Secret Ballot Watch

Scarcely a day goes by without a major string of editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor filling the opinion pages of newspapers large and small in opposition to the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would give workers anything but a free choice in deciding whether to form a union. Over the weekend, the Orlando Sentinel carried one such editorial that made a particularly compelling case for why the card check plan must be defeated.

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“The legislation, better known as the card-check bill, would allow unions to represent workplaces without winning approval from employees in secret-ballot elections. Former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, a pro-labor liberal, has accurately described the bill as ‘disturbing and undemocratic.’ …

“Under the card-check bill, a union can claim certification with the signatures of a simple majority of workers, without a secret-ballot election. The union doesn't even have to inform management that an organizing drive is under way. It can approach employees away from the workplace, even at home, with cards to sign. It can spend months working beneath the radar toward its goal. …

“Workers deserve to make the choice on union membership through a free and fair process. This bill would ensure neither.”

Editorial, “Union elections without secret ballots are bad for workers and management,” Orlando Sentinel, 02.21.09

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It is clear that card check has been rejected by opinion leaders and the American people. Tomorrow, Republicans will offer a counterproposal that will ensure once and for all the workers will never have their right to a secret ballot taken away. Stay tuned.

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