'Wounded' Does Not Mean 'Dead' for Union Bailout Bill

It's been wounded to the point that its supporters are beginning to question its short-term survivability. Perhaps it is a victim of its own deformity since its name is as mismatched with its intent as is a rat poison named Vanilla Ice Cream. Or, perhaps, it is a victim of pure numbers-game politics, awaiting the arrival of comic-turned-commedic-politician Al Franken. Irrespective of why the union bailout bill otherwise known as the moronically-monikered Employee Free Choice Act is temporarily wounded, the fact is, it is not dead.

Although the union pushers pushing this job-destroying legislation are beginning to concede that its passage is far from certain (as written), as one Congressman told us in 2007 (two days before it passed the House of Representatives), EFCA will not go away.

Indeed, while the card-check provisions of EFCA may be dying due to the queasiness politicians feel toward casting a vote that would effectively eliminate secret-ballots, alternatives such as mail-ballot elections or shortened election time frames would likely have the same effect as eliminating secret-ballots. Afterall, as unions now win 66% of all NLRB-conducted secret-ballot elections, any added slant toward the unions will give them an unparalleled upperhand in unionizing more workers. This, it is believed, union bosses and their minions in the federal government know, which is why they are more apt to accept a compromise on card-check.

Moreover, EFCA's true job killer, binding arbitration (which is, in effect, the federal government dictating wages and benefits on workers and their employers), has not garnered as much vociferous attention as the elimination of secret-ballots and, as a result, is not as much as a hot potato for the politicos in their districts back home.

Therefore, as no-vote unionization (aka card-check) gets watered down, binding arbitration still lingers like the stench of a skunk having feasted on a can of pork. While no-vote unionization becomes the throw-away issue for those who owe their political careers to pandering to union bosses, EFCA's job-killing aribtration provision is the real devil in EFCA's details.

When a senior member of the United States Senate becomes a tool of a special interest group, threatening to 'out' his fellow senators (including those from his own party) in order for that special interest to develop a 'hit list' for the 2010 mid-term elections, it is a telling sign that, while EFCA is wounded, it is not dead.

For the time being, the delusionally-dubbed Employee Free Choice Act may be delayed until Labor Day (or beyond) as the debate over nationalizing America's health care system takes precedence, EFCA's wounds are not mortal and the battle will continue.