Welcome To Chicago Politics – Congress Reintroduces Card Check Legislation

Today, the Senate held an alleged hearing about the “Employee Free Choice Act”, better termed the “card check”.  The result?  A pretty press release stating that, “Leading members of the U.S. Senate and House today introduced legislation that would help enable workers to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions by restoring their rights to form unions.”  If you watch the hearing, it is obvious that it was designed merely to be able to say a hearing was held.  There no true dialogue; the minds of the committee were made up well before they entered the hearing room.

Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) blasted the Senate for this waste of taxpayer money, saying “Card Check is all about giving a gift to labor bosses at the expense of both the economy and the middle class.”  The end result of inserting yet more government bureaucracy into business will signal the death knell for thousands of businesses and thousands of jobs. 

There are 2 bills currently in Congress to protect secret ballot voting for union representation:

• Secret Ballot Protection Act of 2009 (Placed on Calendar in Senate) [S.478.PCS]
• Secret Ballot Protection Act (Introduced in House) [H.R.1176.IH]

This bill was introduced (in opposition) on March 5, 2009:

• National Labor Relations Modernization Act:  To amend the National Labor Relations Act to require employers to provide labor organizations with equal access to employees prior to an election regarding representation, to prevent delays in initial collective bargaining, and to strengthen enforcement against intimidation of employees by employers. (Introduced in House)  [H.R.1355]

As of this writing, the text of the newly-proposed legislation in support of the Employee Free Choice Act is not yet available.  But in searching for it, I found that there is an interesting little request for a Constitutional amendment from Representative Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. sitting with the House Judiciary committee:

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States respecting the right to full employment and balanced growth. (Introduced in House) [H.J.RES.35.IH]

Article–

 `Section 1. Every person has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.

 `Section 2. Every person, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

 `Section 3. Every person who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for themselves and their family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

 `Section 4. Every person who works has the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of their interests.

 `Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.’.

Entitlement, anyone?  This needs a hard, fast smack-down, too.