Senate centrist GOPers rap union-organizing bill

Despite a pitched lobbying battle between business and labor heavyweights, Senate Republicans are largely closing ranks against a Democratic union-organizing bill, using the measure to project unity after their party has been weakened by tense debates on immigration and energy.

{mosads}As Democratic leaders and presidential hopefuls flocked to labor rallies yesterday to promote the union-organizing bill, which is slated for a vote early next week, the GOP embraced the standoff. Centrist Republicans who are reeling from grassroots pressure on the immigration bill and the war in Iraq appeared unfazed by the top-dollar campaign to win their votes for the union legislation.

“We’ve got to get beyond the partisan stuff,” Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) said. He called Democrats’ diversion of pre-recess floor time to the union bill “a shame,” adding that “issues that require a solution that goes beyond one party” remain unfinished.

Coleman is one of several Republicans caught in the crosshairs of the coalition of labor and liberal-leaning groups backing the union bill, which would allow employees the choice to organize by majority vote rather than secret ballot. Americans United for Change, a coalition member, is sponsoring a week of field events surrounding the Senate vote.

But taking up the organizing bill while energy and immigration continue to open rifts inside both parties gave Republicans an opening to portray the legislation as a favor to unions.

“It’s a payback to labor for their support,” Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) said. “It’s not something supported by the American people.”

Smith and Coleman both face grueling reelection fights next year in which union support will be integral. Smith, whose family runs a unionized frozen-food business, said he would not rule out other new legislative protections for labor. Yet both Republicans readily criticized the organizing bill, deemed a No. 1 priority by the AFL-CIO and other labor giants.

Conscious of the pressure on centrists, Republican leaders mobilized early opposition to the bill. The GOP conference wrote to member offices yesterday outlining the case for the bill as a sop to unions, which have warily eyed the immigration and energy bills.

The union-ballot vote, conference spokesman Ryan Loskarn said, “give[s] Republicans an opportunity to unite behind a clear message and speak to Americans on issues that are obviously dividing the Democrat Party.”

For their part, Democratic leaders expect their caucus to unite behind the bill, although a competing business-backed lobbying campaign has targeted four Senate Democrats who had not cosponsored the legislation when Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered it. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), one of that quartet, said that his offices had received calls on both sides of the issue but that he would support the bill.

One Senate Democratic aide said Republicans are homing in on the union-organizing bill to deflect attention from Democratic priority issues that the GOP would rather block than discuss.

“They don’t want to talk about Iraq because they’re not willing to break from the president yet,” the aide said. “They don’t want to talk about immigration because their base hates the bill. They don’t want to talk about energy because they’re dependent on oil companies.”

The organizing bill likely will come to a vote after a weekend of immigration debate, although the pending defense authorization bill could shift the schedule.

Americans United for Change spokesman Jeremy Funk acknowledged that Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) is the lone Republican considered a definite crossover vote. But Funk held out hope that other centrists would peel off and vote with Democrats.

“Whether or not we have the votes to overturn a likely filibuster from the senators in the pocket of Wal-Mart, U.S. Chamber [of Commerce] and the other anti-labor forces — this, along with the bipartisan victory in the House, are huge steps forward for the union movement,” Funk said.

Three other Senate Republicans on Americans United’s target list — George Voinovich (Ohio), Susan Collins (Maine) and Pete Domenici (N.M.) — said they would oppose the bill. Another, Olympia Snowe (Maine), said through a spokesman that she is “skeptical.”

“It seems to me the height of irony that those who are elected by secret ballot wouldn’t be for preserving it,” Collins said.

A few Republicans have argued that giving Democrats the 60 votes they need to open debate would allow the minority to keep making political hay out of the issue, but aides said the chances of that outcome are slim.

Democrats, led by Kennedy’s office, have sought to debunk GOP claims that the bill would outlaw secret-ballot union votes, pointing out that majority-vote union organizing was legal during the mid-20th century. Their message stresses the benefits of union organizing for middle-class, Democratic-leaning voters, from higher wages to health insurance.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a labor champion who headlined yesterday’s union rally, dismissed Republican attacks on the timing of the organizing vote.

“Republicans are going to side with their big contributors on this issue, no matter when it’s brought up,” Brown said. 

Yet Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) wondered whether taking time out for the organizing bill would hobble progress on the already-endangered energy and immigration bills.

“I don’t know if that’s going to be the price we have to pay, but it seems to be misplaced priorities … to divert our attention to something as special interest-oriented as this is,” Martinez said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and two presidential candidates, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.), joined Brown at yesterday’s rally.

“Get ready for a fight … you can expect to see the same Republican obstructionism we’ve seen all year,” Reid warned the crowd, according to prepared remarks.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) added their own pitches for the bill during yesterday’s American Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees conference.