The House just passed the Employee Free Choice Act (.pdf summary). The vote was 230-195, with eight members not voting. The act is basically a pro-union bill that makes it easier for workers to unionize and punishes companies that interfere in efforts to unionize. It’s a strong bill. What I find somewhat surprising is that there was only ONE Republican in the entire House that voted for it. That was John McHugh from New York’s 23rd District. Not a single Democrat voted against the bill.
It will now move to the Senate where it will probably face a filibuster. It could conceivably get support from a couple of Republicans, but nowhere near the eleven nine (or twelve ten, because of Tim Johnson’s illness) that would be needed for cloture. And it is certain that Bush would veto the bill if it somehow reached his desk.
It doesn’t surprise me the Republicans are opposed to strengthening unions. But I wonder if there has ever been this kind of anti-labor unanimity before in the GOP? This is a vote that we will be able to bring back up in 2008 in a lot of House races.
If there are any Reagan Democrats left, Bush’s veto and the GOP’s unanimity should finally straighten them out once and for all. I just hope the Dems push this for all it’s worth and force a veto.
This is a vote that we will be able to bring back up in 2008 in a lot of House races.
And so you should. Most people are employees and not employers.
And so you should. Most people are employees and not employers.
The big conundrum in this country is why do so many worker bee types support this anti-union sentiment and endorse the GOP? My take on this is pure fear of current proven power!!
The GOP is saying that they have political control, and even the dems cooperate with the exporting of former union susceptible manufacturing jobs overseas (thanks Bill Clinton). The workers want better job benefits, but they fear job lose more. Therefore they are giving a tacit bow to power in saying to the GOP, oh yes, we see where the power over our lives and jobs really rests, and we will try not to upset you powerful god elites by supporting unions. Just please leave us with our shell of a job with no union power.
The real answer to this is to empower workers by preventing the owner class from so easily taking good jobs elsewhere, and also to prevent the importation of cheap labor to undermine potential decent jobs that do stay!
Yes I think your take has a lot of wisdom. First of all people are so afraid of being called a socialist or communist by political foes in the US that they shy away when the going gets tough, but by doing that the GOP knows exactly what buttons to push to get their political opponents on a defensive and when they are on the defensive their message becomes incoherent and frankly disappears because they switch over from the offensive, presenting a plan forward, to the defensive trying to fend of the GOP attackers.
The thing is that unions have nothing to do with a communist platform and all to do with people power making people able to directly influence their own destiny through a unified power base. This power base has of course more clout when dealing with governments or corporations because of their size.
A union is a bit like a consumer organization only that it is trying to enhance the conditions of its members and the employees while the consumer organization is upholding the rights of consumers vis-à-vis the producers/their sales agents. Unions are all about a more democratic and economically just society where the voice of the little man is amplified by the Union members, forcing the big corporations to listen.