Remember Andy Stern?

Former President of the SEIU and bad boy poster child (and pinata) of the anti union crowd, now works for Big Pharma. He's profiled in this piece at BeyondChron, which portrays him as a big fan of China's explosive state driven growth there, a blamer who notes the time of free markets is over, and by implication a tacit supporter of repressive working conditions. Go figure.

12 Million new jobs ??

OK, its Andy Stern, but at least he's thinking big about jobs. The job sharing idea is real intriguing, it appears to have worked in Germany earlier this year, and it has support from the left and the right.

Labor advocate says 2010 or never on EFCA

UPDATE: Trumka calls for spring passage of EFCA. Inevitable loss of the Democrats' 60 seat senate majority makes 2010 a "do or die" year for EFCA. AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel puts forth a pragmatic assessment in this Workday Minnesota piece. Samuel admits the votes were not there in 2009 - Kennedy, Byrd Franken, issues meant no 60 votes. Thats not news, but Samuel's acknowledgment that any bill that passes will be a compromised one is. It signals labor's willingness to address reality. Card check is dead. Has been for some time. Opponents of the bill need to delay a vote on the issue until the public sees past the secret ballot non-issue. As it stands now, largely because opponents of the bill continue to rail against card check and for secret ballots elections, the opportunity exists for labor to seek quick passage of a watered down bill which preserves some form of secret ballot election. Its an opportunity with a closing window, but still an opportunity.

SEIU President Andy Stern gets this. He's already pushing for a spring vote as evidenced in this Financial Times piece. (free registration). The FT piece also evidences the beating of the card check dead horse.

EFCA 2010 or bust?

A recent post at The Hill quotes the SEIU's Andy Stern as challenging the 60 Democrats to work as a party of one and Pass EFCA in 2010. The real news is Stern isn't betting on that happening.