The Latest on EFCA

Over the past couple months, it has become evident that the White House has been showing less concern for the Employee Free Choice Act then Barack Obama did as a presidential candidate, and yesterday we learned where EFCA presently stands.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, who is expected to be that organization’s next president, recently said during a web chat that President Obama and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel do not want to bring EFCA up until healthcare legislation passes.

Trumka said, as a result, that labor will do everything they can to help Obama pass his signature healthcare proposals. Various unions have been supporting pro-healthcare reform groups in terms of finances. They have also sent members to townhalls in an effort to combat the anti-healthcare reform tilt many have taken recently.

This is what Trumka said:

“The President/and Emanuel have both said they don’t intend to bring Employee Free Choice Act up until Health Insurance Reform is done…Which gives us an additional reason to do Health Insurance Reform now!”

Trumka remained optimistic, and did not want to give the impression that he was disappointed in the president’s agenda, but it is clear that EFCA has taken a backseat to a number of items the administration is promoting.

From Massachusetts:

It appears that the health of Sen. Ted Kennedy has steadily declined so much to the point that the Senator has written a letter asking that the state legislature to change the current law to allow the governor to appoint a replacement should Kennedy resign/ pass away. Kennedy has been largely absent this year, which may cause a problem for Democrats searching for 60 votes on healthcare, EFCA, cap and trade, etc.

Trumka also expressed his support for changing the current Massachusetts law. What makes this interesting is the fact that five years ago, Kennedy supported changing the state law to what they have today. At that time, then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, would have been responsible for appointing a successor to John Kerry should he have won the 2004 presidential election. Fearing that Romney would appoint a Republican, Kennedy and other Democrats supported quickly changing the law which calls for a special election in the case of an open seat.

In case you were wondering, the current Massachusetts governor is a Democrat.