Meeting With AFL-CIO, Biden Calls For Passage Of 'Card Check' Bill

March 6, 2009 6:37 a.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - Addressing the AFL-CIO Executive Council in Miami on Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden said passing a controversial bill giving workers more power to form unions would strengthen the middle class.

Republicans heightened their criticisms of the so called 'card check" bill in response, saying the measure leave workers open to intimidation.

"The fact of the matter is as President Obama said you can't have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement," Biden told the AFL-CIO Executive Council. "You heard what we said, what I said independently and what we said together: We will judge the success or failure of our administration at the end of our four years based on whether or not the standard of living of the middle class has increased, or not. That's the bottom line measure."

A controversial measure moved through Congress last year called the Employee Free Choice Act, dubbed the "card check" bill because it would allow union certification if a majority of a company's employees sign authorization cards, eliminating the requirement under the National Labor Relations Act for secret-ballot voting. The bill was passed by the House but failed in the Senate.

"We're not asking for anything we don't deserve. And we're not asking for anything that wasn't intended when the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] said we should be encouraging unions. We just want to level this playing field again," he told the nation's biggest union.

Biden later quoted President Barack Obama, saying, "I don't buy the argument that providing workers with collective bargaining rights somehow weakens the economy or worsens the business environment."

But Republican leaders responded by citing a study by Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar of the LECG Consulting, which provides independent expert testimony, financial studies and analyses for companies and federal governments worldwide.

The ranking Republican in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), said in a statement, "If Congress passes the card check bill, America's workers will lose their democratic rights in the workplace, and 600,000 may also lose their jobs next year alone."

"Taking away the fundamental right to a secret ballot was bad enough," Enzi added. "Are Democrats so indebted to union bosses that they're willing to pay them back by sacrificing American jobs, even during a recession?"

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) similarly warned about the loss of jobs and called the bill "anti-worker."

"Workers are growing more anxious each day as their costs of living rise and their savings evaporate. They do not deserve to see their job security weaken any further as a result of legislation passed solely to pay back special interests that helped put Democrats in charge of Washington," Boehner said in a statement.

"This anti-worker legislation serves no one's interests other than the political forces intent on taking away the right to privacy in the workplace in order to expand union ranks and fill their coffers even further," he added.

Obama earlier this week said in a video message to the AFL-CIO, "We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act." His nominee for Labor secretary, Hilda Solis, was recently confirmed by the Senate despite strong Republican opposition over her ties o a pro-labor group that had lobbied for the bill last year.