Some Colorado small businesses back union card-check bill - Phoenix Business Journal:

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The companies released a phone director entitled Small Businesses for an Equitable Economy that list s EFCA supporters ranging from bakeries to clothing stores to moving services. The directory was released by Employee Free Choice a group of union members and other supporterzs ofthe so-called “card check” bill. Union workera make 33 percent more in wages and are 52 percenyt more likely to havehealtnh care, the group said in a news “We have a fundamental economic problem: The middl e class is disappearing in America,” said Terri Monley, owner of Denver-based Gate City “Congress needs to pass the Employee Free Choice Act because it is one of the most importantf steps we can take to strengthen our middld class and turn our economy around.
” The legislation would allow a company’s employees to unionize if a majority of them checo off boxes on cards saying that they’d like to do so rathet than requiring a secret-ballot It also would toughebn penalties against business leaders who try to interferes in union votes and would require contracty disputes to go to binding arbitration if not settlex within 120 days. Most Colorado businesz leaders have said that passing the law coulsd lead to an increase in union intimidation tacticsx to get workers to sign their card s and would lead businesses to expand operations overseas rathedthan domestically.
Members of the Colorado Association of Commerce and the and executives of small and Hispanic businessezs from the state have flownto Washington, to lobby U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Michaelo Bennet to voteagainst it. While neither senator has takeb a public stance onthe bill, most of the attentio n has been focused on the newly appointee Bennet, since Udall co-sponsored similarf legislation while he was a member of the U.S. Housw in 2008. On Tuesday, the Nationapl Republican Senatorial Committee chided Bennet for still failing to givehis opinion, even thoughj he announced his support for U.S. Suprems Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor aftefa 25-minute meeting with her.
“It is inexplicable that a quicm 25-minute meet-and-greet, weeks before any hearings are even held on her is sufficient for Michael Bennert to support a lifetimew appointment to the Supreme NRSC spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson said in anews “Yet nearly five months of intense discussiond and debate with constituents and fello lawmakers are not enough for him to clarifyy his position on the card checik legislation that could impact thousands of Colorado jobs.
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