Efforts to Make Card-Check Illegal Defeated in Congress

Anti-union lawmakers in the House and Senate attempted last week to make union recognition based on majority card check authorization by workers illegal, but the apparently coordinated attack was defeated.

The first measure, introduced by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) as an amendment to the Higher Education Access Act, was defeated 54-42. DeMint's amendment would have amended the National Labor Relations Act to makeing it illegal for workers to organize other than through the act's NLRB election process.

Of special significance, six Republicans voted against DeMint's amendment, raising the possibility that lobbying by CWA and other unions on behalf of the Employee Free Choice Act is making progress on the GOP side of the aisle. Those six are Norm Coleman (MN), Susan Collins (ME), Gordon Smith (OR), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA) and George Voinovich (OH). Among them, only Specter had supported the Employee Free Choice Act.

The same day in the House, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) offered an amendment to the Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill that would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from certifying a union if workers did not submit to the NLRB election route. It was rejected, 255-167, with the help of 31 Republicans. Three Democrats voted for the anti-card-check measure: Rep. Dan Boren (OK), Gene Taylor (MS), and Mike McIntyre (NC). Boren and Taylor voted against the Employee Free Choice Act. Curiously, McIntyre had voted for EFCA.

The 31 Republicans siding with labor against the anti-card check measure were Don Young (AK), Robert Aderholt (AL), Chris Shays (CN), Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (FL), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL), Judy Biggert (IL), Tim Johnson (IL), Rodney Alexander (LA), Peter Hoekstra (MI), Candice Miller (MI), Thaddeus McCotter (MI), Sam Graves (MO), JoAnn Emerson (MO), Jon Porter (NV), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Jim Saxton (NJ), Chris Smith (NJ), Mike Ferguson (NJ), Peter King (NY), Vito Fossella (NY), John McHugh (NY), Jim Walsh (NY), Randy Kuhl (NY), Steve LaTourette (OH), Ralph Regula (OH), Phil English (PA), Jim Gerlach (PA), Tim Murphy (PA), Dave Reichert (WA), and Shelley Moore Capito (WV).