As if there wasn’t reason enough already,
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran has identified yet another reason why Congress ought to preserve secret ballots in workplace organizing drives: they keep things honest.
McIlheran’s column shares the story of Rian Wathen, a former union organizer who now works to beat organizing campaigns after being fired by his union for whistle-blowing—
“Rian Wathen, who used to organize in Indiana for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, lets on something you could have guessed. It's that not all union organizers are equally honest.
“This matters because union organizers are selling something - as Wathen puts it, ‘hopes, dreams and visions’ that an employee's life will get better if only he signs a card. There's a move afoot to remove a safeguard on that sale - sort of like banning disclaimers, price tags and Consumer Reports. …
“But what keeps the sale honest, he says, is that it's followed by an election. Once a union collects signatures from enough would-be members - usually, 60% to 70% - it asks the feds to call a union election. Workers decide by secret ballot after about six weeks of campaigning whether they want the union.
“A bill before Congress would overturn this - dictating instead that, once a union collects signatures from half a workplace's employees, the union is installed without an election. …
“This makes problems, says Wathen, for honest union organizers. Their careers hinge on how well they make the sale. There are all kinds of ways to bring in signatures. Take, for instance, the union-sponsored pizza party. You show up for the pizza, you sign the sign-in sheet, you don't flip it over to read the disclaimer on the back reading, ‘I hereby authorize the union to represent me for the purposes of collective bargaining.’ It happens, says Wathen. It's legal.
“It is also dishonest. The check upon organizers who get signatures this way or by paying bounties or by hitting up drunks or by showing up at someone's house and applying pressure is that such signatures don't stick. ‘In the end, those people won't vote for the union,’ he said, while people recruited by honest organizers are more likely to. The election is the furnace by which the honesty of organizers is tested.”
McIlheran, “How to hobble honesty,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 05.16.09
Republicans have gone one step further, noting that secret ballots protect workers from unscrupulous tactics on both sides of the organizing equation – unions or employers.
That’s why Republicans have proposed the Secret Ballot Protection Act. It would guarantee the protection of a secret ballot in all future organizing elections, and ensure workers aren’t forced to organize, or blocked from doing so, through dishonest tactics.
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