Lots of buzz about the Employee Free Choice Act this Labor Day....

Bret Jacobson's column in the DC Examiner explores the changed role of labor representation in the 21st Century economy, and posits some novel critiques of the bill:

There has to be a better way, one that reflects the reality that our work world
is run not just by dockworkers but also by iPhone docks. We have to allow
freedom of markets to include freedom for employees to choose their own
associations (or none at all).

The optimal solution, of course, would
reformat our labor model. It would force any group representing employees to
provide quality service and to be accountable to its customers — us. And though
there certainly is a movement of sincere grassroots labor activists, their power
within the larger labor movement is virtually nonexistent.

In "Labor Day: What Are We Celebrating?," Jason Clemens of FrontPage Mag recognizes that one can celebrate "labor" separate and apart from institutional special interest groups:

The first Labor Day in 1882, in New York City, was connected with the labor
movement. It remains so today, even though only 7.5 percent of private sector
workers in the United States are members of a union. If public-sector workers
are included, the number of union members rises to 12.1 percent, but even by
that figure nearly 90 percent of American workers, the vast majority, are not
union members.

This disconnect between labor and unionism is currently at
the heart of a movement to radically change a whole series of labor laws. These
changes are largely about increasing the power of unions and union leaders, and
have little to do with helping average workers and their families. The first
item on the list is changing the way unions are certified as bargaining agents.

GOP presidential candidate John
McCain opposes the card check law (which was co-sponsored by Barrack [sic] Obama),
favoring a Secret Ballot Protection Act that would better protect workers from
intimidation.  As The Atlantic's Clive Crook points out, secret ballot protects
both workers supporting unionization and those who oppose it.  Card check is
transparently self-interested legislation supported only by the Big Labor
interests backing Obama.

Regarding the card-check bill, The Hill notes that an Obama campaign memo circulated this week reiterates: