Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1262492
24 C I N E M O N T A G E L A B O R V I E W S It's frightening to consider how much power that places in the current NLRB's hands, particularly during these troubled times. The board suspended elections for two weeks in late March as it recalibrated its operating plan in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Thankfully, it re- opened on April 6, but that two-week gap was a grim reminder of how precarious workers' right to organize truly are when card check is the exception, not the rule. If the NLRB is not available to conduct an election and the employer doesn't recognize it voluntarily, then the nascent union is stuck in legal limbo. Card check cuts o u t t h e m i d d l e p e r s o n , s o even under extreme circum- stances (like, say, a global pandemic), new unions can form and proceed to bargain- ing without delay. Biden's former opponent in the Democratic primaries, Sen. Bernie Sanders, boasts the most worker-friendly platform out there and has b e e n c h a m p i o n i n g c a r d check as an essential means to boost union membership and prop up the country's str uggling working class. It's hard to ding him on his labor record; the Workplace Democracy Act he first in- troduced in 1992 (and has reintroduced multiple times since, most recently in 2018) has card check as a major compo- nent, and his support for rank-and-file workers is legendary. On his campaign website, Sanders' signature Workplace Democracy Plan is chock full of measures that would greatly improve the lives of working people in this nation, including robust support for card check and a promise to penalize companies who try to flout the rules. M e a n w h i l e , B i d e n , t h e a s s u m e d frontrunner, has a complicated rela- tionship with card check that builds on his disappointing past commitments to labor rights. Though the Delaware poli- tician likes to brand himself as a "union man" and has netted several major union endorsements throughout his stop-start campaign, his track record here is spotty at best. In 2007, Biden co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act, which sought to amend the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 and streamline the unionizing process; the bill was also co-sponsored by Sen. Sanders, as well as a number of other prominent Democrats, but never made it past the Senate. Critics say Biden and his former boss flubbed a golden opportunity to expand card check in favor of focusing on healthcare, and the fact that the duo couldn't pass card check legislation despite a Democratic supermajority in 2009 was disappointing, to say the least. Many union folk have not forgotten this failure and Biden's softened stance for card check. Now, the labor plan on his campaign website mentions his support for card check, but it's far from a key plank in his platform; in marked contrast, Sen. Sanders consistently beat that par- ticular drum loud and clear. Four more years of Trump would set the movement back even further than it's already been shoved, and if Biden intends to march to the nomination with full-throated party support, he'll need to clean up his record on labor and prove that he's actually going to get the job done this time. The stakes here couldn't be higher, and the Democrats cannot squander this chance to wrest back control and actually try to enact the worker-friendly policies that they trot out for votes during every election cycle. Unions are some of the Democratic machine's most stalwart allies, and yet the politicians who benefit from t h e u n i o n vo te (a n d f ro m labor lobbyists' largesse) have consistently failed their membership. Passing imme- diate card check legislation is the absolute least they could do to help rebuild the work- ing class in this country and ensure that the jolt of elec- tricity that's been reigniting the modern labor movement turns into a steady current. Individual union mem- bers and workers also have a part to play by educating themselves on the impor- tance of the process -- even t h e p a r t s t h a t m a y f e e l a little, well, boring (or at least nowhere near as exciting as an organizing meet- ing or a picket line). Thanks to decades of simmering resentment at a system that's designed to keep us broke, sick, and beaten down, together with the un- expected rise of a debilitating pandemic that slashed the workforce to ribbons, t h e A m e r i ca n l a b o r m ove m e n t i s at a crossroads that could very well become a turning point in the lives of millions of workers. We just need to make sure we play our cards right. ■ The stakes couldn't be higher. Democrats cannot squander this opportunity to wrest back control and enact worker-friendly policies.