Change, the only constant
On Tuesday, January 13, the 145th General Assembly began as all do, with the swearing in of reelected and newly elected members. The largely ceremonial day was undergirded by change. Offices had been moved, personalities considered to be a part of the fabric of the institution were absent due to electoral misfortune. New legislators gathered for their first day of session with proud supporters and family members looking on.
In the House, the Democrats had moved to first and second floor offices as the Republicans, having lost the majority, moved their offices to the basement. As recently as 2003, the House was comprised of 29 Republicans and 12 Democrats. Shifting demographics and a 2008 Democratic Party electoral tide has brought a 25-to-16 Democratic majority. Six Republican incumbents lost their seats, including the longest serving speaker in Delaware history, Terry Spence. Bob Gilligan (D-Sherwood Park), the longest serving member of the General Assembly, elected in 1972, was elected speaker. Representative Pete Schwartzkopf (D-Rehoboth) and Representative Valerie Longhurst (D-Bear) were elected majority leader and majority whip respectively. The Republicans chose former majority leader Dick Cathcart (R-Middletown) and Representative Dan Short (R-Seaford) as minority leader and minority whip.
In the Senate, the majority shifted from a 13-to-8 to 16-to-5 as the Democrats picked up three seats. Chairmanships remained largely unchanged. New to the upper house are former House member Bethany Hall Long (D-Back Creek), Michael Katz, MD (D-Centreville) and Brian Bushweller (D-Dover North).
Governor-elect Markell and Lieutenant Governor-elect Denn will be sworn in on January 20, immediately after midnight. They will then travel to Washington for Inauguration of President-elect Barak Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden. There will be a ceremony to celebrate the gubernatorial inauguration on January 21 in front of Legislative Hall.
Fiscal Challenges
The 145th General Assembly faces the greatest economic challenges a Delaware legislature has confronted in decades. The structural shortfall (difference between the budget and projected revenue) for Fiscal Year 2010 is currently at $560 million. With the problems in the broader economy, it is likely that tax revenue will continue to trend downward during the course of the session. There are considerable number of new faces in Dover, many of whom will be looking to experienced hands such as Senate chair of the Joint Finance Committee, Nancy Cook and Speaker Bob Gilligan. There is much discussion among observers of the possibility of tax increases and even layoffs as the General Assembly and the Markell Administration seek to meet the State’s constitutional requirement for a balanced budget.
Card Check Resolution Introduced in the General Assembly
House Concurrent Resolution 1 (145th General Assembly) was introduced on January 6 and placed in the House Administration Committee. The resolution urges the 111th Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “Card Check”. This legislation would eliminate the secret ballot requirement in union organizing in the workplace. The secret ballot is essential to protecting the privacy and political rights of Americans, whether exercised in a civic or private context. We oppose both House Concurrent Resolution 1 and the federal legislation that the resolution is designed to promote.
We strongly our members to contact their state legislators to express opposition to House Concurrent Resolution 1 and the members of Delaware’s Congressional Delegation in order to ask them to vote against the Card Check bill, or as its proponents have titled it: the Employee Free Choice Act. In the U.S. House, this legislation is H.R. 800. Its companion bill in the Senate is S. 1041.
For more information about the legislation, visit the following website: http://www.uschamber.com/issues/index/labor/cardchecksecrbal.htm
To find out who represents you in Dover call the New Castle County Department of Elections at (302) 577-3464. For your legislators’ contact information, visit http://legis.delaware.gov/.
The Wilmington office contact information for members of the Delaware Congressional Delegation is as follows:
U.S. Senator Thomas R. Carper
301 N. Walnut Street
Suite 102L-1
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 573-6291
http://www.carper.senate.gov/
U.S. Senator Edward E. “Ted” Kaufman
1105 N. Market Street
Suite 2000
Wilmington, DE 19801
(302) 573-6345
http://www.kaufman.senate.gov/
U.S. Representative Michael N. Castle
201 N. Walnut Street
Suite 107
Wilmington, DE 19801-3970
(302) 428-1902
http://www.castle.house.gov/
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Employee Free Choice Now . Org
Educating The World on The EFCA.
Myth vs. Reality: The REALITY is the Employee Free Choice Act Helps American Workers and their Families.
Despite the need for reform, critics of EFCA continue to misinform the public about the bill and hide the serious shortcomings of current labor law. Democrats are committed to setting the record straight and passing this important legislation on behalf of American workers and their families.
MYTH: EFCA will prevent the use of secret-ballot elections.
REALITY: EFCA does not strip workers of their right to choose a secret-ballot election to decide whether to select -- or not to select -- a union representative. EFCA simply gives workers the additional option of selecting a union representative by majority sign-up.
Organizing For America begins with the passing of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Employee Free Choice Act is nothing new it only reestablishes the Joy Silk Doctrine of 1949
History
In 1949, the NLRB's Joy Silk Doctrine established that "an employer could lawfully refuse to bargain with a union claiming representative status through possession of authorization cards only if he had a 'good faith doubt' as to the union's majority status.This policy was changed in 1966 with the ruling in Aaron Brothers, where "the Board made it clear that it had shifted the burden to the General Counsel to show bad faith and that an employer 'will not be held to have violated his bargaining obligation... simply because he refuses to rely upon cards. 'If passed, the proposed Employee Free Choice Act would return the NLRB policy to the Joy Silk Doctrine and allow employer challenges to card check elections only when illegal coercion or fraud is charged.
In 1969, Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the majority opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the use of card check. Warren stated, "Almost from the inception of the Act, then, it was recognized that a union did not have to be certified as the winner of a Board election to invoke a bargaining obligation; it could establish majority status by other means... by showing convincing support, for instance, by a union-called strike or strike vote, or, as here, by possession of cards signed by a majority of the employees authorizing the union to represent them for collective bargaining purposes." The Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of card check, and Warren cited prior affirmations in NLRB v. Bradford Dyeing Assn., (1940); Franks Bros. Co. v. NLRB,[(1944); United Mine Workers v. Arkansas Flooring Co., (1956).
For More Information on EFCA please visit our website and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
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