New Bill Introduced In Congress To strengthen Labor Unions And Middle Class

A new bipartisan bill has beeen introducted in congress that will make it easier for employees to join labor unions and more difficult for employers to engage in activities that discourage unions. The main sponsors of the new bill include George Miller(D-CA), Robert Andrews(D-NJ) and Peter King(R-NY). The bill has 232 cosponsors. In the Senate, Edward Kennedy is likely to sponsor the bill there. But unless the bill passes by a wide majority, Bush is almost likely to veto it.

The bill aims to strengthen the American middle class with better pay and job benefits, and to recreate a highly professional American workforce devoted to their place of work for life. The bill is seen as an attempt to recreate a revival of the declining role of both American labor unions and a revival for American manufacturing as well.

Already the big business community is lining up against the bill, where using cheap overseas labor to manufacture goods and maintaining only management and warehousing of the foreign made goods is fast becoming the rule in the U.S. in many areas. Whether this bill can survive only the tiny Democratic margin in the Senate and the nearly certain veto pen of Bush is a good question. But the bill is a serious and almost last ditch effort to rescue both the American middle class and the manufacturing economy as well.