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Jane Hamsher

By Jane Hamsher
Founder of Firedoglake

New compromise measures supported by Diane Feinstein and Arlen Specter may pave the way for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

With 900,000 union members in the state of Pennsylvania, the Arlen Specter firewall appears to be crumbling.  He knows he can’t win a Democratic primary in Pennsylvania without labor, and they have made it clear that their support is contingent on his vote on Employee Free Choice.  

Which is why Penny Pritzker and fellow billionaires are getting nervous, publicly breaking with the White House and President Obama over his support for the bill.

The “centrist” Dems of the Senate, led by Tom Harkin, know they won’t be able to shrug and say “what can we do, we only have 59 votes” much longer.  They have thus been trying to write an acceptable compromise so the party’s progressives (including the unions) don’t decide to stay home when Specter and others need their help in the 2010 elections. 

According to the National Journal:

[Diane Feinstein's] proposal would replace the card-check provision, which would allow workers to unionize if a majority signed authorization cards and strip a company’s ability to demand a secret ballot election. “It’s a secret ballot that would be mailed in … just like an absentee ballot. The individual could take it home and mail it in,” Feinstein said. If a majority mailed the ballots to the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB would recognize the union.

As Harkin says, the Feinstein compromise has the advantage of “protecting the secret ballot, so people can do it in private,” which neutralizes that particular right-wing criticism of the bill.  

The other bone of contention has been arbitration clause of the Employee Free Choice Act.  Specter himself supports “last best offer” arbitration.  It’s also called “baseball arbitration,” and has incentives to get both parties to quickly make their best, most reasonable offer.  Bill Samuel of the AFL-CIO says “we’re open to that.”

Labor will no doubt be disappointed with such sacrifices to the bill, but if it means getting something passed, they will probably be happy to make these concesssions which satisfy the demands of critics like Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, Jim Webb, Michael Bennet, Mark Udall and Ben Nelson.  

George McGovern was recently dis-invited from the Progressive Magazine’s 100th anniversary event because of his outspoken opposition to the bill on behalf of his good friend Rick Berman.  If McGovern is interested in reclaiming his reputation among progressives as something more than the pawn of a right wing astroturfing scumbag, he now has the opportunity to acknowledge that these compromises would satisfy his concerns.

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Stewart Acuff

By Stewart Acuff
Special Assistant to the President, AFL-CIO

It is almost 4am as I write this at the First Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, AR. We are almost halfway through our 24 hour vigil which began at the state headquarters of Senator Blanche Lincoln yesterday afternoon.

We are holding a 24 hour vigil for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act during this Memorial Day congressional recess. When we began the vigil at Senators Lincoln’s office we presented her staff with 2000 handwritten letters including 300 from small business owners across this state. Yesterday’s batch of handwritten letters brings the total of letters Senator Lincoln has received to 14,000.

This vigil is an unusual tactic in a congressional lobbying effort. But the vigil is anything but unusual in nonviolent action for social and economic justice.

During the vigil we bear witness to the injustice of corporate America, the intimidation, termination and retaliation against workers who are trying to form unions and we pray that those who have the power to make change will use that power.

Senators Lincoln and Pryor of Arkansas are pivotal in our campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Organized labor in Arkansas has run a massive legislative blitz with phone calls, handwritten letters and face to face meetings.

But the vigil takes the campaign to a different level, introducing a more spiritual element and a traditional southern Civil Rights tactic. Faith leaders and clergy led by the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice have already been central to the campaign. Tonight faith leaders assume and even more important role.

Along with faith leaders, other elements of the Democratic Coalition and progressive movement are taking a more important and more central role in the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act. Students and young activists are outside now creating puppets for the march we will have from Senator Lincoln’s office to the State Capital.

We will break the vigil this afternoon with a march and a rally to the State Capital calling for an economy that works for all. Ministers, African American and white, young people, civil rights leaders, elected officials and union activists will all step up to increase the call for Senators Lincoln and Pryor to say no to Walmart and Tyson’s Foods and support the Employee Free Choice Act.

In a couple of hours, the sun will break over Little Rock and our vigil will be half over. We will continue to pray all day. Then we will march.