I was going to ask, on a number of these matters, unanimous consent that we move forward on them. I am not going to do that tonight. I only appeal to my friends, the Republicans, that they take a look at this and find out if it is absolutely necessary that we have these cloture votes. If we follow through on all these, we will have to work both this weekend and part of the next weekend. I hope we do not have to do that. If it were productive time, it would be one thing, but it is basically a waste of time.
Presumably, he will resume his efforts shortly, but will fail to gather the sixty (60) votes necessary to end the filibuster on the card-check bill.
In the meantime, here's what others are saying about E.F.C.A. across the blogosphere and media:
- George Will's column "Dues and Don'ts: For Unions, Coercion Over Persuasion":
Democracy is rule by persuasion, but the unpersuasive often try to coerce the unpersuaded. Recent days have provided two illustrations of this tendency, both of them pertaining to labor unions, whose decades of declining membership testify to their waning power to persuade workers that unions add more value to workers' lives than they subtract.
We couldn't have said it better ourselves. Or... maybe we could: "Unions know that workers who consider all of this in making their 'free choice' increasingly choose 'no union.' And that's why they're asking their new friends in Congress to make it easier to force workers into it." -- Seth Borden, NPR Marketplace, 3/2/07.
- Jus the Fax blog takes a few swipes at Senator Robert Menendez's (D-NJ) "advocacy":
I was well aware of the EFCA previously, but last night's debate really hit home ... I guess it was the large, pretty, multi-colored posterboards used by Robert Menendez (D. N.J.) to illustrate just how bad workers have it by NOT being unionized. Funny, I didn't hear the good Senator mention how union dues can be used to help pay for those Lincolns and Cadillacs typically driven by business agents. Oh, well.
Perhaps Senator Menendez was simply RIPPING a page out of E.F.C.A. sponsor Ted Kennedy's playbook.
- Going to the Mat blog expands upon today's George Will column (above):
Make no mistake, were it not for public employee unions, like teachers' unions, most labor unions in the United States would be dead or such a minor political force as to be just another interest group trying to maintain its position and achieve its goals. But the unions carry a great deal of political power, power that is out of balance with their membership, for exactly one reason--they coerce, not persuade, people into behaving according to their desires.
- And, as always, check out efcaupdates.com, and ShopFloor.org.
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