Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke to Communications Workers of America convention delegates yesterday. Her remarks to the union activists coincided with what House leaders have deemed “Making it in America” week, promoting a strong manufacturing economy and employment.

Yet the Speaker used this opportunity to reiterate her support for the anti-democratic Employee Free Choice Act, which would lead to the destruction of 600,000 American jobs in the first year after its enactment. As the economic analysis of the legislation by the nonpartisan LEGC shows that for every 3 percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration will result in a 1 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate the following year. The Speaker predicted that the legislation would soon be “the law of the land.” Unfortunate.

Meanwhile the head of the Communications Workers of America, Larry Cohen, said, “[When] a majority of the Senate wants to take action, they can.” He added: “There is no hope of any meaningful restoration of private sector bargaining rights as long as we have these Senate rules.”

Mr. Cohen asserts that the only thing stopping this legislation is procedural hurdles in the upper chamber of the U.S. Senate. We respectively disagree. The only thing stopping this legislation is the legislation itself. Countless members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are united in opposition because the bill wouldn’t restore “private sector bargaining rights,” but would instead promote forced unionization, exacerbate labor-management conflict, rob the U.S. labor market of its dynamism and kill hundreds of thousands of American jobs. It appears that union leaders not only want to change labor laws in their favor but also overhaul longstanding Senate rules to pass their priority.

Union leaders’ strategy here is clear. If you don’t have a popular proposal, change the rules of the game.

So when an employee chooses union representation, is his goal to improve his wages, benefits and conditions? Or is it to achieve radical change, restructuring U.S. society, the economy and foreign policy?

We ask in light of this entry at the AFL-CIO blog, “Public Uprising for Change Offers Opportunity to Turn America Around.” Excerpt:

The union movement can play a key role in bringing about major changes, panelists said. But they cautioned that progressive change is not a slam dunk. Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen told the forum that our nation needs “a clear agenda” from the union movement to build a mass mobilization for change from among the thousands of local grassroots efforts. Three key issues that must be a part of the agenda are the Employee Free Choice Act, universal health care coverage and an end to the Iraq war, Cohen said. In other words:

We have to create our own New Deal.

We don’t recall military withdrawal as being part of the first New Deal, but to many of today’s labor radicals foreign policy counts just as high as a worker’s paycheck.

Maybe that’s why card check is so important. The unions need the intimidation factor in order to dragoon employees into membership, even those workers who support a victory in Iraq or dislike single-payer health care.