When Mike Fishman attends the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week, he won't be there just to support Sen. Barack Obama. The president of New York City's powerful building service workers union will also be fighting for a new law that would make it easier for workers to organize.
Meanwhile, back in the city, lawyers like Martin Payson, a senior labor partner at Jackson Lewis, will be mobilizing his clients, alerting them to the dangers he sees for employers should such a law be passed.
"It would tilt the very delicate balance between labor and management in favor of labor and put every single employer in the city of New York at a heightened risk of having to deal with the challenge of union organizing," says Mr. Payson.
Union membership has been steadily declining across the country for decades. Labor leaders believe the bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, could reverse the downward trend and spawn a new golden age of organizing. As the political calendar heats up, a showdown looms with employers, who believe the bill would cripple their operations and devastate profit margins. While they would like to head off the bill, they are also preparing for what could be a new labor landscape if the legislation passes.
The bill, which the House of Representatives passed last year, would allow workers to bypass union elections and organize if a majority of employees in a bargaining unit sign authorization cards. Once a union is formed, employers would be compelled to submit to binding arbitration if negotiations and mediation fail to produce a contract within 120 days. And it would increase penalties for unfair labor practices.
Scaring workers
The law is necessary, labor leaders say, because employers scare workers from voting in favor of unions. Because of such tactics, unions have shied away from even filing for elections with the National Labor Relations Board. The number of elections in the city last year dropped 32% from 10 years ago, to 77, according to a BNA Plus analysis of NLRB data.
Both union leaders and employers expect that the law—supported by Mr. Obama and opposed by Sen. John McCain—would spur a wave of private sector organizing in the city, in areas like health care, retail, light manufacturing and office work. Some insiders predict union membership in the city—at 25.2% last year—would go up 2% to 3% a year if the bill becomes law.
"When it passes, you're going to see a surge of organizing like the 1930s and '40s throughout all industries in the city," says Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Mr. Fishman, who leads the 100,000-member SEIU Local 32BJ, and other labor leaders across the city have made passage of the law their top priority. The bill is expected to be part of the Democratic Party platform, and labor officials have planned an advertising and lobbying blitz at the convention to make sure it stays at the top of the party's agenda.
Management attorneys like Mr. Payson say the "card check" provision of the law would eliminate the six-week window between a union's filing for an election and the actual vote—when employers typically engage in informational campaigns to dissuade workers from choosing the union.
"Six weeks is typically enough time to dispel the myths that many unions create about the benefits of collective bargaining," says Peter Conrad, a partner at law firm Proskauer Rose.
More of a concern to other lawyers is the provision that mandates binding arbitration if an initial contract can't be worked out.
Even employment law firms are encouraging clients to join trade organizations' efforts to defeat the legislation. But they're also instructing them to prepare as if the act will become law.
Jackson Lewis is launching a Web site about the proposed law today to help clients take action. Lawyers from the firm have already held more than a dozen seminars and breakfast meetings with employers to help them plot strategy. They're even urging private equity firms to make sure they take the bill's potential impact on profitability into account when considering acquisitions.
Employers are also being advised to educate supervisors about unions and deal with issues they would typically ignore in the absence of an organizing campaign.
"If EFCA passes, and all employers have to act right now as if it will, all companies will be in perpetual campaign mode," says Gerald Hathaway, a lawyer for Littler Mendelson.
