Key Dems confident card-check will pass

[babylonsister]

Key Dems confident card-check will pass
By Kevin Bogardus - 10/01/09 06:11 AM ET


A key Senate negotiator trying to advance a contentious union-organizing bill said a modified version could pass the upper chamber this year, despite his reservations with the changes.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is one of a half-dozen senators trying to craft a compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which if passed would make union organizing much easier. The labor movement considers the measure one of its top legislative priorities this Congress, but business associations have mounted an all-out lobbying offensive against the bill.

In an interview with The Hill, Brown said he’s not happy with some of the changes, but that he’s working hard to lobby his Democratic colleagues — and even a few Republicans — to accept the compromise. He said he is not sure if the new version would have the 60 Senate votes necessary to beat back a filibuster.

“I don’t know,” Brown said. “It’s not clear to me that we have everybody’s vote yet.”

But Brown expressed confidence that Congress will at some point move the union bill — if not this year, then next — saying senators have made progress on negotiating a new version of the bill.

“I think this is going to happen at some point,” Brown said. “There is a decent chance it will happen this year.”

The Democrats’ lead negotiator, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), has been more hopeful than Brown of late on the bill’s chances. In September, Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, told a labor rally that he worked out a deal on the bill in July. But he could not move it without Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who was too ill to vote at the time and in August succumbed to terminal brain cancer.

Now that Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.) has taken the late Kennedy’s seat, Senate Democrats have 60 members in their conference and Harkin is sounding positive again about the bill.

more...

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/61049-sen-brown-decent-chance-for-a-card-check-deal-to-pass

[brendan120678]

1. How is card-check easier than secret ballots?

That's a point that I've found difficult to understand.

With secret ballots, don't you just need a majority of the votes to be "Yes" on order to establish the union? From what I've read, with card check you'll actually need half of all the effected employees to sign up in order for the union to be established. Am I incorrect?