Harkin May Drop ‘Card-Check’ to Pass Milder Labor-Law Changes

By Laura Litvan and Holly Rosenkrantz

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- The chief Democratic sponsor of a measure to promote union organizing says he may have to sacrifice its “card-check” centerpiece in favor of more modest labor-law changes that could clear the U.S. Senate.

Senator Tom Harkin said he is in talks with Senate Democrats opposed to the card-check approach to search for a compromise. There’s support to remedy “imbalances” in labor law that favor businesses subject to union-organizing efforts, Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, said in an interview yesterday.

“Compromises are going to be made,” said Harkin, 69. “It probably won’t be card-check, because too many people are opposed to it now.”

The legislation would let workers choose to form a union when a majority of company employees sign a card requesting one, rather than permit employers to require a secret-ballot election run by the National Labor Relations Board.

Some Democrats, including Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, have said they would oppose Harkin’s bill. Companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville, Arkansas, have led the opposition.

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who announced on April 28 that he was switching his affiliation to Democratic from Republican, has also said he would vote against card- check. Hours after Specter’s announcement, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he hoped a card-check alternative would emerge that Specter could accept.

‘Grudging Support’

Harkin said changes to the bill may gain “the grudging support of labor and maybe the grudging support of some business.”

That won’t be easy. Jill Cashen, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said “card-check is not negotiable for workers in the private sector.”

And Glenn Spencer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who runs the campaign to kill the legislation for the nation’s largest business group, said dropping card-check isn’t enough to win companies’ support.

“There are some other very toxic provisions in that bill, such as binding arbitration” for union contracts, Spencer said.

Harkin said he doesn’t “expect the chamber will ever support anything we do.”

Financial Swaps

On the regulation of customized financial swaps and derivatives, Harkin said he believes his panel will approve legislation requiring all such securities to be traded on a regulated exchange. He said he anticipates a “big fight” over whether to include customized financial swaps and derivatives.

He said he hasn’t been able to “pry loose” Gary Gensler’s nomination to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Gensler, who favors greater regulation, faces opposition from two senators who are holding up the nomination, and Harkin said it is “up to the White House” to pressure them to let the confirmation go before the Senate.

On the impact of swine flu, Harkin said he has urged Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to tell nations that have limited U.S. pork exports that “we consider this a violation of trade agreements.”

Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, said he is speaking with Iowa hog farmers to see what assistance they may need. He wouldn’t say whether they would need government aid.

Pork Farmers Hit

“We are seeing real hits among pork farmers,” because of the flu, Harkin said. “They took the brunt of this for no good reason.”

“Stop calling it ‘swine flu,’” Harkin said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It doesn’t come from pigs.”

He said he has introduced legislation to offer all Americans free seasonal flu shots annually, at a cost of $3 billion to $5 billion.

Sanofi-Aventis SA of Paris, Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Illinois, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc of London are discussing vaccine production with the World Health Organization, the agency has said.

Harkin, the third-ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, expressed confidence that President Barack Obama’s universal health-care plan can clear both chambers for Obama’s signature this year.

Tougher Penalties

Specter’s party shift gives Democrats control of 59 Senate seats, to 40 for the Republicans; if Democrat Al Franken prevails in the contested Minnesota Senate race, his win would bring the majority to 60.

In the last session of Congress, the card-check measure fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to force a Senate floor vote. Harkin said a compromise may include imposing tougher penalties on employers who intimidate workers trying to organize a union.

Harkin was uncompromising about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose nomination he opposed. He said Geithner probably wouldn’t win approval of additional financial-bailout funds if he made a request anytime soon.

“Where is the protection for taxpayers?” Harkin said.

Congress last year approved $700 billion to help rid financial institutions of riskier assets that soured in the housing crisis.

“Are we seeing the bottoming out, are things starting to stabilize?” Harkin said. “We just don’t know yet.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net , Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 5, 2009 00:01 EDT

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