In a question and answer with Arkansas reporters yesterday, Bill Halter shed some light on his views of labor law reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Questioned on card check, he said, quite accurately, that the idea of forming unions by cards alone has been, well, discarded, and that he is favorably inclined to some pro-labor incremental measures now being shopped by, among others, Mark Pryor. The election time would be compressed. Penalties for employer intimidation of workers would stiffened through better enforcement.
He pretty much sounds like Colorado Senate primary challenger Andrew Romanoff, who also declines to take a view on majority sign-up on the basis that it won’t ever come to a vote. It’s a duck, but it’s rather moot since it is DOA in Congress anyway.
But Halter says that he supports some kind of labor law reform, which is a hell of a lot better than Blanche. Don’t yet count Halter as the Arkansan savior of organized labor, though.
UPDATE: Here’s video of Halter’s comments.



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Gee, that seems pretty weak kneed. How is it different from Lincoln’s position?
According to CQ in May she said she’d only support a bill supported by labor and business. Nahgahhappen.
She also called it divisive and has problems with arbitration, which Halter does not appear to have.
Halter’s not great, but he’s (at least marginally) better than Lincoln.
That said, this part of the Ark News piece seems apt:
Marginally better than Lincoln. My sympathies go out to the people of Arkansas if this is the best the Democratic Party can offer them.
I am a strong advocate of EFCA for two reasons.
First EFCA “levels the playing field”.
Secondly, should EFCA ever receive Obama’s signature, putting EFCA into our Systemic for Free Trade would be “that” labor standard currently not found in NAFTA. Moreover, with EFCA in our free trade agreements, migration of labor into the United States would be reduced considerably.
And after reading Halter, he, too, is short sighted as are most Democrats when it comes to international labor standards.
Jaango