Word: laborings
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...strong middle class is union bargaining. They point to heroes of the movement like Walter Reuther, the famed head of the United Auto Workers, who once famously noted that his workers were also Chrysler's best customers. "What studies show is that every time there's been a strong labor movement, there's been a strong middle class," says Janice Fine, a professor at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations...
...problem, from labor's point of view, is that Obama needs the business community's support to pass his first priority: a massive economic recovery package, as much as $850 billion in infrastructure projects and middle class tax cuts. And if there's one item atop the business community's agenda this year, it is to defeat EFCA - also known as card check, since it would replace secret ballots with cards. "The Obama administration wants to pass the stimulus and they need the business community to do that," says Randy Johnson, vice president for labor issues at the U.S. Chamber...
...Union advocates argue that the bill is not just good for unions but a boost for the economy as well. "If it becomes easier for working people to form unions and get more bargaining power and therefore higher wages, the economy will be helped," said Robert Reich, a former labor secretary under President Clinton and an adviser to Obama on labor during the campaign. "EFCA will be good for the economy because it will improve bargaining and put more money in the pockets of workers...
Some compromises have been proposed, such as one put forth by William Gould, a former Clinton appointee as head of the National Labor Relations Board. Gould suggested keeping the secret ballot but reducing the extensive delays in holding such elections. "Gould's proposal eliminates the politically most potent argument against the Employee Free Choice Act, that secret-ballot elections supposedly better represent the true preferences of employees than do signed union authorization cards," says Gregory Saltzman, professor of economics and labor management at Albion College in Michigan...
...head of the American Federal of State, County and Municipal Employees candidly told the Washington Times (much to the delight of Republicans, who broadcast his remarks in press releases), "the payback would be the Employee Free Choice Act - that would be a vehicle to strengthen and build the American labor movement and the middle class." Still, in this economic climate, payback for anything will likely be difficult...