Stimulus, Employee Free Choice Act Top Labor’s Busy Legislative Agenda 

After getting the cold shoulder from the Bush White House for eight years, labor is expecting a warmer climate in Washington for its legislative agenda. In addition to a friendlier President, the new Democratic-run 111th Congress has larger pro-worker majorities. 

While the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and a massive stimulus bill top the legislative list, there are a number of other issues that seriously impact working families.

(Labor has already secured one victory with passage of the Lilly Ledbetter bill to restore the right of workers – women, minorities and others – to sue firms for pay discrimination at any time, not just in their first 180 days on the job.) 

The bill (EFCA) is designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargain•ing, but corporate America and its right-wing backers want no part of that. 

Labor’s legislative strategists realize EFCA won’t come up until later in the year. In the meantime, unionists are conducting a massive 16-state campaign to counter an all-out attack against the legislation. The bill is designed to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organ•izing and bargaining (see sidebar on page 9), but corporate America and its right-wing backers want no part of that. As departing Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, head of the nation’s largest, anti-worker firm, said, the present sys•tem has “us in the driver’s seat” and “we won’t yield the wheel.”

Labor knows it needs more GOP backers to pass EFCA and hopes to drum up support among the public, who are being bombarded with right-wing propa•ganda about the sanctity of secret ballot elections. (EFCA would allow for certification of a union when a majority of workers sign authorization cards.) 

Stimulus Bill 

“The major priority is the big eco•nomic recovery bill,” costing $500 bil•lion to $1 trillion over two years, AFL•CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel told Press Associates Union News Service. 

“This is a longer-than-normal reces•sion,” Samuel says. “So the govern•ment could commit resources to proj•ects that could be ready in six months, nine months or a year,” besides focus•ing on immediate needs.Pieces of the stimulus bill, which Obama aides and congressional Democratic leaders are working on, would include: 

 

• Extended and expanded jobless benefits. With unemployment at 7.2% and expected to continue upwards, Samuel says the extension will be a part of the stimulus package. Long-term, Congress needs to revamp the unemployment insurance program so it cov•ers more jobless people, and aids them more.  Only one-third of the unem•ployed now get benefits, he points out. 

   

 

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  Infrastructure projects, and specifically those projects that not only help rebuild the nation’s roads, transporta•tion systems, bridges and schools, cre•ating tens of thousands of jobs, but also make them “greener” and enhance energy efficiency. 

   

 

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  Aid to state and local govern•ments, especially to help them shoulder health care costs.  This is one of the shorter-term items in the stimulus package, and one of the most pressing.  The states face a mountain of rising Medicaid bills and declining revenues as more people lose jobs and health care.  Additional funds for mass transit in the economic recovery plan would also protect the jobs of many TWU members. 

   

Health Care 

After the stimulus bill and the Employee Free Choice Act will come another big battle for workers and their allies: health care reform.  

“The incoming administration is taking health care seriously,” Samuel said. “Our principles tend to mirror what the president-elect has announced: Access for all, affordability, and workers will have a choice of their own doctors.” 

But like the fight over EFCA — where business is marshaling millions in its advertising campaign against the labor law — neither Samuel nor unions underestimate the wealth and guile of the health insurance companies, the nation’s most-profitable industry.  They’re determined to beat health care reform. 

Obama doesn’t underestimate them, either. His Administration is expected to convene nationwide town hall meetings and use the Internet to mobilize support for revising health care, which is one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Other items on labor’s agenda include: 

 

• Collective bargaining rights for public safety workers. A key cause of the Fire Fighters, this will be a top item on the AFL-CIO’s agenda, too, says Samuel. The House passed it last Congress, but a Senate GOP “fili•buster-by-amendments” killed it. 

   

 

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  Rewriting Bush’s No Child Left Behind education law, which both Obama and the nation’s two teachers unions strongly criticize for its rigidity, its tilt to private schools and its “teach•to-the-test” mandate – as well as for lack of funding. 

   

 

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  Using the Congressional Review Act, which lets Congress kill agency rules within 60 days of “finality,” against some of Bush’s “midnight rules.”  Samuel says a top candidate for CRA use is a Bush rule that makes it harder for workers to show they’ve been exposed to toxic chemicals on the job. Women’s groups are pondering how to overturn Bush’s rules weaken•ing the Family and Medical Leave Act. 

   

 

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  Enacting paid sick leave and also the “Respect Act,” legislation overturn•ing the Bush National Labor Relations Board’s “workers are supervisors” ruling.