Secret Ballot Watch

A better question would be: Who cares? Bartlet was one of the main characters in The West Wing, a fictional TV show about the White House which went off the air in 2006. You might as well ask the doctors on E.R. for their thoughts on health care reform.

But that’s not going to stop backers of the grossly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) from pretending that the make-believe Bartlet Administration could have sway in a very real debate about workers’ rights.

Three actors from the show – Martin Sheen (who played Bartlet), Bradley Whitford (Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman) and Richard Schiff (Communications Director Toby Ziegler) – will be on Capitol Hill today to unveil a new ad campaign aimed at passing the bill, which is before Congress.

The campaign is called “Faces of the Employee Free Choice Act.” It features billboards and 50-foot-tall building banners that have close-up portraits of union members explaining why card check is important to them.

It’s as “in your face” as a political ad campaign gets – and, ironically, it shows why the act should fail.

Consider: Presumably, the workers featured in the campaign wanted to be a part of it. They made a choice to be in the public eye in a big way: Their portraits take up nearly all 50 feet of the banners. The actors also presumably chose to be a part of the campaign launch because such public exposure is not just a job requirement – it’s a career goal.

But what if you don’t want EVERYONE to know where you stand on an issue? What about your privacy, which helps protect your right to free thought without intimidation?

If the ad campaign succeeds and the “free choice” act passes, privacy won’t exist. Under the act, if your co-workers – be they actors or airline pilots – want to form a union through “card check,” you would have to publicly declare by signature.

If you don’t want to sign, then your face might as well be on the side of a building, too, over the words: “I DIDN’T SIGN THE CARD.” You become just as exposed as the people in the ad campaign – whether you like it or not.

That’s why the Employee Free Choice Act is such a ridiculous idea. “Choice” for workers in this proposal is about as real as a law signed by President Bartlet.

# # #