Where do McCain, Obama stand on labor issues?

Sen. John McCain wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent; Sen. Barack Obama doesn’t. Obama wants to increase the minimum wage; McCain doesn’t.

It’s hard to mix up the economic proposals of the two presidential candidates. Likewise, when it comes to workplace issues, they tend to lean in predictable ways – Obama toward the employee, McCain toward the employer .

Yet regardless of who’s elected, employment lawyers and Washington-area lobbyists say labor laws could get reshuffled in areas as varied as union organizing and gay rights.

“Some people are saying this could be the most active 'workplace Congress’ in the last 20 to 25 years,” said Mike Aitken, director of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, based in Alexandria.

The Democrats have control of the legislative side in Washington, with 51 of 100 senators, including McCain supporter Sen. Joe

Lieberman of Connecticut, who last ran as an independent. Analysts predict they’ll make big gains in the Senate in November’s election.

It probably won’t be enough to get to two magic numbers: 60 – the number of votes that can kill a filibuster – or 67 – the number needed to override a presidential veto. But with a band of Republican moderates and other defectors, Democrats could push through some bills even under a President McCain.

“There is so much pent-up demand for workplace legislation,” said David Burton, an employment lawyer with the law firm of Williams Mullen in Virginia Beach. “Republicans normally are pretty conservative, but I think they are going to have a lot of pressure on them to support some of these bills.”

Among the bills most closely watched is the Employee Free Choice Act. It would require employers to permit a card-check method outside the workplace as an alternative to a secret ballot to determine worker support for union representation.

It would be the first major change in workplace law since the Family and Medical Leave Act was approved in 1993, then-President Clinton’s first year in office.

Obama, who has won widespread support from unions, co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act last year and has continued to voice support for it, both on his Web site and in speeches.

Obama believes that “workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers,” his Web site says.

Louis Scinaldi, president of Local 2202 of the Communications Workers of America in Virginia Beach, said he’s been stymied in organizing campaigns by companies that have threatened job security if a worker votes for a union. The bill, Scinaldi said, “would give everybody an equal playing field. It’s going to give workers the right to form a union without the fear and the coercion and those meetings that they force everybody to go to.”

Opponents, however, call the Employee Free Choice Act a last-ditch effort to reverse years of drooping union membership. The bill would “freeze out the employer’s right to free speech,” said Marc Freedman, labor law policy director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

C. Larry Pope, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods Inc., told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting last month: “Our Founding Fathers thought the secret ballot was good enough to elect the first president of the United States. … I think it’s good enough to elect unions.”

Last year, McCain voted to block a Senate vote on the bill. In his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination this month, he criticized Obama for wanting “our schools to answer to unions.”

Yet if McCain has not supported unions, on other workplace issues he has either not taken a stand or might be open-minded, observers say.

Take, for instance, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit workplace discrimination against people who are gay . Obama has supported the bill.

McCain said during a campaign stop last year that the measure would “open the door to endless litigation,” The Washington Post reported. However, some analysts say he might sign it if Congress approves it.

“I don’t think McCain is going to die in a ditch over that piece of legislation,” said John Phillips , an Atlanta lawyer who writes the blog The Word on Employment Law.

Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, said: “It depends on which John McCain we’re talking about. If it’s the libertarian-minded John McCain, who thinks government should do very little and what it does should be helpful to people, I could see a John McCain supporting this. If it’s the John McCain who bowed deeply to the right side of his party (during the convention), I could see him vetoing it.”

The two candidates agree on at least a few things: Both co-sponsored a bill, approved by a voice vote in the Senate this month, that would restore protections in the Americans With Disabilities Act that were pared away by U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The bill also won widespread support in the House and is expected to be signed by President Bush.

McCain and Obama also want to encourage telecommuting and other ways to make work schedules more flexible.

But on major economic issues, many observers see both hewing to their party lines.

