Sonoma County supervisors endorse union-backed legislation

<p>The union-led drive to enact federal legislation that would make it easier to form unions in the workplace got the backing of Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday on a 4-1 vote.</p><p>The supervisors’ exchange over the Employee Free Choice Act reflected a national debate that has gained momentum with the election of President Barack Obama, who supports the measure.</p><p>Locally, union complaints that companies have interfered in organizing drives has come into play in elections among workers at the region’s big three hospitals, at Sonoma Healthcare Center and at Empire Waste facilties.</p><p>“Wasted time and energy and dollars are going into bitter campaigns” over union representation, said Supervisor Shirlee Zane, whose candidacy last year was heavily backed by a broad labor coalition. “Now is the time to strengthen the middle class and that is what the Employee Free Choice Act will do.”</p><p>But Supervisor Paul Kelley, who cast the lone negative vote on the resolution introduced by Zane, sharply disagreed. Under the bill, no election by secret ballot would be necessary if a majority of workers signed up through a “card check” process.</p><p>“I don’t think it is democratic or free to obviate the right to vote by secret ballot,” Kelley said. “It should not be (determined by) the majority of workers to sign a petition.”</p><p>The House approved the act in 2007, but passage in the Senate is uncertain because of opposition by most Republicans and some Democrats.</p><p>If enacted, the act would require the National Labor Relations Board to certify a bargaining representative without ordering an election if a majority of employees sign cards agreeing to unionization. It would do away with an employer’s current ability to push the issue to an election in which both sides typically tangle over merits of union representation.</p><p>Michael Allen, president of the North Bay Labor Council, told supervisors that unions help raise the standard of living and prevent creation of “junk jobs with wages that don’t allow you to support your family.”</p><p>As a board, the supervisors rarely take positions on national issues that don’t directly affect county interests. However, Zane said she introduced the measure to support unions in their contention that they can be effective in opposing salary and health care benefit cuts in the current economic climate.</p><p>Supervisors Efren Carrillo, Valerie Brown and Mike Kerns voted in favor of Zane’s resolution, but offered little comment. The vote represented a symbolic win for unions that have battled with the county administration and with supervisors Brown and Kerns over county employee contract issues such as pay and medical premiums.</p><p>Locally, unions, environmental groups and Democratic Party officials are holding a forum on the act from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Santa Rosa Junior College’s Newman Auditorium. Panelists will include Zane and Carrillo, as well as Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, state Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael and Santa Rosa Councilman Gary Wysocky.</p>