Colin Kavanaugh | Building a more effective EFCA

I have a confession to make: I don't want the Democrats to have a filibuster-proof majority in the United States Senate. I know, I know, this is heresy, and I'm betraying all kinds of liberal-college-campus protocols here. But with a 60-vote supermajority, Democrats could pass whatever legislation they want without the slightest input from Republicans. And an unchecked majority is like drinking heavily by yourself: No one's there to stop you, it's socially questionable and you'll probably give yourself an awful hangover.

If there is anything I have learned at Penn, it's that anyone can bond over a drink, no matter your background. And as a Democrat growing up in Oklahoma, where only one-in-three voted for Barack Obama, I spent most of my high school years trying to have my political views taken seriously. For this reason, I understand the importance of respecting the minority opinion, and because of that I come to the defense of Pennsylvania's Republican senator.

Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate whose support enabled the passage of the stimulus package, is opposing the Employee Free Choice Act, organized labor's No. 1 issue, arguably in decades. Despite unions promising him support in his 2010 re-election bid if he votes with them, Specter is still refusing the legislation in its current form. This deals a significant blow to the divisive bill, and it will likely not pass based on his opposition alone. More on Specter later, but let's clear up a few things on EFCA:

Under the new bill, which amends the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, unions would be able to form simply by a majority of workers signing a petition in favor of unionization. Currently, workers vote privately on whether or not to form a union, which theoretically protects them from coercion from pro-union employees. Business groups argue the petition clause removes the right of employees to a secret ballot, and they argue that in a tough economy, this is just more pressure that could make recovery more difficult.

On the other side, though, Jim McCasland, vice president of the Dallas AFL-CIO, argues secret ballots are more in line with the USSR's modus operandi than the U.S.'s. In the secret-ballot scenario, McCasland and other proponents argue, workers are vulnerable to threats from management, including loss of employment. Either way, workers are left open to competing interests, and Specter wants that to be addressed.

These tensions aren't new, and they're the reason why no significant changes to labor law have been enacted since 1959, when roughly 33 percent of workers were unionized. Since then, the number of unionized workers has dropped to just 12 percent. Because of the diversifying economy, labor law has failed to keep up with the changing union-business dynamic. With these declines in union membership, unions hope EFCA will lead to a numerical comeback, giving them a better footing to negotiate with businesses and bring wages up.

Unfortunately, unions' tactics to get workers on board with EFCA haven't been exactly kosher. "Union officials visit workers' homes with strong-arm tactics and refuse to leave until cards are signed," Specter said in his opposition speech, based on Senate testimony. Writing in the Harvard Law Review, he noted both sides have been "misleading employees about the consequences of choosing union representation and, in extreme cases, threatening employees with physical harm." Clearly, something is wrong and needs to be fixed on both sides of the argument.

And that's why Specter is right to oppose the legislation in its current form. Specter's influence is palpable, as more Democratic senators are reconsidering their support of EFCA. They understand that something must be worked out between the competing sides to allow workers the right, and option, to unionize in a fair, independent and productive format.

For his willingness to get it right, rather than just get it done, Specter is forcing the kind of independent discussion a democracy prides itself on. As Specter prepares for a tough primary fight against a conservative Republican and then a challenging reelection in a Democratic state with a million union workers, Pennsylvanians should remember to respect, in Specter's words, "independent thought and an objective judgment."

At the very least, it's about time for business and labor to share a drink and talk it out.

Colin Kavanuagh is a College sophomore from Tulsa, Okla. The Sooner, the Betters appears on alternating Mondays. His email address is kavanaugh@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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