Unions warn Wall Street to back off

A key labor coalition that backed President Obama during the election last year is calling upon the financial-services industry to back off lobbying against organized labor’s top legislative priority this year.

In a letter Tuesday, Anna Burger, chairwoman of Change to Win, asked the Financial Services Roundtable to cease all lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and expel any member company that is lobbying against it and has received bailout funds.

{mosads}“At a time when the industry must devote every effort to economic recovery, it is shameful that the Financial Services Roundtable makes lobbying against the right of workers to organize a legislative priority and, worse yet, is using taxpayer-financed TARP subsidies to do so,” Burger writes in the letter, referring to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Financial Services Roundtable, which represents many of the banks that received federal bailout money, did not respond in time for this article.

EFCA, otherwise known as “card-check,” would allow workers to organize much more easily into unions. Instead of holding a secret-ballot election, employees could form a union if a majority of them sign petition cards stating their intentions to organize.

Unions say the bill is necessary because employers’ intimidation of workers who wish to organize has slowed union membership. They also argue if more employees earned collective bargaining rights, they could negotiate for better wages and benefits.

Business groups, like the Roundtable, are lobbying against the bill because they say union organizers would harass their employees into joining labor groups. That could lead to more strikes and hurt business as well, they argue.

In her letter, Burger scolds not only the Roundtable but two of its member companies — the Principal Financial Group and Bank of America — for lobbying against the legislation. Both financial institutions have applied for or received bailout funds from the federal government to recover from the Wall Street crisis.

Legislation that would ban any companies from using bailout funds for lobbying activities is pending in the Senate. The bill is sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Burger’s letter was copied to the two most senior lawmakers overseeing the financial-services industry overhaul, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).