Fixing Labor Law

Since the ballooning of uninsured populations (not to mention income inequality) is partially the result of the decline in the labor movement, any advocate for accessible health insurance needs to care about how to reverse that decline.

Thomas Geoghegan over at the American Prospect proposes a "Fair Trade" between labor and business: if business convinces the GOP not to block the "Employee Free Choice Act" that unions so desperately need to start growing instead of shrinking, then Democrats should offer to repeal the tougher parts of Sarbanes Oxley, parts that business leaders hate because they might lead some of them to be thrown in jail.

Although this deal certainly seems worth it, I question two of Thomas's premises. First, while some CEOs and CFOs might not like to think about jail, they also don't want to admit that they might be some of the bad apples who would have to worry about such sordid things.

Second, even if big business were on board, there's a bigger roadblock. This isn't the kind of policy deal, like the minimum wage hike for tax benefits swap, where a quid pro quo can make all sides happy. Many in the GOP may usually follow business's lead, but not when their political lives are at risk.

Unlike a minimum wage hike, anything that helps labor grow would be a huge help to the Democratic Party - not merely as a policy accomplishment to brag about, but on the ground in elections. More union members and households are the only major group where working class whites turnout for Democrats in droves. Every 5-10 new members organized if labor law were fixed would mean at least another vote for Democrats (yes, that's a ballpark estimate). More importantly, the increased dues would allow unions to raise their political spending on key races. Remember, along with Soros and a few other billionaires, it was labor's hundreds of millions spent through America Coming Together and other independent spending that allowed Kerry to even be in the ballpark in 2004.

Given that, do you think the GOP is going to touch a deal that will help unions expand their membership, no matter how much their business friends might want them to?