Speaking at a pre-Labor Day briefing, the Chamber's Randy Johnson says that the current card check bill cannot be the basis for a compromise.

 
There is no compromise in the works on the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "card check," said Randy Johnson, U.S. Chamber Senior Vice President for Labor, Immigration and Employee Benefits, during the Chamber's annual Labor Day briefing at its Washington, D.C., headquarters on September 3.

Johnson suggested that the business community and the labor unions could have a rational debate on improvements and updates to the National Labor Relations Act; however, "we are not going to compromise using the Employee Free Choice Act as a base of negotiations." Card check would effectively take away employees' right to private ballot elections in union organizing campaigns and would allow government arbitrators to step in and impose a contract on the terms and conditions of employment.

The Chamber is also ready to fight on behalf of employers against expansion of family leave, mandatory paid leave, and efforts to cut employers out of the union election process, Johnson said. "The common theme in all these proposals is ‘let's increase punishment on employers, assess greater civil penalties, and make it easier to bring lawsuits,'" Johnson said. Instead, the administration and Congress should focus on ways to help employers, particularly small businesses, comply with existing laws voluntarily.

On the topic of health care reform, when asked whether small- and medium-size businesses struggling to afford health care might welcome a government-run plan, Johnson replied that they would rather deal "with the devil they know than the devil they don't know. Generally, our members would rather work with the current insurance market rather than some large unknown behemoth." The private insurance market could be improved, he added, by creating an online gateway that allows businesses to shop for the best rates and providing subsidies to help small businesses pay for coverage.

Johnson reiterated the Chamber's opposition to an employer health care mandate. The House health care reform bill requires businesses with payrolls of more than $500,000 to provide insurance or pay a tax equivalent to 8% of payroll. 

 "The president ought to admit that we were trying to do too much too soon," Johnson said. "We're hoping the president comes up with a pared down proposal when he speaks to Congress next week."