| | Emanuel treads lightly on union bill during CEO gathering
Labor counting on Obama supportIncoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel tread lightly before a room full of CEOs when the subject turned to a union organizing bill that President-elect Barack Obama championed on the campaign trail.
Asked about the Employee Free Choice Act at a gathering of business executives Tuesday, Emanuel punted -- "Let me take your question and go somewhere else," he said, according to the Wall Street Journal, which sponsored the CEO Council.
Obama co-sponsored the legislation, also known as "card check," in the Senate, and he promised to make passage of it a top priority during his administration. Labor unions don't seem worried that he'll back away from that promise, even in light of Emanuel's hesitance.
"Rahm was certainly playing to his audience," Michael Whitney, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, told RAW STORY. "He didn't want to jump head first into the viper pit."
Emanuel "declined to say" whether the White House would support the legislation, according to a follow-up report in the Journal, and instead talked about the need to improve conditions for middle class workers.
Whenever Obama or Democrats are speaking to audiences comprised of non-CEOs, their support for the legislation couldn't be clearer. The issues page on Obama's transition Web site promises he will sign EFCA into law.
"Ultimately the pres is the deciding factor on this," Josh Goldstein, a spokesman for American Rights at Work, told RAW STORY. "And he is clearly not shying away from this issue."
The SEIU has created a video of Obama's statements in favor of unions and is confident that Obama will stick with his support.
"We need to show Congress and show the American people that passing Employee Free Choice is really part of an economic recovery program to help rebuild the middle class," Whitney said. "And we think Obama recognizes that as well."
The bill passed the House when it came to a vote last year but fell short of the necessary 60 votes to stave off a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Chances for EFCA have improved this time around and may hinge on the outcome in yet-to-be-decided Senate races in Minnesota and Georgia.
All Democrats and one Republican supported the measure in 2007, giving it 52 supporters. (Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) supported the bill but missed the vote because he was recovering from a stroke.)
Democrats have flipped at least six Senate seats, bringing their total to 58. Assuming Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) remains supportive of the measure, Democrats just need Al Franken to prevail in a Minnesota recount or Jim Martin to win next month's re-vote in Georgia and victory for the union organizing bill will be virtually assured.
"Those two senate races could basically lift any barrier," Goldstein said.
The card check legislation would require employers to negotiate a union contract if a majority of their workers sign cards indicating they want a union to form. Workers wishing to form a union are currently required to participate in secret-ballot elections, and there are no federal protections if a majority decide they want to unionize.
Businesses say card check allows union organizers to pressure workers into signing the cards, while labor groups say the current system allows corporations to retaliate against workers who try to organize unions.
During the campaign, pro-business groups ran advertisements against Democratic candidates aimed at raising voter fears about the card check bill. The advertisements appear to have been ineffective, but the fight to block card check will continue to be one of businesses' biggest priorities next year.
"President-elect Obama needs to think about how much political capital he wants to put behind this," Glenn Spencer, a Chamber of Commerce executive who is leading the fight to kill the measure, told the Los Angeles Times. If it is passed in Obama's first 100 days, Spencer said, it is "going to look like a special-interest payback."
Backers of card check recognize that it may not be the No. 1 item on the president-elect's agenda, but they expect it won't be completely pushed aside. Whether Obama is able to forge some kind of agreement between the two divergent views remains to be seen.
"The aspirations behind card check -- I know this is a tough issue," Emanuel told the CEOs, according to a partial transcript of his remarks. "And President Obama has been clear in the campaign. It's touching, and dealing with, those who have fell behind even though they are working harder. They're working harder, earning less and paying more. And that's just not good politics, good economics or good for our society. And you wouldn't come up with these principles if you didn't think that."
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