Senate considers national standards for menu labeling: lawmakers introduce LEAN Act to record crowd at NRA Public Affairs Conference

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 6, 2008 by Paul Frumkin

Most observers acknowledged that passage of such a measure would be challenging. Gay said he was "under no illusions" that it will have an easy time in Congress.

Carper sounded a similar note, saying: "Not everybody is going to like it. Some will want to go further. But we need to start a dialogue and determine what is acceptable. We need to find common ground."

The menu-labeling bill was only one topic on the industry's agenda as restaurateurs and state association officials from across the nation headed up to Capitol Hill to discuss key industry issues with their lawmakers. Other key issues discussed at the NRA's Public Affairs Conference included rising food costs, health care reform, immigration, restaurant depreciation and card-check union organizing.

The state contingent led by Delaware Restaurant Association president Carrie Leishman met with James Greene, senior policy advisor to vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and discussed the status of the card-check bill, which would change the way restaurant workers and other employees would decide whether to unionize. Industry officials have voiced fears that workers would be pressured into signing, since their decision would become public.

Greene told the Delaware contingent that Biden, a frequent ally of organized labor and a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, would consider employer accommodations to the card-check bill.

"Though the senator feels the balance struck between labor and management has tilted the other way, once it becomes more realistic that the bill will pass, [Sen. Biden will] be looking at more specifics of how it affects small businesses," Greene said. "There is probably some room to have a good discussion about this."

In addition, upon hearing of Sen. Carper's sponsorship of the LEAN Act, Greene said Biden would support the bill as it advances through the Senate.

BY PAUL FRUMKIN pfrumkin@nrn.com