Supporting worker rights without upsetting corporate America

AMERICA: A Bill to make it easier to form unions may need to be watered down if it is to get Senate support

FOR MY affluent young neighbours near Dupont Circle in Washington DC, most days begin with an expensive coffee at Starbucks and end with a visit to Whole Foods, the high-priced grocery store sometimes known as Whole Paycheck.

It’s a costly way of calming their conscience, but my busy neighbours can rest assured that their fruit and vegetables are 100 per cent organic and their cardboard coffee cup is made from recycled, unbleached paper.

Both Starbucks and Whole Foods are so enlightened, in fact, that their owners don’t think those who work there need to join a union.

Neither company recognises nor negotiates with unions, while some workers at both companies claim they have been intimidated when they tried to organise.

Democrats in Congress have introduced the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier for workers to form unions. Under the legislation, employees could unionise if more than half of them sign a card saying they want to.

At present, no union can be formed without the backing of a secret ballot run by the National Labor Relations Board, a procedure some workers’ rights activists claim is cumbersome and open to abuse by bosses.

Under the act, a secret ballot would still be required if more than 30 per cent of workers sign a card saying they want one.

The Bill would also allow a union or employer to refer a dispute to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service if an employer and a union are unable to reach agreement on their first contract within 90 days. If there is still no agreement after 30 days of mediation, the dispute would be referred to arbitration and the results of the arbitration would be binding on both parties for two years.

Unions have made passage of the EFCA their central demand of congressional Democrats and US president Barack Obama, both of whom they helped to elect last November. Business groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat the legislation, however, through advertising campaigns and intensive lobbying on Capitol Hill.

The Bill will have little trouble passing in the House of Representatives, where Democrats have a big majority.

But in the Senate, Democrats need the support of a handful of Republicans to reach the 60 votes required to block a filibuster.

The unions had a major setback last week when Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican who supported similar legislation five years ago, said he would oppose the new Bill. Specter, who faces an election next year, may have been swayed by the threat of a primary challenge from a more conservative Republican.

The US Chamber of Commerce staged a “fly-in” to Capitol Hill this week, sending 100 business owners to lobby wavering senators against the legislation.

The campaign appears to have had an effect, with conservative Democrat Ben Nelson suggesting the EFCA needs to be watered down.

The unions insist the battle is not yet lost and are planning events across the country over the next two weeks, when Congress is in recess.

A new television advertisement in favour of the legislation, was shot in a flag factory that uses union workers.

“It’s an idea that makes America strong. It’s a fair day’s pay for a hard day’s work,” the advertisement says. “It’s health insurance when you’re sick or injured. It’s job security to provide for your family. It’s the fabric of a sound economy. It built the middle class and it’s what the Employee Free Choice Act is all about: letting workers choose to join a union to earn better pay and benefits.”

Most of the businesses that oppose the EFCA, led by low-cost, low-wage shopping chain Wal- Mart and hamburger chain Burger King, reject any extension of workers’ rights.

Starbucks and Whole Foods have joined with cash-and-carry giant Costco, however, to propose a compromise under which 70 per cent of employees would have to sign a card before a union would be allowed.

The compromise proposal would remove the procedure for binding arbitration of disputes and allow management to campaign for decertification of unions.

“We believe in and trust our employees, which is neither anti- union nor pro-status quo,” said Costco chief executive James Sinegal.

“We favour fairness and believe that the passage of a law based on these six principles will ensure a fair opportunity for workers to make an informed choice, with a secret ballot, whether they want a union or whether they wish to retain non-union status.”

Some union leaders have welcomed the compromise proposal as evidence that employers now acknowledge that the EFCA’s passage is inevitable.

The defanged plan may be just the figleaf conservative Democrats need, however, to appear to support workers’ rights without upsetting corporate America.