce Fairness Institute (not to be confused with the Workforce Freedom Initiative), employs Former Bush ad man Mark McKinnon, former White House Political Director Sara Taylor, Mitt Romney aides Barbara Comstock and Katie Packer, powerhouse conservative PR firm CRC, GOP Web gurus Patrick Ruffini, Mindy Finn and Patrick Hynes and former RNC Communications Director Diaz.
The deep-pocketed Chamber of Commerce — which represents the CEOs of giants like IBM, Pepsi, and UPS — and the National Federation of Independent Business are both fighting the legislation.
Meanwhile, unions are expected to spend heavily on the bill as well. SEIU alone has a $50 million push planned for a package of issues that includes the Employee Free Choice act. Corporate officials insist they’ll be wildly outspent.
Union leaders, though, say it’s their spending that will be eclipsed.
http://www.politico.com/...
Now, it seems to me that with all the millions the enemies of the middle-class have to throw around in this fight, if they would have used that money to pay higher wages, and god forbid provide benefits for a middle-class in America, they would not be stuck in a fight for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Although the need for such a bill is crystal clear, unfortunately the usual suspects in the fight against having an American middle-class that has the money to help revive our economy is more than ready to fight once again:
The measure would allow organizers to unionize a shop if a majority of employees sign a petition, bypassing the need for an open election.
Labor argues it’s needed to curb worker intimidation and give employees more leverage in negotiations. Business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Home Depot and Wal-Mart, say the measure is undemocratic and would hit employers with added costs at the worst possible time.
http://www.politico.com/...
Yes, this is the worst possible time for more Americans to have better wages so that they can pump money into our economy. It would be such a shame if the greediest and least patriotic among us could not horde all the money among themselves and continue crash our ecomomy for the rest of us with their status-quo policies that have completely failed over the last few decades.
Unfortunately, even with our huge majorities the outcome is still in question:
"I’m not sure that we have the votes," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Sunday on ABC’s "This Week."
So, we must all fight harder than ever to make sure this essential part of American recovery is possible. The Corporations want us to believe that this would destroy our economy, but it can only be a good thing for workers to have more money and job security in such tough times. It would be a boon to our economy if working men and women could have extra money to spend, instead of just making ends meet.
This means we simply must put pressure on moderates, especially in the Senate. Senators Landrieu and Lincoln need to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if they don't support an American middle-class, we will not support them with grassroots money or volunteers when they seek re-election. What good is a Democratic Senator that will not vote for Democratic principles?? We need to primary Democrats that ultimately refuse to vote for a middle-class, and we need to primary Rep. Boren of Oklahoma, and refuse to help him in 2010.
The fight is on and the battle lines have long ago been drawn. We need to let all Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans know that they are either with us or against us on this most important piece of legislation. Unfortunately, there is no middle-ground on this. Either lawmakers support a middle-class, or they support the same old status-quo that has ruined the American economy.
Now lets fight and win!!!
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