Blanche Lincoln announced yesterday that she will oppose EFCA in its current form – this announcement is a huge blow to unions if they were hoping to get card check this year. She did make clear that she could not support EFCA “in the form it is in now” clearly telegraphing that she might consider compromise legislation later. An AFL-CIO official quoted in the same article read her annoumcement exactly the same way.
This announcement is probably more critical than the Specter announcement a couple of weeks ago. Unions need every Democratic Senator going their way if they have any hope of the full enchilada, and I suspect that at least a couple of other Democrats will make similar announcements now that they have cover to do so.
What does this mean? Unions are going after targeted Congressional districts and key Senators during the upcoming recess and are cointinuing to press on EFCA. But at some point they have to decide what they are willing to accept. I think within the next month or so we’ll see Franken seated from Minnesota and then some compromise proposal for quick elections, equal access, baseball arbitration and increased penalties. More important, I think there are at least 60 votes for that as we sit here today. Stay tuned…
