ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
NOTE: Above
A BILL sanctioning worker-management committees narrowly passed, but a right-to-work law was rejected.
The Senate on Wednesday split the difference on two contentious labor issues, approving a business-backed bill to sanction worker-management committees outside the traditional collective bargaining process while rejecting a national right-to-work law.
Both bills were opposed by the Clinton administration and organized labor as efforts to undermine the union movement, and the bill that was approved did not win enough votes to override a threatened veto by President Clinton.
Action on the two bills came a day after the Senate approved labor-backed legislation to increase the federal minimum wage, although further action on that measure has stalled in a squeeze-play by some Republicans to force concessions from Democrats on a health care bill.
All three bills played into the two parties' campaign agendas, with Republicans attempting to portray Democrats as lackeys of organized labor and Democrats characterizing Republicans as captives of business and hostile to the interests of working people.
The Teamwork for Employees and Management Act was approved by a largely party-line vote of 53-46, well short of the two-thirds margin required to override a veto. It was identical to legislation approved by the House last year and will be sent to Clinton, who has signaled he will veto it.
The bill attempts to redefine permissible labor-management discussions that occur outside of collective bargaining procedures, giving employers greater latitude than they currently have under rulings from the National Labor Relations Board to form committees to deal with a wide gamut of work-related issues in nonunion workplaces.
``There is nothing devious about this. This is not an attempt to try to diminish the unions,'' said Labor and Human Resources Committee Chairman Nancy Landon Kassebaum, R-Kan., the bill's chief sponsor.
But Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who has cooperated with Kassebaum on health and other issues, disagreed, saying the legislation would make it legal for ``management to impose a company-dominated union made up of employees handpicked solely by the employer'' in order to fend off union organizing activities. He said there is no need for the legislation because thousands of companies have established workplace teams with only rare NLRB objections.
In a statement Tuesday, the administration reiterated its veto threat, saying that ``company-dominated unions would undermine a 60-year tradition of collective bargaining in this country and could undermine employees' rights to elect their own representatives.''
The proposed federal right-to-work law, which would bar union contracts from requiring nonmembers to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment, died in a filibuster when the bill's sponsor, Sen. Lauch Faircloth, R-N.C., fell 29 votes short of the 60 needed to force the measure to a final vote. Twenty-one Republicans joined all 47 Democrats in voting to kill the bill. Faircloth contended that the right-to-work rules, which are in force in 21 states, should be applied nationwide because ``compulsory unionism violates the fundamental principal of individual liberty.''
Adopting a line often used by Republicans, Kennedy said Washington should not try to impose its will on states. ``We do not want the long arm of the federal government interfering with the legitimate interests of the states,'' he said.
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