Secret Ballot Watch

It looks like Arizona voters will have a chance to decide if workers’ right to a secret ballot is worthy of protection.  

The state’s Legislature recently voted to offer a referendum in 2010 protecting the right of workers to organize by secret ballot.  

Lawmakers created the referendum in response to the federal Employee Free Choice Act, currently pending in Congress. The act, among other things, would set aside the secret ballot in favor of a majority sign-up or “card-check” system – leaving workers open to intimidation during unionizing drives.  

The Arizona Capitol Times, an inside guide to the Grand Canyon State’s political scene, gives the lowdown here:

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“In the final hours of the 2009 regular legislative session, House Republican lawmakers passed SCR1026, a referendum designed to thwart a federal proposal to implement what is known as ‘card-check’ elections used to unionize business workforces.

“The federal proposal, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, would do away with workforce organizing elections where workers cast their ballots in secrecy. The act mandates that a union would be formed if labor organizers secure the written approval of a majority of a business’ workers.

“The state proposal, presented by Tucson Republican Sen. Jonathan Paton, would undercut the federal legislation by extending Arizonans’ right to secret-ballot elections to apply to organized labor.

“The referendum supersedes an effort headed by Sidney Hay to gather signatures for a citizens’ initiative. Hay, the president of the Arizona Mining Association and a former candidate for Congress, said the referendum effort was kick-started by the federal legislation.

“Legislators, she said, felt threatened enough by the Employee Free Choice Act to break an ‘unwritten rule’ against passing referendums in non-election years. ‘The timing wasn’t set by us,’ she said. ‘It was set by the Obama administration.’

“Hay said the constitutional amendment is necessary to prevent the likelihood that card-check elections will invite the harassment or intimidation of employees by union officials and business owners seeking to influence elections.”

Palmer, “GOP sends 3 measures to 2010 ballot,” Arizona Capitol Times, 08.05.09

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Arizona is not the only state giving voters a say in how workplaces should be organized. In Missouri, for example, voters are currently collecting signatures to put a similar initiative on their state’s 2010 ballot.

These initiatives show the will of the people, and that will is a clear repudiation of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act. Besides, there’s a terrific irony to the situation: Voters will be deciding a referendum about the need for a secret ballot … through a secret ballot.

Still, that might not be enough. Even if state ballot initiatives pass, the Employee Free Choice Act must be defeated to protect workers’ rights on both a state and federal level. That’s the only way to ensure fairness in workplaces across America.

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