AFX - Asia, February 26, 2007, Monday

Copyright 2007 AFX News Limited

AFX - Asia

February 26, 2007 Monday 3:38 PM GMT

HEADLINE: Union card-check bill should get hearing

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Ohio forklift driver Bill Lawhorn, who was fired after he was on the losing side of a bitterly fought union election, thinks a union should be formed after a majority of workers in a company sign a card saying they want one.

South Carolina auto worker Mike Ivey, who's tired of being pestered by pro-union workers, thinks a union election decided by secret ballot is the only fair approach. 'Pro-union employees just badger people to death,' he said of efforts to authorize a union at his company, which agreed to allow the card-check approach.

The pros and cons of forming a union by election or card-check are likely to get a thorough hearing this year after legislation was introduced Feb. 6 in the House to allow formation of a union after a majority of workers sign an authorization card. It has more than 230 co-sponsors in the House.

Under current law, 30 percent of workers can request an election to form a union. That usually takes from six weeks to six months, said AFL-CIO organizing director Stewart Acuff. Currently, a company would have to agree to allow a union to be formed based on a majority signing an authorization card.

The bill would also strengthen penalties for violations of labor law and establishes a third-party mediation process when employees and employers can't agree on a first contract.

Organized labor sees the legislation as critical to turning around its steady decline in membership. Union membership dropped to 12 percent of workers last year, with union membership at 7.4 percent among private industry workers.

That's down from 35 percent of workers in the 1950s, a drop blamed by the unions on the changing work force, weak labor laws and difficulties workers face in trying to organize a union.

'Workers trying to organize today have to jump through successive hoops of fire to organize,' said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research for Cornell University. 'Employers have created a climate of fear, intimidation and harassment.'

In the weeks or months before a union election is held, workers are often required to meet one-on-one with supervisors to talk about the disadvantages of having a union and warned of dire consequences if the union vote passes, Bronfenbrenner said.

Ohio worker Lawhorn learned the difficulties of campaigning for a union vote when he tried to help organize Consolidated Biscuit Co. of McComb, Ohio, in 2002. Lawhorn said union supporters got signatures of a majority of workers, but the company's management changed their minds in the weeks before the vote.

'They would take people in and write them up, tell people that if the union was voted in, they would lose benefits or the company would be moved,' Lawhorn said. 'A supervisor stopped at my house and told me, 'If the union doesn't win the election, you will be fired.''

Repeated calls to Consolidated Biscuit Co. were not returned.

The legislation, with heavy support from Democrats and some Republicans, has strong support in the House, but could have a tougher time making it through the Senate, labor officials said. And they don't expect President Bush to sign the legislation.

'This is payback to labor,' said Gary Chaison, a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., who noted that Democrats took over Congress in 2006 with heavy support from organized labor. 'This has been on labor's agenda for a long time.'

The bill was recently pushed through the House Education and Labor Committee and should come up for a vote in early March.

Even if the card check measure, called the Employee Free Choice Act, only gets partially through Congress, it will lead to hearings on top labor issues and allow advocates to point to the need for labor law changes, he said.

'This comes after two decades of employers perfecting these anti-union campaigns,' said Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO. 'Even making significant progress with the bill may make employers take note.'

Businesses are definitely taking note of the new legislation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups will be planning their strategy in the coming days to oppose the bill.

'The principal reason this is a bad idea is that it deprives workers of a private ballot,' said Michael Eastman, a labor specialist with the chamber. 'Clearly there are some employers who have engaged in coercion, but we strongly support employer free speech and employee free speech.'

He also objected to the stronger penalties, which he said are not necessary, and to sending a first contract to mediation after three months.

As for Lawhorn, he collects garbage and occasionally borrows money from his grown children as his efforts to regain his job move slowly through the legal system.

'I'm depressed about losing my job,' said Lawhorn. 'But I did the right thing.'

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