Card Check on Hold
I have been saying for some time here at NoSpeedBumps that a major concern with Obama is that he supports a card-check law to help unions organize more workplaces. I have also been saying that this would be a big political mistake on Obama’s part since he would alienate so many people (like me!) and burn up a lot of good will. Well it looks like things are now moving in the right direction:
It hasn’t been much noticed, but the political ground is already shifting under Big Labor’s card-check initiative. The unions poured unprecedented money and manpower into getting Democrats elected; their payoff was supposed to be a bill that would allow them to intimidate more workers into joining unions. The conventional wisdom was that Barack Obama and an unfettered Democratic majority would write that check, lickety-split.
Instead, union leaders now say they are being told card check won’t happen soon. It seems the Obama team plans to devote its opening months to important issues, like the economy, and has no intention of jumping straight into the mother of all labor brawls. It also seems Majority Leader Harry Reid, even with his new numbers, might not have what it takes to overcome a filibuster. It’s a case study in how quickly a political landscape can change, and how frequently the conventional wisdom is wrong.
With the economy in trouble, the last thing we need right now is a slugfest over giving unions more power by eliminating the private ballot as the means to force a union on an employer. Further erroding the Freedom of Association of business owners is not going to help the economy - and will hurt it in the long run by making businesses less efficient.
