National Public Radio (NPR), June 21, 2007, Thursday

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National Public Radio (NPR)

SHOW: Day to Day 4:00 PM EST

June 21, 2007 Thursday

HEADLINE: Employee Free Choice Act

ANCHORS: MADELEINE BRAND

BODY:

MADELEINE BRAND, host:

From NPR News, this is DAY TO DAY.

Unions and business groups say it's one of their top issues. It's the Employee Free Choice Act. The Senate is debating it this week. It's already passed the House. Unions love it. Businesses hate it. MARKETPLACE's Janet Babin is here.

And Janet, first of all, what's in this bill?

JANET BABIN: Well, Madeleine, this bill would basically make it easier for workers to join unions. It would strengthen penalties against companies that violate the National Labor Relations Act. It would give the federal government more leeway in creating a binding arbitration board if workers and companies can't reach a deal in a certain amount of time.

But the big thing the bill would do is allow workers to create unions by just signing up to be in one, instead of by holding a secret ballot election. If a majority of employees designate in writing that a union should represent them at a certain company, then a union would be created at that company without a secret vote, the way it's done now.

BRAND: Well, why is that better than a secret ballot? You'd think the unions would like secret ballots.

BABIN: Yeah, it turns out unions believe they've been ineffective, and that the law hasn't really had the intended consequences of making it easy to join a union. A lot of times, the decision on whether employees even get to vote to join a union never happens for a variety of reasons. And pro-labor groups say there's really no such thing as a secret ballot election, that it's just a farce. I spoke with Kate Bronson Brenner at Cornell University, and she's done 20 years of research on union elections. And she says the way the law works now, companies are allowed to bring in workers and interrogate them to find out whether there's a majority vote for a union.

Ms. KATE BRONSON BRENNER (Director, Labor Education Research, Cornell University): The supervisors are charged with the job of finding out exactly which way every worker's going to vote. And they know. There are no surprises. Everybody knows which way the election's going to come out.

BRAND: Janet, the House has passed this. The Senate's debating it. What's next?

BABIN: Well, you're right. The House did pass it a few months ago. The Senate could take it up next week. But as you would imagine, progress - business groups, as you said earlier, they're opposed to this. And they're making it known to legislators now. This is the type of bill, Madeleine, that's even got two names depending on who you describe it. The originators and the union groups call it the Employee Free Choice Act. But if you talk to business groups, they're like, no. This is called the Card Check Bill, because you would check off a card to say you wanted to be in a union.

Now the bill did have bipartisan backing initially, and a number of Republicans voted for it in the House, but most people don't expect it to go very far. Still, a lot of groups are looking to see what happens in this debate, because there is a perception that the issue and the bill could come up as something very important in the '08 presidential elections.

Michael Eastman is with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. MICHAEL EASTMAN (Executive Director for Labor Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce): We all recognize this is. This is about a bigger fight two years from now. Someone new will be in the White House. We don't know what the makeup of Congress will be. That's where the real battle will lie.

BABIN: And even if it were to pass, Madeleine, it's very likely that President Bush would end up vetoing this bill.

BRAND: Thank you, Janet. That's Janet Babin, of Public Radio's daily business show, MARKETPLACE, produced by American Public Media.