The Senate took up the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) today. Since the House passed EFCA overwhelmingly back in March, Senate approval was the next step required for the bill to become law.
In the House, determining EFCA's fate was a simple matter of counting up the votes and seeing which side got the most. But in the Senate, nothing is simple. In this case, because a few anti-worker senators had been threatening a filibuster, a simple majority wasn't enough -- 60 Senators had to vote for "cloture" (an end to debate) before the bill itself could be voted on.
EFCA didn't have enough votes to achieve cloture and move forward. But it did have a majority of Senators behind it -- 51. Combined with the results of the House vote, that's a powerful statement of how far we've come in moving Congress towards recognizing and addressing the need to defend the American Dream.
The next step, of course, is to work even harder through 2008 and get even bigger pro-worker majorities in Congress (and a pro-worker President in the White House), so that even that 60-vote requirement won't stand in the way of ensuring the right to join together in unions for workers across America.
(If you're interested, here's our official statement.)
Comments (19)
Comments posted to CtW Connect are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
Maybe, just maybe, the tide is turning in favor of the little guy. The 2008 General Election will tell if it will be a Tsunami. Let's hope so, if the little guy will vote for his own interests, and not for the guys who are sucking him/her dry.
Posted by Andrew Morgen on June 26, 2007 at 3:01 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:01 PM
Anyone know where to find a roll call on this vote? It's not up on the Library of Congress site yet.
Posted by On The Northside on June 26, 2007 at 3:01 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:01 PM
We have all worked hard to get this far. Remember when even Democrats said,"you mean there is not vote-just sihn a card?" We have moved forward. As to my Senator,Norm Colman, who believes sooo much in the secretvote NLRB process. I say, it will be no secret as to how I vote when his election comes up!
Posted by Martin Goff on June 26, 2007 at 3:11 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:11 PM
I GUARANTEE that every Senator who voted against the Workers on this one, voted AGAINST the MAJORITY of their constituents. So much for Representation! If your Senator voted against you, you should definitely call and let him/her know!
Posted by ED KNOX on June 26, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:15 PM
Congressman and the Senate better start remembering who they are talking for via voters and not lobbyests. I am sick of the Millionaire's club of the Senate controlling my insurance, my benefits, my rights, my wages, my focus of illegal and corruption of politicians and this administration. When there futures are covered via NO STUGGLES!!!!
Posted by Michael Fermanich on June 26, 2007 at 3:17 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:17 PM
WE NEED A LIST OUT OF THOSE WHO OPPOSED SO NEXT ELECTION THEY WON'T GET OUR VOTE!
Posted by EMILY on June 26, 2007 at 3:42 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 3:42 PM
Remember when the Republicans threatened the "nuclear option" of changing the Senate rules when they got tired of Democratic filibuster threats of Bush's right-wing judicial nominees? Well, turn-about is fair play. On an issue of this importance, the Democratic Senate leadership should now consider sending a similar message to the Republicans: they will get one silver bullet to filibuster a bill they most wish to kill, but everything else will be passed by simple majority, or else the nuclear option will be exercised.
Posted by Josh on June 26, 2007 at 4:08 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 4:08 PM
It always amazes me that the pontificating fails to match reality. All the Senators who spoke against the Bill talked about the need for a majority rule. Then, the vote IS a majority... but still fails. Maybe, some of them will see why we want card check so much. We only live in a democracy on paper.
Posted by Gerry on June 26, 2007 at 4:21 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 4:21 PM
Unfortately this a set back; however, the fight is not over we must continue to fight,
Posted by Mike on June 26, 2007 at 4:44 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 4:44 PM
We need a President and Congress who will listen to working families.
Russell Novkov
Posted by Russell Novkov on June 26, 2007 at 4:46 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 4:46 PM
I generally think the parliamentary rules demanding a super majority to end debate are a good thing. They prevent the majority from using their "political capital" to run rough trod over the top of sizable minorities. In our senate, cloture rules force politicians to accommodate the interests of the country as a whole rather than merely entertaining their own parochial interests.
In this and similar situations, however, the interests and concerns of the senate minority have little to do with the interests of their constituencies or the nation as a whole, and everything to do with their own need to have their next set of campaigns bankrolled by their corporate sugar daddies.
Some might say the same of our side, that those voting for cloture and who would have voted for the act itself, are playing to their Union sugar daddies. But there is a huge difference. organized labor does in fact improve the lives of working families, and that is consistent with the agenda of the left. In other words, those who voted right on this one, for the most part believed in their vote and weren't just playing politics.
