Update on Senate Action
The transcript from last night’s Senate proceedings are now online. We have uploaded them HERE .
As expected, the maneuvering has begun, with Senator Reid first making a cloture motion on the Employee Free Choice Act and then immediately withdrawing it, purportedly to “appeal to my friends, the Republicans, that they take a look at this and find out if it is absolutely necessary that we have these cloture votes.”
Today’s “Roll Call Road Map,” John Stanton and Emily Pierce report:
To make way for the immigration bill, Reid also is expected to file cloture motions in at least two other cases this week. He could file cloture on a motion to proceed to the union voting bill, which, while a top priority for labor, is expected to fail to garner 60 votes thanks to strong Republican opposition. But with many in labor unhappy with both the immigration bill and the energy bill’s inclusion of new fuel efficiency standards, the vote on the unionizing measure is seen by aides on Capitol Hill as Reid’s way of trying to placate labor leaders.
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Sandwiched in between energy and a resurgence of the immigration reform bill this week — likely on Thursday — Reid has planned to vote on the union organizing bill that Democrats say would make it easier to join a union, but that Republicans say could lead to intimidation of workers. In effect, it would allow unions to organize without having to go through a complicated secret-ballot process, but merely allow a union chapter to form when a simple majority of workers sign union cards.
Republicans are questioning the timing of the “card check” vote, given that autoworkers unions don’t want to see stringent new CAFE standards, while old-line industrial unions have been worried that the immigration bill will create an influx of guest workers that could depress wages.
As always, Seth Borden of the Union-Free Employer blog, who continues to monitor EFCA actions, notes recent comments by Senator Hillary Clinton and asks:
EFCA Updates