CDW Update

CDW Members:

The long August recess is over, and while the health care debate continues to dominate the headlines, proponents of EFCA are doing their best to ensure that Big Labor’s #1 priority does not drift off the political radar screen.

EFCA Alternatives

AFL-CIO’s Secretary-Treasurer (and assumed incoming president), Richard Trumka, has expressed publicly that an alternative version of EFCA---without the card-check provision---will likely move through Congress before the end of 2009.

As reported in BusinessWeek, Trumka “told reporters that a compromise bill currently being negotiated by moderate Democrats in the Senate would be acceptable even if it didn't include the controversial ‘card check’ option.”

On a related note, the New York Times reports current AFL-CIO president John Sweeney as agreeing to accept “ambush,” or quickie, elections in place of card-check. To read that story, click here.

While the talk of ambush election is nothing new in the EFCA debate, it is worth noting that these sources aren’t anonymous, but rather the elected (by secret ballot, generally) leaders of the labor movement. CDW has already knocked down the fallacy that ambush elections are reasonable, and I have attached our letter to the U.S. Senate, and our talking points on that subject, for your reference.

Finally, Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), as reported in Politico, has noted that the small group of Senate Democrats working on this issue are “making progress” in finding what they deem to be a suitable alternative.

Meanwhile, in the House, EFCA (H.R. 1409)---with card-check and government-mandated binding interest arbitration---still has 226 co-sponsors.

Union Grassroots

To coincide with Labor Day and the AFL-CIO’s annual convention, union leaders are planning a media blitz in support of EFCA, as well as a possible lobbying day on Capitol Hill. Read the story in Politico http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26649_Page2.html

This serves a reminder that we cannot slacken our efforts to defeat EFCA, or any alternative versions of the bill that are proposed under the guise of “compromise.” It would be nice to think that this legislation has been defeated, but it is clearly still at the top of Big Labor’s political agenda and therefore must remain at the top of ours, as well.

Lobbying Committee

For CDW members based in the D.C. area, our lobbying committee will meet on September 10, at 2:00 pm at the offices of NRF. If you’re interested in attending, please contact Rob Green at greenr@nrf.com.

As our members are talking to their Representative and Senators about health care or cap-and-trade, it is crucial that they also use those opportunities to remind them that there can be no compromise on the rights of employees to make an informed, private decision about whether to join a union and small businesses cannot be handed over to government-appointed arbitrators.

CDW has been so effective for the past three years because of the broad cross-section of the employer community represented by our membership of more than 580 trade and business associations, and the passion with which our individual members have spoken about this important issue. By continuing to vocal and united in our opposition, we can again hold off this latest push by the proponents of EFCA.

As always, thanks for all of your continued hard work.

Brian