To Freedman, from the Chamber of Commerce, Obama is “an absolutely orthodox Democrat.” To Kidd, from Christopher Newport, McCain typifies the “free-market kind of person, a small-government Republican.”

 Here’s a roundup of nine workplace issues likely to get another look under the next president and Congress:

 Union organizing

Most employment experts see the Employee Free Choice Act as the bill with potentially the largest impact. It would allow employees to demonstrate support for a union by signing cards outside the workplace.

“It doesn’t abolish secret-ballot elections,” said John Bredehoft of Kaufman & Canoles in Norfolk, “but it makes them unnecessary.”

If approved, analysts say, the bill would intensify organizing efforts. Another clause would refer deadlocked contract negotiations between an employer and a union to binding arbitration after four months . Businesses say that would take away their right to craft a contract, but unions say it would guard against delaying tactics.

 Anti-gay bias

The U.S. Civil Rights Act bans discrimination in the workplace in categories such as race, religion and gender, but it does not cover sexual orientation. Lawyers disagree on how much effect a gay-rights amendment would have.

Burton, from Williams Mullen, said it could open another avenue for “frivolous litigation. It’s just another category an employer could be sued for.”

Others, such as Phillips and Bredehoft, say many states, cities and companies now ban discrimination against people who are gay .

“I don’t think this would cause a marked uptick in employment law litigation,” Bredehoft said.

Said Norfolk lawyer Lisa Bertini, who represents employees who sue businesses: “I think it speaks volumes to the tolerance issue. While employers say, 'We have this, we have that,’ they don’t necessarily enforce anything, and this would make them. I’ve dealt with too many employers who do the minimum they have to and don’t necessarily honor what’s in their handbook.”

 Family and Medical Leave Act

The law provides many workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to tend to a newborn or an ill relative or recover from a “serious health condition.” On his Web site, McCain notes that he supported passage of the law in 1993 but does not suggest any changes.

Obama, on his Web site, proposes expanding it, among other ways, to include businesses with 25 to 49 people, to cover elder care and domestic violence, and to allow parents 24 hours a year to attend school activities. Only businesses with at least 50 employees are covered now.

Paid sick leave

Obama last year co-sponsored the Healthy Families Act, which would require employers to grant seven days of paid sick leave a year. Supporters say three-quarters of low-income workers have no paid sick days.

Obama continues to support the benefit, according to his Web site. McCain has not mentioned the subject, and Kidd doubts he would support it.

“The extent to which legislation would regulate more than he thought was appropriate – he would be opposed to something like that,” Kidd said. “Expanding medical leave, requiring paid leave – I think he would oppose that on economic grounds, not social grounds.”

Civil rights lawsuit caps

McCain has not taken a position on the Equal Remedies Act, which would abolish caps on damages in racial and gender discrimination suits. Those caps range from $50,000 to $300,000, based on the size of the company. Obama co-sponsored the act and reiterates support on his Web site.

Equal pay for women

Obama has stressed his support for “equal pay,” both in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention and in campaign ads. In April, he voted for the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would extend the statute of limitations for pay-equity suits, reversing limits imposed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

McCain did not attend the vote but told reporters he was against the bill: “This is government playing a much, much greater role in the business of a private enterprise system.” The bill did not survive a Republican filibuster but is expected to be reintroduced. The impact, Bredehoft said, would be more symbolic than practical; he doesn’t think it will fuel a surge of lawsuits.

Layoff warnings

McCain has not articulated a position on the Forewarn Act, which would revise the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law governing notice of layoffs and plant closings. It would require 90-day written notice to workers, up from the current 60 days, and double the penalties for employers who violate the law. In May, Obama voiced his support.

Reclassifying bosses

Obama has co-sponsored the Respect bill, or Re-empowerment of Skilled and Professional Employees and Construction Tradesworkers Act. It would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make it more difficult to classify someone as a “supervisor,” expanding the pool of potential union members. McCain has not voiced an opinion.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864,phil.walzer@pilotonline.com