California Senator Dianne Feinstein Comes Out Against Employee Free Choice Act – Card Check

This was little publicized but Democrat California United States Senator Dianne Feinstein announced on Friday that she opposed the Employee Free Choice Act – as it is currently written.

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office put out a low-ball statement Friday making clear she won’t be supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, the labor movement’s top congressional priority, at least in its present form.

As a policy matter, the measure would make it easier for employees to organize unions; as a political one, it would give President Obama, who campaigned in support of the legislation, and majority Democrats in Congress, a visible achievement on behalf of workers at a time of seething public anger at CEOs and corporations.

A co-sponsor of the legislation in the last Congress, Feinstein in recent days has been the target of an organized netroots campaign to pressure her into coming out in favor of the bill. The online effort came during a three-day Capitol Hill lobbying effort by the Teamsters, which sent a delegation to her office Thursday.

While Feinstein does not face re-election until 2012 as a senator, her flip-flop on labor’s most crucial legislation would be problematic in a contested Democratic primary for governor — another sign that she is unlikely to enter the race for governor next year.

Card Check appears to be dead this session of Congress.

But, Feinstein has had conversions before. Remember Leon Panetta as CIA Director?

The LEFT might not immediatley be pleased with DiFi but Flap’s bet is that Card Check will be re-written and she will then climb on board.

Technorati Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, Dianne Feinstein

One Comment

pelle34lindbergh

August 22, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Sen. Feinstein as a friend of retirees and the disabled? Gee…who’d need enemies?Feinstein flip-flopped on the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009 after telling the CA Nurses Assn and the Teamsters they could count on her support. Later on — her DC office released a news blurb stating her opposition to EFCA — on a Friday — with most of the DC establishemnt already gone for the week end.The Senator stated that she changed her mind because of the “open nature” of card checking and lack of privacy involved in the proposed system. Apparently, Ms. Feinstein hasn’t punched a time card in generations. [Or voted at a polling place!] Employers know through mid-level supervisors and tattle-tales about union supporters on their staff. All too often they single them out, give them donkey work out of the way of fellow workers, and usually find a way to fire them over some trivial matter. In a very real way, open card checks take away this kind of employee harassment and retribution — which is often followed up by the company black-balling union activists to other employers. Apparently, it’s harder to find work after some a**hole corporaton labels you a “terrorist.” I don’t know why that is.Feinstein offered to support an alternative version of EFCA so long as it required secret balloting vs. open card checks. We’ve yet to hear back from the Senator other than for her to say (paraphrased) “I just can’t support a law which discriminates against employees’ rights to such an extent.” Evidently, the “employees” she has in mind are the CEOs, Board Members, and shareholders. Never mind the “golden parachutes” that already give these valuable workers an “employment-to-grave” welfare system.No wonder she hides behind this and other “civil liberties” issues. Running dog that she is — Feinstein later backed down on other labor issues (i.e., the LA area UFCW grocery store strike) which she left hanging out to dry after she met with the CA Chamber of Commerce and the CA Nat’l Assn. of Mfgers. Neither is exactly a fan of treating employees as a valuable commodity — let alone as human beings w/ a constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively. Or as citizens w/ a 14th Amendment right to vote on a union-certifying or union-rejecting ballot. This part of EFCA has always been proposed and sponsored as by secret ballot only.So good luck w/ “The Wicked Witch of the West” on her support of SSA and Medicare. I just hope nobody’s dropped a house on her sister recently.

pelle34lindbergh

August 22, 2011 at 5:49 pm

Sen. Feinstein as a friend of retirees and the disabled? Gee…who’d need enemies?Feinstein flip-flopped on the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009 after telling the CA Nurses Assn and the Teamsters they could count on her support. Later on — her DC office released a news blurb stating her opposition to EFCA — on a Friday — with most of the DC establishemnt already gone for the week end.The Senator stated that she changed her mind because of the “open nature” of card checking and lack of privacy involved in the proposed system. Apparently, Ms. Feinstein hasn’t punched a time card in generations. [Or voted at a polling place!] Employers know through mid-level supervisors and tattle-tales about union supporters on their staff. All too often they single them out, give them donkey work out of the way of fellow workers, and usually find a way to fire them over some trivial matter. In a very real way, open card checks take away this kind of employee harassment and retribution — which is often followed up by the company black-balling union activists to other employers. Apparently, it’s harder to find work after some a**hole corporaton labels you a “terrorist.” I don’t know why that is.Feinstein offered to support an alternative version of EFCA so long as it required secret balloting vs. open card checks. We’ve yet to hear back from the Senator other than for her to say (paraphrased) “I just can’t support a law which discriminates against employees’ rights to such an extent.” Evidently, the “employees” she has in mind are the CEOs, Board Members, and shareholders. Never mind the “golden parachutes” that already give these valuable workers an “employment-to-grave” welfare system.No wonder she hides behind this and other “civil liberties” issues. Running dog that she is — Feinstein later backed down on other labor issues (i.e., the LA area UFCW grocery store strike) which she left hanging out to dry after she met with the CA Chamber of Commerce and the CA Nat’l Assn. of Mfgers. Neither is exactly a fan of treating employees as a valuable commodity — let alone as human beings w/ a constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively. Or as citizens w/ a 14th Amendment right to vote on a union-certifying or union-rejecting ballot. This part of EFCA has always been proposed and sponsored as by secret ballot only.So good luck w/ “The Wicked Witch of the West” on her support of SSA and Medicare. I just hope nobody’s dropped a house on her sister recently.