Second, to the extend that organized labor does have influence in politics, our numbers and the role our members play in society distinguish us from corporate interests. We are not big money but lots of little money. Where as they are a very few people with very deep pockets, we are a lot of people with shallow pockets or no pockets at all, just the money in our hands. It's wrong that under 2% of the country, the very 2% that produces the least in relation to what they consume, damn near runs the country. It's right that organized labor increase our power and influence, it's right that workers, who produce the wealth of this country, are empowered to have their voices heard in DC as well as on the shop floor. The employee free choice act and similar legislation would have taken us an other step in that direction, the right direction. It would not have been antidemocratic, as its detractors allege, but would have helped to correct the antidemocratic influence of extreme wealth.
We won the majority but not the day. But the fight's not over....
Posted by Kurt Kessler on June 26, 2007 at 5:28 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 5:28 PM
It will be helpful to have this roll call sent to our entire Change To Win membership so we can thank the senators who have supported us and "enlighten" those who, until now, have not. Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!
Posted by Bill Haase UBC on June 26, 2007 at 5:48 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 5:48 PM
It is very sad that 49 Senators wrongly believe that merely being a worker some how removes basic rights. It is those very workers that the 49 asses on capital hill work for. But only until election day.
Posted by Karl Mc Jimsey on June 26, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Posted on June 26, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Here's the Roll Call:
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll118.xml
Posted by Dominick J. DiNoto on June 27, 2007 at 12:45 AM
Posted on June 27, 2007 at 12:45 AM
Dominick - that link points to the roll call from the House vote instead of the Senate. I've posted the Senate roll call here at Connect:
http://www.changetowin.org/connect/2007/06/theyre_on_notice.html
Posted by Jason Lefkowitz on June 27, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Posted on June 27, 2007 at 10:31 AM
FIGHTING FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST IS NEVER EASY! THIS IS JUST A BUMP IN THE ROCKY ROAD OF FIGHTING FOR WORKERS RIGHTS. JUSTICE IS ON THE SIDE OF THE WORKING PERSON. WE WILL PREVAIL. WE HAVE TO. I URGE ALL OF YOU WHO'S REPS. VOTED AGAINST EFCA TO CONTACT THEM AND GIVE THEM HELL! DON'T LET THIS GO. ONE THING THAT REALLY GRATES AGAINST ME IS WHEN THEY SAY "LABOR UNIONS ARE RUN BY THE BIG LABOR BOSSES WITH NO INPUT FROM THE WORKERS." BULL, WE ARE THE UNION--NOT OUR STAFF, OUR UPPER MANAGERS,VP'S OR PRESIDENTS--WE THE WORKERS LIVE DAY TO DAY IN THE FIGHT. WE ARE THE ONES WHO CONTACT OUR ELECTED FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL REPS. AND TELL THEM WHAT WE WANT. WE HAVE A VOICE AND WE USE IT. START SPEAKING UP BROTHERS AND SISTERS AGAINST GROUPS LIKE THE "CHAMBER OF COMMERCE" AND THE OTHER CORPORATE LOBBY GROUPS THAT LIE ABOUT WORKERS LIKE US WHO ARE ON THE GROUND AND LIVE THE FIGHT EVER DAY. GET MAD AS HELL AND FIGHT.
Posted by SHIRLEY/FRAN on June 27, 2007 at 5:08 PM
Posted on June 27, 2007 at 5:08 PM
I'm not sure why we are congratulating the 51 for simply doing their jobs. The Constitution gives us the right to free assembly. By supporting Employee Free Choice they were simply reiterating the basic principles of democracy. What I want to know is why it is acceptable for those who voted against it to live off my tax dollars, while inhibiting my legitimate right to organize with others whose labor is the backbone of this nation? What part of the constitution don't they get?
The only reason Employee Free Choice is an issue is that, like civil rights for people of color, some folks just don't get it. How many companies has the Justice Department indicted for assaulting or threatening union organizers? What part of equal representation under the law don't they get? For 70 years I have watched the growth of extreme individualism, domestically and internationally, spawned by our economic system. We have been seduced by instant gratification - or the promise of it. Individualism makes change seem overwhelming because we unconsciously feel alone and tired. The result is a lack of will to promote long term, cooperative solutions that could more rationally share resources for the sustainability of the planet and its peoples. A primary step is recognizing, promoting and organizing for just and sustainable workplaces and economic choices.
