Labor unions look to cash in with Dems
According to Politico.com:
Organized labor spent tens of millions of dollars putting Democrats in Congress and the White House. Now, as the new Democratic majority gets ready to take office, unions are ready to cash — or, rather, check — in.
The Employee Free Choice Act, widely dubbed the Card Check Bill, has long been a top legislative priority for labor. Although Democrats may fall short of a filibuster-resistant majority of 60 votes in the new Senate, unions feel confident about their chances to push the legislation through Congress next year.
“You can go on our website and look at how many times Sen. Obama told us he was in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union. “We don’t have any question where he is on this issue.”
But industry groups are warning the new administration that if Barack Obama pushes the legislation, the new president will face a major fight that could permanently hurt his relationships with the business community — an enemy he may not want to make early in his term.
“It could be a defining battle,” said business lobbyist Jade West, who sits on the management committee of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, an anti-card-check group. “This could be a very big defining issue right out of the box for the president-elect.”
Unions are transforming their election-year ground troops into a national lobbying force that will push for the bill. Last week, the AFL-CIO’s executive council decided to shift its 2008 field structure, with hundreds of staff in key states, from electoral politics to a card-check mobilization campaign...click to continue.
