Business, labor bring familiar fight over union rights to campaign trail

[Omaha Steve]

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/business-labor-bring-familiar-fight-over-union-rights-to-campaign-trail-2008-04-15.html

By Jessica Malmgren
Posted: 04/15/08 06:16 PM

Business and labor groups have taken last year’s expensive lobbying fight over secret ballots and unions to campaigns across the country, as both sides highlight research suggesting candidates would be better off embracing their positions.

A coalition of business groups is pressing a new poll that concludes Sens. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) could be boosted by their votes last year against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would allow workers to form unions without a secret ballot. Both are seeking reelection this year against tough Democratic opponents.

The polling also concludes Rep. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) vote in favor of EFCA could handicap him in his race for the Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Wayne Allard. It was commissioned by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), an alliance that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers , both of which lobbied hard against EFCA last year.

CDW’s results show that 41 percent of households in Minnesota and 44 percent in Colorado are “less likely” to vote for a senatorial candidate who supports the EFCA. Only 13 percent in Colorado and 11 percent in Minnesota feel “more likely” to vote for a supporter of the act.

Labor groups dismiss that poll, and are pushing their own research that says EFCA support will help candidates in the fall. They say McLaughlin & Associates , which is led by a Republican pollster, posed questions in a way that would make respondents skeptical of EFCA’s merits.

“The questions are loaded questions to give a particular outcome,” said Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work , a nonprofit group that receives funding from labor unions. She said the CDW poll is getting little attention because it is not credible.

FULL story at link.