Senator Tom Harkin, D.-Iowa, says compromise is in order to save the Employee Free Choice Act, specifying that the card check provision will no doubt have to be dropped.
"Compromises are going to be made," said Harkin, 69. "It probably won’t be card check [as part of the final law], because too many people are opposed to it now."
Card check allows organizers to unionize a company by merely getting 50-percent-plus-one of the employees to sign off on the idea. No election need be held, but the union (har de har har) could still ask for one.
Business is unilaterally opposed to it, with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calling the EFCA "Armageddon." (New York Governor David Paterson has already created card check in his state by fiat–executive order. Henceforth, all businesses receiving government assistance in just about any form in his state will be subject to card check unionization.)
Harkin said he’s hoping that the compromise bill he’s negotiating with fellow senators will win the "grudging support" of both labor and "some business." For its part, labor says card check is non-negotiable and absolutely essential, and from the business side comes the stance that, even with card check gone, the EFCA is still Armageddonish with its binding arbitration provision.
The proposed law mandates a two-year binding contract be imposed if the company and union fail to agree upon a contract after 90 days of direct negotiations and another 30 days of mediation. In the words of Rodney King, "Can’t we all just get along?" Evidently not.