A healthcare bill has passed. That is probably the most significant statement to make about the Employee Free Choice Act and labor law change this week. Although Big Labor had a dog in the healthcare fight, the energy consumed diminished progress on Labor’s more pressing objectives. “The attempt to get a health care bill sort of sucked all the oxygen out of the room,” asserts David Zonderman, a labor history professor at North Carolina State University. “I don’t think anyone would disagree — whether you’re in favor of or against [health care reform] — that it has taken up a phenomenal amount of legislative time.” Now that the healthcare bridge has been crossed, Big Labor is hopeful and business interests are nervous about what may happen next on the labor law front. “I think that fairly quietly things are happening,” observes Robert Trumble, professor of management and director of the Virginia Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. “These things are not necessarily pro-union, but they’re pro-worker.” Watch out for that twist of wording! As Democrats fight to hold their seats in the November elections, many have weakened their position with constituents in the healthcare fight, and can’t afford to rile them further. Since the public’s opinion of unions has been on the decline, these vulnerable Dems may attempt to change the nature of the conversation, so as to appear on the workers’ side, not necessarily the unions’. It will be interesting to watch the election races of those congressmen and women Big Labor threatened and vilified during the healthcare fight. One of the heaviest campaign contributors, the SEIU, drew lines in the sand, calling out “defectors” by name. Whether those congressional members feel they can redeem themselves by siding with Big Labor on further labor legislation, or can take the heat in their districts if they don’t, may end up being the tipping point on their labor-law positions. Big Labor will not let up as many believe this is their best opportunity in the last 40-50 years to make changes to labor laws in favor of unions. Obama may also be a wild card. Now that he has achieved his “legacy” objective, he may very well thumb his nose at detractors and proceed, “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” This could mean union-friendly recess appointments to the NLRB, among other possible actions.