Politicians have a hundred "good reasons" not to do the "right thing" - national security, the bigger picture, the threats... By now, they hardly recognize the "right thing." National security depends a good deal on a country's internal strength and cohesiveness. The bigger picture is global warming and the politicians and their corporate pollutor sponsors hardly get that. As for threats, the U. S. is the most threatening country in the world with our nuclear arsenal, economic stranglehold on the world economy, the exportation of culture and the death penalty.
Tell the politicians that this is not the Dark Ages. We working folks now read, write and communicate (many in more than one language which is GOOD). We are more loyal to the ideal of the America we were taught about in school, than to the present way it is governed. And we WILL organize, with or without those 48 senators that drew the line in the sand and rejected the side of shared decision making.
Posted by Jean Hughes on June 28, 2007 at 11:58 AM
Posted on June 28, 2007 at 11:58 AM
We should make them filibuster week after week instead of just caving in to a filibuster threat.
This was done during the civil rights struggles. Democratic Senators should bring up the EFCA at least once a month.
Workers trying to unionize often spend hundreds of hours outside of work trying to exercise our rights. Why not make Republican Senators put in some extra hours on their jobs instead of holding fundraisers with corporate fatcats?
Posted by Stephen Crockett on June 29, 2007 at 5:30 AM
Posted on June 29, 2007 at 5:30 AM
I always watch the Senate EVERY day they are in session on C-Span2. I watched the debate as well as the vote on this one too. I don't know how the Bill Killers in the Republican Senate can look at themselves in the mirror with all the just plain lies and distortions they think Americans are dumb enough to believe! It's just downright insulting to us; the intelligent people. They make up the most absurd thing that is capable of coming to their minds and hammer away at that one non-truth until they think we are brain-washed into believing them. These Bill Killers number to 8 or 9 that I can name. They try every trick in the book to stop our Legislators from Legislating, and then they run to the news media and blame it all on the Democrats. Doesn't that sound like a bunch of kindergartners to you? They act like spoiled brats in the back of a classroom in the House of Representatives, being as disruptive as they can when a Democrat is speaking, and at every other oppertune chance. They are truly shameful. They run on a religious platform, but act like anything BUT religious in both Houses. I guess the White House has taught them all they know. McConnell, the Republican Leader in the Senate, won't let the Senate bring up the New Ethics Rules and the Funding Bill for final passage. Those Bills have already cleared the Senate (98-0 for the Ethics), and the House and now have cleared Committee and need only the Final Passage by the Senate. I find it terribly upsetting that ONE SENATOR can just shut down a Bill by saying "I object". They will even bring up some kockamamee excuse, like a word they don't like, or something else just as ridiculous just to make an excuse for their behavior. I saw the news program these same Senators appeared on after they lost the majority in the last election and saw them vowing "not to let the Democrats get anything accomplished" and "will oppose every Bill that comes up." That's exactly what the Sore Losers have been doing. Then they rush to the News Media and tell their story so far from the truth (after all I saw what happened each time) that it is just plain disgusting. Republicans did all they could do to block the Immigration Bill (even with their lies of Amnesty in the Bill) that had mostly good things in it, claiming that their phones were "ringing off the hook from people who don't like the Bill". I wonder if they even considered that those calls were coming from the "Illegals" who don't want the new legislation? I'll bet the "Illegals" are just laughing their heads off at how easily it was to fool the Republicans! The things that were not so good could have been worked on in the House and Committee, but they'd rather brag that it didn't pass and complain the nothing is being accomplished. Even just as much disgusting is how the News Media pounce on what they said like it is Gospel. Well, Newsfolks, wake up and stop being duped by them. Ask a Democrat's opinion about another Democrat instead of seeking the opinion of a Republican regarding a Democrat -- after all, you don't expect agreement, do you? I know it's all about the ratings, but how about getting the ratings based on TRUTH for a change and maybe Americans will trust the news again someday. By the way, I nominate Lou Dobbs to round up all the Illegals and send them back; as he thinks that is the only answer to the problem in his "nightly rant". I hope their constituents are paying attention to how their Senators are voting on every Bill, and get the Bill Killers out of the Senate so something can be accomplished for Americans. Hint: The Bill Killers are from most of the Southern States. Wel I suspect and it is my fervent hope that there will be a lot less Republicans in Congress after the next election so Americans can be TRULY represented in Congress. And do stop blaming the entire Congress, the others are working very hard for the American People. Just watch for yourself.
bl49120
Posted by Barbara Kantola on June 29, 2007 at 5:05 PM
Posted on June 29, 2007 at 5:05 PM