Brown and Voinovich Split on Employee Free Choice Act

As you can see from this vote in the United States Senate today, Ohio's two Senators split on the vote to shut off debate over the 2007 Employee Free Choice Act. This bill would allow employees to form labor unions and negotiate with employers by signing cards authorizing representation. Such a system would work against companies that block union representation by intimidating employees. Such intimidation usually takes place in activity leading up to representation elections. Senator Sherrod Brown voted to stop the debate while George Voinovich voted against stopping debate. The cloture vote needed 60 votes to pass and it got 51.

If Bush & Business Want Immigration "Reform" Tell Them We Want Easier Unionization

If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can read a short critique by Nathan Newman of the proposed immigration law that is being talked up in the media. This bill is being hailed as a compromise and apparently has the support of Sen. Ted Kennedy. As Newman points out in his critique, however, this bill will allow 450,000 "guest" workers a year into the United States. These workers have the potential to become a second-class labor force with no intent on becoming American citizens and with the potential to undercut American workers' ability to organize.

Here's our suggestion: tell our Senators and Representatives that Democrats want an easier way for unions to organize. There is a bill in the Congress right now that is being pushed by Democrats that would do away with the need for union representation elections if a majority of a workforce signed cards indicating that they want a union. This would stop employers from conducting campaigns where they intimidate workers by bringing them in for meetings, firing organizers, and hiring expensive law firms whose business is stopping workers from organizing.

Don't make the mistake of thinking of the issue of illegal immigrants as separate from the issue of labor rights. Such division is how the right beats the left. Leftist organizations become too interested in protecting their own interests and fail to see how their interests mesh with the interests of other progressive organizations.

A Blog About Economics That Makes Sense

If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can read an article about economics that is very interesting. The author postulates the theory that over the last 25 years politicians of both parties in the U.S. have pushed policies that allowed both capital and goods to flow freely around the globe. During that time over two billion workers in China, India, the former USSR, and Eastern Europe have entered the global workforce because of the fall of communism in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe and the modernization of the Indian economy. Because of the entry of these workers into a global economy that allows for more free movement of capital and goods, America has become the financier of the global market while China and other areas have become the labor force. Result? Millions of high-paying jobs lost to foreign countries.

He points out that there is an economic theorem that says if a country with capital trades with a country that has cheaper labor, the result will be increased profits and a lowering of wages in the country with capital. We are seeing this in America as the divide between the rich and the rest of us increases. It is a very fascinating article and one that is worth the time it takes to read it.