[Marxism] Thomas Frank: EFCA is dead

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2009
Card Check Is Dead
Some Democrats only care about labor's money.

By THOMAS FRANK

It has been three hard months of political exile for those on the right, 
a time for them to count their grievances and dress their outrage in the 
trappings of centuries past. Some have donned colonial outfits to stage 
tea parties. Others have found the 1860s more to their taste, reviving 
the fiery language of secession fever.

But they can all take heart from one development in the nation's 
capital. Good old K Street, where the big tea party never stopped, has 
all but halted organized labor's effort to make it easier for workers to 
unionize.

After massive lobbying both by labor and by business, it appears that 
the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which, as it now stands, would 
allow workers to organize in many cases merely by signing cards instead 
of holding elections, will not have the 60 votes required to get past a 
Republican filibuster in the Senate.

Now, to be pro-labor is to resign yourself to years of failures and 
defeats, with few tea parties along the way for consolation. Even so, 
the setback on EFCA has to be a bitter one. Union members worked hard to 
elect Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress, as they did to put Jimmy 
Carter and Bill Clinton in the White House. And now, just as in those 
previous two periods of Democratic governance, labor's friends are 
having trouble enacting basic labor-law reforms.

To understand why we need new rules governing unionization, look no 
further than yesterday's New York Times, where Steven Greenhouse told 
the story of a Louisville, Ky., hospital whose nurses tried to form a 
union but failed after they were reportedly threatened with losing their 
benefits among other things.

Such practices are commonplace and well-documented by Human Rights Watch 
and others. But labor's case never seemed to hit home. Instead, 
conservatives have carried the day, playing on lurid stereotypes to hint 
that intimidation by unions is the real worry and that EFCA spells the 
end of secret ballots in the workplace and hence of democracy itself.

Before I go on, I should acknowledge that this whole thing might be a 
clever bit of jiu-jitsu by the unions. After all, the mere threat of 
EFCA has turned business almost Soviet in its feigned concern for the 
proletariat. The Chamber of Commerce is now exhorting the public to 
"stand up for workers' rights," running a "workforce freedom airlift," 
and, along with other trade associations, supporting groups with names 
like "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace" and "Workforce Fairness 
Institute."

EFCA's supporters may simply drop their bill's most controversial 
provisions, get some compromise measure passed, and spend the next 20 
years reminding corporate America of the days when it was touchingly 
committed to "workers' rights" and a "democratic workplace."

If only. The sole clever reversal we have seen so far has been the 
familiar one where Democrats torpedo the most trustworthy member of 
their coalition.

Why does labor always get it in the neck?

First, there are those Democrats who don't care much for labor to begin 
with. Then there is the wide spectrum of Democratic donors and 
supporters who simply don't understand the problems of blue-collar life. 
They might dislike the religious right, but they didn't give money to 
Democratic political campaigns to increase union membership.

Or maybe it's just the money. Consider the lineup of lobbyists that 
retail giant Wal-Mart has assembled to make its case against EFCA. 
According to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the House and Senate 
we find that Wal-Mart's lobbyists include Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti 
(which employs former presidential candidate John Kerry's liaison to 
Congress during the 2004 campaign), a former legislative director for 
Rahm Emanuel, and a former assistant to Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche 
Lincoln.

Wal-Mart has also secured, according lobbying disclosure forms filed 
with Congress, the services of Tony Podesta, of the Podesta Group, one 
of the hottest lobby shops in Democratic D.C. Mr. Podesta is joined in 
pushing Wal-Mart's views on EFCA by a former assistant to Democrat Mark 
Pryor, the other senator from Arkansas.

The real standout on Wal-Mart's labor-issues roster, though, is D+P 
Creative Strategies, which wears its liberalism as proudly as last 
week's tax protestors did their three-cornered hats. According to its 
Web site, D+P "highlights partnership, shared benefits, and a commitment 
to advancing social justice goals." The disclosure form for its Wal-Mart 
EFCA activities lists a former assistant to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. 
The bio of its principal, Ingrid Duran, who is also listed as a Wal-Mart 
lobbyist, declares that the firm's mission is "to increase the role of 
corporate, legislative and philanthropic efforts in addressing the 
concerns of Latinos, women, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender 
(GLBT) communities."

Maybe the day will come when those communities are correctly addressed 
by corporations and the rest. But when their "concerns" turn in the 
direction of bargaining with their employers, they're on their own.

Write to thomas@xxxxxxx

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