Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

News Roundup: CVS vs. Change to Win

There’s a good layout at Campaign Diaries that shows where different Senators stand on EFCA:

• 46 supporters
• 40 co-sponsors
• 4 non co-sponsors who have indicated their support for the bill: Dorgan, Franken, Hagan, McCaskill (see here for more detail)
• 2 non co-sponsors who have indicated their support for cloture: Mark Udall, Warner
• 12 undecided/uncommitted: Bayh, Baucus, Bennet, Bingaman, Conrad, Feinstein, Kohl, Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Pryor, Tester, Webb
• 5 oppose the current version but have not closed the door to compromise:
• 2 have explicitly opened door: Lincoln, Murkowski
• 3 have not explicitly said they might support compromise but observers believe they could support cloture on watered-down version: Collins, Snowe, Voinovich [Important update on Voinovich, see below]
• 36 opponents, which include Arlen Specter

CVS has responded to rumors that some of its stores in Texas have been selling expired products by claiming Change to Win is trying to smear them over the secret ballot:

“It is important to recognize that the driving force behind these accusations is a consortium of labor unions called Change to Win (CtW). Since early 2007, CtW has threatened to disparage our company unless we agreed to waive our employees’ right to vote in confidential union elections. This right has been guaranteed by federal law for decades, and we believe our employees should retain the freedom to exercise this right. CtW’s inaccurate allegations and accompanying media outreach is their latest attempt to achieve this objective.”

Them’s fightin’ words. We’ll be following this and keep you updated.

AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and NEA have all banded together to form the National Labor Coordinating Committee. Somehow, I don’t think SEIU and UNITE HERE will be leading a coordinating effort anytime soon.

Categories: Center for Union FactsEFACNews