Mike Garman, who is running for Todd Akin’s seat in the second congressional district, wants to focus on the plight of American workers.

Garman remembers when American companies were the envy of the world.  According to his website, he grew up in that world and understood that American workers made those companies great:  “Mike’s father, a Korean War Naval Veteran and a post-war United Auto Worker, lived the adage of ‘an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.'”

Now that union membership has fallen from around 30 percent of the workforce in the fifties and sixties to only 12 percent of the workforce, Garman blames the hard times for blue collar workers on health care and the evisceration of labor laws.  

Canada still has a 30 percent union workforce, and part of the reason unions continue to thrive there is that Canadian companies aren’t saddled with paying for the health care of their employees. Garman insists that if we had government health care, our corporations would be far more competitive.

As for the disembowelment of our labor laws in this country, Garman would like to see the NLRB given the teeth it needs to enforce fair labor practices.  He especially wants to see what labor advocates call “fifty plus one” enacted.  

Fifty plus one refers to what happens after union reps get a majority vote in a company to form a union there.  Typically, the owners stall month after month, maybe up to a year, firing the people who voted in favor of the union and hiring people who will vote against one.  Eventually, they fire enough old workers and hire enough new ones to defeat the union proposal.

A fifty plus one law would mandate a ninety day period for setting up negotiating committees and a 120 day period for agreeing on a contract.  If there’s no contract in place at the end of that time, the matter automatically would go to binding arbitration.  Such a bill was introduced, but didn’t make it through both houses, and anyway, it would have faced a veto.

Of course, a devotion to getting everyone access to health care and protecting good jobs is no guarantee of success in the second congressional.  At best, Garman faces an uphill battle.  The insurance companies will love Akin with lots of cash.

I pointed out to Garman how strongly Republican West St. Louis County is.  I noted that St. Charles is only starting to trend Democratic and that Garman doesn’t have a big “name”. He wasn’t fazed.  Without a hint of conceit, he is rarin’ to take on the battle, because he feels that people’s fear of the health care crisis crosses party lines.  What he didn’t say about the strength of his candidacy–but that I can say–is that he comes across as a down to earth guy who’ll appeal to blue collar voters in St. Charles and Lincoln counties.  Furthermore, he knocked on 3,000 doors just to see if St. Charles residents approved of the Ambulance Service.  He’ll be a hard worker.  

Of course Garman isn’t going to face Akin unless he can get by Byron DeLear.  His attitude is that a primary challenge from DeLear (who has not yet filed) “would be the best thing that could happen to my campaign. I welcome it.”  Garman assumes that a primary contest would put his face and his ideas before the public early on.

Some of you are skeptical about anyone’s chance in Akin’s district, and others think this might be the year for Dems to wallop a few Bush clones.  Here’s hoping the optimists are vindicated, but even if the skeptics prove correct, Mike Garman intends to give Todd Akin a serious challenge.