Below we note criticism of the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth from two prominent Republicans, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

Gingrich and Boehner raise a criticism we’ve seen elsewhere, that the President excluded important employer groups like the Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, and the National Association of Manufacturing.

Eh. We’re not inclined to complain. As these posts demonstrate, there were plenty of manufacturers among the 130 attendees and they provided good input. The White House has said in the past it wants to hear from the actual company leaders, the employers in the trenches, and fair enough.

But …

If that’s the theory, then shouldn’t organized labor’s representatives have been the heads of local unions, the men and women dealing with job loss and creation in their home communities? It’s not as if Andy Stern doesn’t have enough opportunity already to talk to White House officials.

Instead …

• Mark Ayers, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Larry Cohen, Communications Workers of America
• Edward Wytkind, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Ed Hill, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
• William Hite, United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters
• Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers
• Terry O’Sullivan, Laborers International Union of North America
• James Hoffa, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
• Anna Burger, Change To Win
• Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO
• John Wilhelm, Unite Here
• Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers
• Andy Stern, Service Employees International Union
• Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers

In reading up on labor, jobs and White House forums this morning, came across the transcript of Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks in Philadelphia, Feb. 27, at the very first meetings of the White House’s Middle Class Task Force:

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I’d like the record to show it’s the first time in my life my Senate colleagues ever stood for me. I really do appreciate that — (laughter) — this was worth the job, worth the trip. (Laughter.)

Ladies and gentleman, thank you for all being here today, and Senators Specter and Casey, and Congressman Fattah and Congressman Brady; Mayor Nutter and the governor will be here, as well; and many luminaries that are here in the audience: I see that Andy Stern of SEIU is out there, and Anna Burger of Change to Win, — (applause) — and as I understand it, that Jerry Sullivan is out there, representing the laborers that are going to get, God-willing and the creek not rising, a significant boost from what we’re about to do.

Stern has been in the political news a lot lately, especially since being cited as the most frequent White House visitor. Two conservative activist groups, Americans for Tax Reform and the Alliance for Worker Freedom, this week called for a federal investigation into lobbying by Stern, who has not registered as a lobbyist. The SEIU connection with ACORN has drawn scrutiny. Then there are the continuing “California Labor Wars,” as the Wall Street Journal describes them.

From The Washington Post, Howard Kurtz, “Anchor Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN“:

Lou Dobbs, the most opinionated and divisive anchor at a cable network that bills itself as a straight-news oasis, resigned from CNN on Wednesday night, saying in his final broadcast that he wants “to go beyond the role” of a television journalist in tackling the country’s problems.

Framing his move as a response to the urging of “some leaders in media, politics and business,” Dobbs struck a populist tone, attempting to position himself as a political leader who would mount a campaign “to overcome the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C.” He said that public debate was now defined by “partisanship and ideology” and that he would continue to speak out “in the most honest and direct language possible.”

The speculation turns to Dobbs running for office. He’s a resident of New Jersey; Sen. Frank Lautenberg was just elected in 2008, and Sen. Robert Menendez is not up until 2012 and thus a Senate race is out.

That leaves President as the only office equal to his self-exaltedness. Indeed, a populist campaign for the top spot seems quite possible, with immigration opponents forming his political base. It could be a third party campaign — see Know Nothing Party, 1856 — or as previously bruited, a campaign as an insurgent Democrat.

Along with immigration, anti-globalization and protectionism have also been Dobbs’ core table-pounding issues. And you know whom he’d appeal to with that? Organized labor, especially those union men and women who object to the labor movement being hijacked by leaders who want to turn labor into just another arm of the activist left. As Stephen Sprueill of National Review notes, “The past three decades have seen unions embrace left-wing positions on everything from affirmative action to gay marriage to the war in Iraq.”

Stern’s obsession with size has embroiled the labor movement in some of the nastiest fights it has ever seen. Old-school union guys like Sal Rosselli, a former Stern lieutenant whose National Union of Healthcare Workers split from SEIU earlier this year in a bitter divorce, told [The New Republic's] Bradford Plumer that “Stern’s drive for growth at all costs” had caused him to ignore what was in the best interest of his members. But Andrew Stern was a liberal before he was a union organizer, just as Obama was a liberal before he was a community organizer. Unions may have existed to serve workers’ interests at one time. These days, they exist to serve liberalism.

Lou Dobbs versus Andy Stern for the heart and soul of the labor movement. May the best man win…a Pyrrhic victory, that is.

The next governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, often criticized the undemocratic Employee Free Choice Act during his campaign against Creigh Deeds, who tried to avoid the issue. (See also Amanda Carpenter, Washington Times, “EFCA’s role in McDonnell’s win.”

