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The folks at National Right to Work, of all people, are worried that, "[as] early as next Tuesday, corporate executives with the bulk retailer Costco, the grocery store chain Whole Foods, Inc. and the coffee giant Starbucks appear ready to endorse a so-called "compromise version" of Big Labor's top legislative priority, the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill (H.R. 1409, S. 560)." I've been hearing rumblings of a compromise for a while now, but this is the first time specific companies have been identified. I am told that the compromise essentially opens the elections and arrays the thresholds for victory. For example: singing cards in public would require a 70% yes vote in order to form the union. Secret ballot elections would require 50% of the vote. And if the company was able to get the acquiescence of at least 30% of the workers, they'd have the right to organize the company in the future.  An AFL-CIO spokesperson declined to comment, and representatives for the major business lobbies in town did not immediately respond to e-mails.My guess is that most of labor would be OK with this, and that that the companies who caved will suddenly get a lot of negotiating power. The Administration would like nothing more than to settle EFCA amicably, something that heretofore been impossible.

Mark Mix, president of National Right To Work Committee, said that "these huge companies are apparently willing to sell out hundreds of thousands of small ones under the guise of making some phony and misguided compromise with Big Labor."