Obama's fourth veto protects unionization rules

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama vetoed a congressional resolution seeking to overturn new unionization voting rules Tuesday, keeping in place procedures that will allow a more streamlined process for workers to vote to unionize.

Republicans said those new rules would allow for "ambush elections," and tried to roll back the new National Labor Relations Board rule with a congressional resolution of disapproval.

It's the second veto of the year for Obama, and the fourth of his presidency. More vetoes are sure to come: the White House has issued 17 specific veto threats on bills working their way through Congress, and several others still being drafted in committee.

With Congress out of session for its Easter recess, Obama issued a "pocket veto" of the resolution. But as he's done twice before, he also sent the Senate a veto notice "to leave no doubt that the resolution is being vetoed."

The resolution passed the Senate 53 to 46 and the House 232 to 186, with all Democrats and three Republicans voting no. Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress could still override the veto, although Republicans are well short of the two-thirds majorities necessary.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the veto shows that Obama is passing up opportunities to work with the Republican-controlled Congress to help the economy.

"Ambush elections don't help workers. Instead, they bully workers into accepting unionization as fast as possible. That's not pro-worker. That's pro-union, and there's a big difference," McCarthy said in a statement.

But Obama said the new rules were "common-sense, modest changes to streamline the voting process for folks who wanted to join a union." If workers want to join a union, "they should be able to do so, and we shouldn't be making it impossible for that to happen," he said.

Obama also announced he would hold a summit on worker's rights at the White House this fall. "Part of what we want to do is to make sure that we give workers the capacity to have their voices heard, to have some influence in the workplace, to make sure that they're partners in building up the U.S. economy, and that growth is broad-based, and that everybody is benefiting just as everybody is contributing," he said.

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