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s core support came from organized labor, pushing his candidacy at the same time they made the Employee Free Choice Act their rallying cry. See The Star-Ledger story, “Unions organize to help an ally: Jon Corzine.” Former federal prosecutor Chris Christie defeated Corzine on Tuesday, 49-45 percent.

In Pennsylvania, organized labor’s candidate for the state Supreme Court, Jack Panella, lost to Joan Orie Melvin. Judging by Panella’s website, he was counting on the unions to bring home the vote. Nope.

True, labor’s favored candidate won in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, but Bill Owens was the AFL-CIO’s second choice after Dede Scozzafava dropped out.

Labor’s failures weaken its political power in Congress, if only at the margins, making it even more difficult to pass the Employee Free Choice Act this year. The unions will therefore continue their power plays in other venues, such as the National Mediation Board and the National Labor Relations Board. Expect the SEIU’s Andy Stern to make even more visits to the White House to coordinate strategy.

UPDATE (9:45 a.m.): Mickey Kaus, from his “Election 2009: Some Winners, Losers,”:

Losers: Dems who were planning to argue that a Corzine victory, when contrasted with Deeds’ loss, shows the need to stick with “core Democratic values” (i.e. unions) …

Loser: Card check. Virginia Republican McDonnell didn’t fudge on labor’s “card check” bill. He bashed it. He won. Virginia is hardly a union state, but neither are the states with Senators who are swing votes on “card check”. …

From today’s Wall Street Journal, “Unions in Debt,” with the secondary headline, “Big labor has big financial problems it wants to keep quiet.”

‘We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama,” declared Andy Stern last month, and the president of the Service Employees International Union wasn’t exaggerating. The SEIU and AFL-CIO have been spending so much on politics that they’re going deeply into debt.

That news comes courtesy of federal disclosure forms that unions file each year with the Department of Labor. The Bush Administration toughened the enforcement of those disclosure rules, but under pressure from unions the Obama Labor shop is slashing funding for such enforcement. Without such disclosure, workers wouldn’t be able to see how their union chiefs are managing their mandatory dues money.

And an insight:

[Unions] can’t resist the lure of the Beltway precisely because they fare so poorly in the private marketplace. The union red ink helps explain why Mr. Stern and AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney are lobbying so hard for Congress to rig the rules to make it easier for unions to gather more dues-paying members.

Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao outlined the attacks against disclosure and the Department’s Office of Labor Management Standards in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last month, “Obama Tries to Stop Union Disclosure: No more sunshine on how worker dues are spent.”

Just love Politico’s headline on its story about Sen. Tom Harkin trying to work out some version of the Employee Free Choice Act that will pass muster with recalcitrant, constituent-minded Democratic Senators.

Working Out the Kinks in Card Check

Well, as a matter of fact, in the words of the Kinks’ Ray Davies in “Get Back in Line“:

Facing the world ain’t easy when there isn’t anything going
Standing at the corner waiting watching time go by
Will I go to work today or shall I bide my time
‘Cos when I see that union man walking down the street
He’s the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve, or I eat
Then he walks up to me and the sun begins to shine
Then he walks right past and I know that I’ve got to get back in the line

On a more serious note, here’s a Los Angeles Times interview with Andy Stern of the SEIU. He sounds almost down on the Senate prospects for the Employee Free Choice Act. He’s also still selling binding arbitration as a must-have provision in any bill. When you make outrageous demands, then yes, prospects for passage do decline.

Around the horn on the Employee Free Choice Act…

From CNS News, “Liberals Hold Prayer Breakfast in U.S. Capitol to Pray for Bill to End Secret Ballots in Union Organizing“

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Union leaders, clergy and liberal members of Congress gathered in the mostly empty U.S. Capitol Visitors Center early Tuesday morning to hear multicultural choir music, speeches from religious leaders–and to pray for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The event was a prayer breakfast sponsored by Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness–a coalition of liberal religious groups that was formed for the sole purpose of promoting EFCA, commonly known as the “card-check” bill.

Yes, yes, corporate America is Pharaoh and will John Sweeney will lead his people to the promised land…where forced union dues rain down like manna from heaven.

Fargo Forum (N.D.), “Veterans to rally in support of workers’ rights“:

Veterans from five wars will speak out today for workers’ rights in a noon rally at the Hjemkomst Center in Moorhead.

The event, announced by the Northern Plains United Labor Council, is in support of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, whose backers say it would make it easier to form a union and whose critics argue is anti-democratic.

We fought for a country where labor unions could deprive you of your secret ballot, to make certain America would be a land where you could not negotiate freely with your employer but instead would have a contract forced upon you by a government arbitrator.

Really?

Since we mention Hjemkomst, if you’re ever in Moorhead, do stop by. A very good, oceangoing replica of a Viking ship is on display.

Finally, from TAPPED, the blog of the self-styled progressives at The American Prospect, a post, “Business Responds to Employee Free Choice Compromise.” Two things of interest, the first sentence:

So the “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace” (Orwellian!) is pissy because The Washington Post has offered support for the compromise Employee Free Choice legislation being negotiated in the Senate…

That is hilarious! Supporters of a bill called “The Employee Free Choice Act” accusing their opponents of using Orwellian language. Double-plus unserious, you jokers.

Of course, now that business interests have succeeded in taking the original majority sign-up procedure off the table, they’re still opposing the legislation…

Has business succeeded, really? Or through clarity, argument and transparency just forced labor’s PR teams to rethink their marketing?

A news release from the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, to which the National Association of Manufacturers belongs, “Card Check ‘Compromise’ Means Worker Rights at Compromised“:

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today said that union efforts to trump up a so-called “compromise” on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will further violate worker rights and place an undue burden on small businesses. With growing bipartisan opposition to card check legislation, Big Labor and their allies are scrambling to cut a deal that keeps EFCA alive. The two most controversial EFCA compromise proposals involve instant elections and expanding union access to employees during the work day.

“There can be no compromise on eliminating the rights of workers to vote by private ballot in union organizing elections. CDW will oppose any federal legislation that deprives American workers of the ability to make a fully informed decision and exercise their right to vote in a secret ballot election without fear of intimidation or recrimination,” said Brian Worth, chairman of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

We hear from the Capitol Hill rumor mill that newly minted Democratic Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) is indeed pursuing a Employee Free Choice Act ‘lite,’ or some other pseudo-PR-compromise. One assumes the goal is to ensure labor support for his 2010 candidacy.

Good luck on that. The activist left is restive. From The Huffington Post, “Wanted: A Pennsylvania Ned Lamont to Defeat Arlen Specter in 2010 Democratic Primary”

And a Daily Kos diary, “An Opponent for Specter?  SEIU’s Stern meeting Sestak Tomorrow”

UPDATE (Noon): The Daily Kos entry on Congressman Sestak’s potential Democratic primary challenge to Senator Specter is a good read. It reminds us that Rep. Sestak introduced an alternative to the Employee Free Choice Act prior to EFCA’s introduction, H.R. 1355, the National Labor Relations Modernization Act. That certainly didn’t please organized labor.

A descriptively titled news release, “AFSCME, Americans United for Change Launch New Television Ad Spotlighting the Republican ‘Party of NO’ and the Middle-Class Priorities They Turned Their Back On,” excerpted:

Gerald W. McEntee, President, AFSCME: “Through this campaign, we are mobilizing our members and the general public to support President Obama’s comprehensive effort to promote jobs and economic recovery, enact health care reform this year and pass the Employee Free choice Act. The Roadblock Republicans can’t hide from the damage their resistance is doing to the recovery our people need. We have important work to do to overcome the opposition of the corporate CEO’s who set the GOP agenda. We’re going to flood Capitol Hill with phone calls and letters to keep us on the road to recovery. And we’re going to make sure that the Roadblock Republicans know that working Americans expect them to put partisanship aside and do what is right for America.”

That sure sounds like a 2010 campaign commercial, an implicit admission that AFSCME and United for Change don’t think EFCA can pass this year. The two are declaring that it’s on EFCA they’ll stand or fall. They want to change the political equation rather than seek “compromise.”

In which case, these unions are striking a sharply different tone from the SEIU’s Andy Stern, who did not appear all that committed to the Employee Free Choice in a Washington Post interview this week, saying, “We are on the hunt for a solution.”

In short, organized labor is all over the map, torn by disagreement and conflicting agendas on the dishonestly titled Employee Free Choice Act. Such a shame.

Breaking rank from other labor bosses, SEIU President Andy Stern and Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger openly ponder possible alternative versions of the EFCA in an editorial board interview with the Washington Post. This is the first major national union to indicate willingness to “compromise” on their highest agenda item. Facing challenges in obtain support for the EFCA in its current form, Stern and Burger look to other versions of the bill that they speculate might get 60 votes in support of cloture.
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In this piece, Stern contemplates possibly removing the “card check” provisions from the bill and replacing them with quickie elections that don’t allow employees to have a free flow of information with their employer when deciding whether or not to form a labor union. Labor hopes that by holding “fast elections,” organizers will still control the flow of information to employees by giving employers less time to educate their employees on the costs and benefits and downside of union membership, thus increasing the probability of unionization. Despite commitments on the campaign trail, organized labor is now coming to the realization the Obama administration has not placed passage of the EFCA as a high priority. Stern notes President Obama’s lack of engagement in their efforts to move the bill through Congress. Stern:

We respect that we have a job to do to line up enough votes without him.

Facing growing bipartisan opposition to the legislation in the Senate, we may see union leaders throw their support behind an amended version of the EFCA, but one which would still seek to create an imbalance in the union organizing process to favor labor unions over employees and their employers.