Secret Ballot Watch

Facts are inconvenient things, at least for special interest groups trying to convince a wary public to support the rollback of basic democratic principles. That’s what supporters of the anti-worker card check scheme are discovering this week as their rationale for the legislation crumbles before their eyes.

For years, supporters of card check—a plan to abolish secret ballot unionizing elections and replace them with a public sign-up process that exposes workers’ votes for all to see—have argued that public votes are necessary because workers are unable to choose to form unions under the current system of federally-supervised secret ballot elections.

It has always been a little far-fetched to claim that workers would be better off with a public vote than a private one, but proponents of this special interest power grab have faithfully made the case anyway. As evidence, they have cited declining union membership as “proof” that workers’ desire to unionize was somehow being infringed upon.

It must have come as quite a shock, then, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday that unionization rates are up for the second year in a row.

Supporters of the secret ballot know that unionization rates will fluctuate over time. But no matter how workers are voting in a particular year, their right to vote privately, free from intimidation, must be protected.

In contrast, card check proponents find themselves in quite a pickle. First, they said declining unionization rates were proof of the need for the deceptively-titled Employee Free Choice Act. Now, they’re arguing that rising unionization rates make their case?

Not surprisingly, their claims are being received with a healthy dose of skepticism. 

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"[Gary] Chaison [a labor specialist at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.] cautioned that Wednesday's data could fuel arguments against the card check bill.

"'It will be difficult for unions to claim that they can't organize enough to offset declining employment because they've managed to do it over the last two years,'" Chaison said.

Hananel, “Union membership rises for second straight year,” Associated Press, 01.28.09 

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No wonder special interest groups are scrambling to explain why workers should give up their democratic rights. The case for card check just got a whole lot harder to make.

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