The Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen the Equal Pay Act, which was designed to end wage discrimination between men and women. If passed, the bill would allow plaintiffs to more easily recover damages in the face of discrimination and expand into class-action suits.
“We believe women who do similar jobs to men should be paid the same,” Burger said.
Johnson said the bill is far too punitive, severely hurting business, and is “a giveaway to the trial bar.”
Unions campaigned hard in the fall for Democrats, helping with get-out-the-vote activities and running television advertisements that highlighted bills labor hopes the new Congress will approve. Unions directed millions in campaign contributions to Democrats and relative handfuls to labor-friendly Republicans.
Many union officials see the quick move by House leaders to schedule the two votes on labor bills as a signal of support for their priorities.
The unions’ biggest legislative goal is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as “card-check.” The measure would allow workers to organize by signing authorization cards, and would remove the requirement of a secret-ballot election. The fight over the bill is set for an all-out lobbying blitz by business and labor.
While the paycheck fairness and Ledbetter bills are expected to win approval, the card-check bill remains a tougher sell. It won fewer votes than the Ledbetter bill in the Senate, and some Senate Democrats have offered public comments that call into question whether they’ll vote for the bill this year.
Johnson expressed confidence the Senate would not approve either bill. He predicted the quick action in the House would help his lobbying efforts, and predicted some freshman senators would oppose the bills when they learned more about them.
“You are counting the freshman Democrats as ‘yeses’ on the cloture petition but they have not committed as of yet,” Johnson said. “With a lot of hard work, we have a shot of defeating these.”
Unions, however, are much more positive about their chances for the battles ahead, given the larger Democratic majorities.
“This election was about change. I think the Senate understands that as well,” Burger said.
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