It's my impression that labor has already lost this one, with Blanche Lincoln opposing the bill, but maybe they can continue to threaten pushing it in order to get other concessions.

Shouldn't groups that don't disclose large donors be excluded from lobbying?

Decent people laboring on behalf of their communities deserve better than what they've been given up to now! Dignity comes in many forms, yet opposition to that which brings decency to bear is not one of them. Sen. Lincoln and this Berman guy are by no means dignified people should they not give up their untenable perspectives! -Kevo

"Center for Union Facts"
How Orwellian, and I bet they are behind the UAW $70/hr non-sense. How anyone can try and take wages away from another who makes less then them is beyond me.

The right is bound and determined to squash blue collar labor and I would think that this is going to have consequences for elections. How many UAW voted republican only to watch those clowns try and force their companies into bankruptcy.

Seems like Big Business has decided to forgo any sense of decency and use the republican party to cash out and move along. Stifling wages impacts their economic future, those are customers, but they aren't in it for the long run. Just want their bonuses and to hell with the rest of the country.

FWIW, the other Rick Berman is truly reviled in some circles, too.

Qapla!

Well, if Republicans dislike the auto unions, unions by de facto MUST be helpful. Over the last few generations, there has been a balance developed between labor and management which has been set into statute after statute and upheld by the federal courts time after time.

Every advance in labor rights, since the early 19th century has been opposed by Republicans -- except for the Progressive Republicans who were destroyed in the last quarter of the 20th century. And in order to have labor rights, ergo people aware they are being exploited, one must have an educated society.

An educated society is something modern day Republcians have constantly opposed because they have constsntly allowed state schools and universities to decline in quality and have succeeded in pushing state tuition beyond the means of the all but the highest levels of income in our society.

Yet they do not understand that without a quality public education system, here would have been little to no American middle class. This system provided the scientests and inventors and technicians who kept America in the technological forefront.

There is now an almost generational gap in educational system which was supposed to train the next generation to develop the people to run our technological society. This will take a generation to fix.

And if we cannot compete, we will decline. So ladies and gentlemen welcome of the Mississsippication of America.

Something completely unexpected and unaccounted for will occur that will be like a detour for Mr. Berman. I sense there will be no way to prepare for it either. Bout time.

The battle between business and labor over the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize and is labor's number one legislative goal.

The end of the secret ballot will be bad, and promoting the end of the secret ballot will be ugly. If the Emplolyee Free Choice Act passes there will be no "employee free choice": the employees will have to decide whether they prefer to be brutalized by management goons or by labor goons.

And if we cannot compete, we will decline. So ladies and gentlemen welcome of the Mississsippication of America.

Do you prefer the "Detroitization of America"? It looks like that is the direction in which the Obama administration will try to lead us.

I am trying to support unions while finding some way for it to be possible for employees to decline union membership.

Unions seem to think if even one employee isn't a member, they're sunk.

Maybe it's true, but they've never explained adequately to me why. It sounds fascist. You're a member whether you like it or not. I'm inclined to think union membership is pretty good on balance, but the failure to acknowledge the downsides makes me distrustful. (I'm already plenty distrustful of management, make no mistake.)