Chamber says union bill unpopular

WASHINGTON — While a few U.S. senators are looking for compromise on legislation to make it easier for labor unions to organize, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says most Nebraskans oppose any such measure.

As evidence, chamber officials provided The World-Herald with the results of an August telephone poll.

How Nebraskans view the legislation is of particular interest because Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., represents a potentially key vote for ending a near-certain Republican filibuster of the legislation.

The chamber's poll was conducted between Aug. 2 and Aug. 6 and involved 502 registered voters in Nebraska who were called randomly. The margin of error is 4.4 percent.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, earlier this year introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure opponents often refer to as the “card check” bill. Among other steps, the legislation would end employers' ability to require that workers go through secret-ballot elections to form a union.

Lately, Harkin has been working with other senators to craft a compromise version of the bill, one that may well drop the controversial card check provision.

But the chamber said its poll shows simply dropping that part of the bill won't translate into support from Nebraskans.

The poll was conducted by Voter/Consumer Research. Although the firm tends to work for Republican clients, chamber officials said the questions posed in the survey were simple and straightforward.

When the pollsters asked if people had heard of the legislation, 42 percent said they had and 57 percent said they had not.

Of those who had heard of the legislation, 64 percent said they opposed it and 21 percent said they supported it.

The poll went on to pose the question “Just in general, do you support or do you oppose making it easier for unions to organize workplaces and expand union membership?”

The response: 36 percent support and 59 percent opposition.

“This indicates that Nebraskans don't want their representatives supporting this bill in any way, shape or form,” said Glenn Spencer, head of the chamber's effort to stop the legislation.

The bill is aimed at pushing back against what unions describe as aggressively anti-union intimidation tactics being used by employers.

The chamber and other groups, however, say that the legislation robs businesses of flexibility and institutes overly harsh new penalties that could particularly hurt smaller operations not familiar with unionizing rules.

Nelson, who has been hearing a lot about the issue from both sides, has said he can't vote for the bill in its current form, but will consider alternatives that emerge. As for whether he would help end a Republican filibuster of the bill, he has said that will depend on how the debate and any amendments are handled.

Sens. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have said they oppose the legislation.

Jane Kleeb is state director for the group Change That Works, said it's no secret that the public isn't wild about unions right now.

Even though everyone involved realizes that labor laws are long overdue for an update, Republicans and their allies have taken the approach of misleading, anti-union advertising campaigns, she said.

“Instead of coming to the table to negotiate that, they try to demonize union members and union leaders to try to sway public opinion,” Kleeb said.

But union members and their leaders still have opportunities to make their case, she said.

“It's not a lost hope,” she said.

Contact the writer:

202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com

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