By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

PITTSBURGH (PAI) – Union leaders and staffers at the AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh are confident Congress will pass the Employee Free Choice Act, but there are great differences on what its details will be and when that will happen.

The law, to level the field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, is one of labor’s two top legislative priorities – along with health care reform – for labor-backed President Barack Obama and the Democratic-run 111th Congress.

But while incoming AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka, Communications Workers President Larry Cohen, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel and others are all predicting would pass by the end of this year, there are obstacles in the way.

Obama is not one of them.  He brought the house down at the convention on Sept. 15 when more than 3,000 people stood and cheered as he declared its passage is one key to restoring the U.S. middle class.  It was one of many ovations Obama got.

“That’s why I stand behind the Employee Free Choice Act –  because if a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union,” he said.  But that’s all he said.

Asked after Obama’s speech what, in private talks, the president promised he would do to get the law through a balky Senate, Trumka said Obama “uses the ‘everything’ word.”  Trumka added that “if it (the bill) is stuck, it’ll be on the details.”

The Employee Free Choice Act, as originally written, would give workers – not bosses – the choice of how to recognize unions in the workplace, after a verified majority of workers signs union election authorization cards.  They could choose immediate recognition through “majority signup” or an NLRB-run election.

The law would also impose triple damages for each instance of labor law-breaking – such as illegally firing a worker for advocating unionization – and would order binding arbitration between bosses and unions if the two sides can’t agree on a first contract within 120 days of starting negotiations.

The Senate is the obstacle to passing the law, with the Democrats negotiating with themselves on provisions needed to get the 60 votes to overcome the planned GOP filibuster.  Cohen said GOP leaders told him that “It’s a Democratic caucus issue.  We won’t even discuss it.”

“It’s sad Senate Republicans won’t even discus workers’ rights,” Cohen added.

The problem is the Democrats don’t have those 60 votes, at least right now.  A “gang of six” is discussing proposals to change the law, said one of them, Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.  A second problem is that another Democratic seat, that of the late labor champion Edward M. Kennedy, is vacant and right now can only be filled by a special election – scheduled for January. 

Specter, Senate EFCA sponsor Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Tom Carper, D-Del., Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, are, in discussions with union leaders, trying to write a bill that will get 60 votes.  Some options include:

* Unions file cards representing a majority of workers, a quick NLRB election is scheduled, and if the employer breaks the law between those two events, the majority signup automatically kicks in and the union is recognized.  AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel confirmed the week before that sequence is one scenario being discussed. 

Specter told the convention he supports labor law reform, including eliminating employer abuses.  He sang another tune to the press afterwards: “If you want to eliminate the secret ballot, you won’t come close to 60 votes.”  He added “a specific time has not been designated” between the card-filing and vote.  NLRB-run election campaigns feature frequent and intimidating employer labor law-breaking and abuses.

“Majority sign-up is not thrown out.  It’s a question of when it comes into play,” the Communication Workers’ Cohen said.  Added Specter: “If an employer broke the law” between the card-filing and the election, the employer “could be prosecuted.” Prosecutions can often take years.

“The principle of getting (a firm) organized without employer interference is what we’ll have in the bill.  The details need to be worked out,” Cohen said.

* Changing binding arbitration, to arbitration based on each side’s “last, best offer.”  The arbitrator must choose one or the other, “issue by issue” in the contract, Cohen said.  That’s “OK if it’s done the right way,” to push both sides towards narrowing differences.  But the Senate bargainers still haven’t set a timetable for when arbitration would kick in.

* “If an employer has a captive-audience meeting, the union should have equal time in the workplace,” Specter said.  Labor law now allows bosses’ captive-audience meetings – and lets bosses penalize workers who differ or don’t show up. 

That still leaves labor with the responsibility to go out and campaign for EFCA, so Obama waits in the wings to sign whatever version reaches his desk.  Cohen, chair of the federation’s Organizing Committee, isn’t fazed.

“He’s focused on health care,” Cohen said of Obama, referring to the issue that is taking all congressional time right now and for months.  “We’re focused on both.  They’re not incompatible.”