Big Bucks Labor Battle

Thursday 12 March 2009

by: Foon Rhee | Visit article original @ The Boston Globe

The fight over the Employee Free Choice Act has exploded in the nation's capital, with big business and big labor spending millions on lobbying and campaign contributions to lawmakers. (Photo: IBEW / Flickr)

The battle over a union organizing bill introduced this week is shaping up to be one of the most expensive on Capitol Hill in recent years.

Just how potentially costly was made clearer today by a campaign finance watchdog group, which looked at both how lobbying and campaign donations from Big Business and Big Labor could play a role in the fate of the bill, which would let workers check a card to show they want to join a union and would give employers less power to force a secret ballot election.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the "Employee Free Choice Act," spent $144.4 million on lobbying in the 2007-08 election cycle, compared to less than $84 million for all of labor, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics says.

Meanwhile, members of Congress who voted in favor of the bill in 2007 collected 10 times more on average from union political action committees during their careers ($862,065) than those who didn't ($86,538), and those who opposed the bill received more on average from business PACs ($2.5 million), than those who supported the legislation ($1.7 million), the center says.

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