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A Make Or Break Election For The Country's Unions

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By GARY CHAISON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2008

The outcome of November's election could tell us whether unions - in decline for nearly three decades - will revive or continue to lose members and influence. Much depends on whether Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act, the unions' top legislative priority.

Expect to hear in Labor Day speeches that a crucial difference between Barack Obama and John McCain is that Obama is an enthusiastic supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act while McCain is against it.

The Employee Free Choice Act is intended to protect the workers' right to unionize. It introduces a controversial procedure - a union can win the right to represent workers by proving to a government agency that a majority of workers at a workplace have signed cards authorizing the union to act as bargaining agent. Presently, the union would have to win a government-run secret ballot election to represent workers.

Unions and their supporters believe that organizing elections are too time-consuming and expensive and provide a forum for employers to fight unionization either legally, by using procedural delays, or illegally, by intimidating union supporters.

Employers argue that organizing workers without secret-ballot elections is a sham because it allows unions to coerce workers into supporting them. Without secret-ballot elections, the workers' true preference cannot really be known.

There wasn't much campaigning about the Employee Free Choice Act during the Democratic primaries because both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were strong supporters. But now the act will take center stage as the differences between the candidates are being considered and as the candidates vie for support from blue-collar workers and their families.

In their Labor Day speeches, union leaders and Obama will claim that those opposing the act don't care about protecting workers' freedom of association. McCain and his fellow Republicans will likely argue that supporters of the act are trying to increase union influence and membership at the cost of employee free choice. Many nonunion employers will surely speak out against the act. Walmart, for example, has already warned store managers that if Obama is elected president, it would lead to the passage of legislation making it easier for workers to unionize.

In the din of the Labor Day speeches, it is important for us to remember two aspects of the Employee Free Choice Act.

First, the act passed the House of Representatives in March 2007 by the vote of 241 to 185 (228 Democrats and 13 Republicans supported it). Unfortunately, it never reached a Senate vote. It couldn't overcome a Republican filibuster in June 2007; it failed a cloture motion to end debate with only 51 of the needed 60 votes in the Senate. Even if Congress had passed it, the president promised to veto it. Therefore, not only do the unions need a Democratic president, but a filibuster-proof Senate (about 10 more Democrats) as well. This may be possible, but it's highly unlikely.

Second, even if a union-friendly Congress and president pass the act, the unions still have some serious organizing to do. Unions represent only 12 percent of the workforce. To raise this by even a single percentage point, unions would have to organize a million new members each year. It would require at least a decade of million-member gains each year to ensure a union revival.

The passage of the Employee Free Choice Act alone is certainly a long shot and will not guarantee union revival. However, right now it may be the unions' only hope for recruiting new members in large numbers. This Labor Day, I expect union supporters will tell us that the national election is "make-it-or-break-it time" for the unions. It won't be an exaggeration.

Gary Chaison is professor of industrial relations at Clark University's Graduate School of Management in Worcester, Mass., and the author of "Unions in America."

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