Thanks to the controversial card check plan, there is plenty of concern these days about workers’ privacy rights and employers’ ability to keep and create jobs in a struggling economy. But as the
Wall Street Journal revealed last week, this unpopular legislation might not be the only looming threat:
“Arlen Specter's party switch has renewed the debate over the legislative prospects for ‘card check,’ which would effectively eliminate secret ballots in union organizing elections. But Big Labor might not even need card check if Craig Becker has his way.
“Mr. Becker is one of two recent National Labor Relations Board appointments by President Obama.…
“Current law on organizing provides advantages and restrictions for both sides. Employers are required to provide union reps with a list of employees and their addresses. Union organizers can visit employees at home, but companies cannot. Organizers can also make promises to employees (such as obtaining raises), which employers cannot. Companies can argue their position at a work site up to 24 hours before an election, but they are barred from coercing employees. Both sides get a seat at the table during NLRB hearings about the scope of an election or complaints about how it was conducted.
“Mr. Becker has other ideas. In a 1993 Minnesota Law Review article, written when he was a UCLA professor, he explained that traditional notions of democracy should not apply in union elections. He wrote that employers should be barred from attending NLRB hearings about elections, and from challenging election results even amid evidence of union misconduct. …
“More extraordinary, Mr. Becker advocated a new ‘body of campaign rules’ that would severely limit the ability of employers to argue against unionization. He argued that any meeting a company holds that involves a ‘captive audience’ ought to be grounds for overturning an election. …
“Mr. Becker isn't clear about which of these rules can be implemented by NLRB fiat, and which would require an act of Congress, but his mindset is clear enough. He's willing to push NLRB discretion as far as possible to tilt today's labor rules in favor of easier unionization.”
Editorial, “Andy Stern's Go-To Guy,” Wall Street Journal, 05.14.09
Federal labor laws – especially rules for organizing a workplace – depend on a fair National Labor Relations Board. For instance, secret ballot elections are supervised by the NLRB, ensuring protections for workers who value their privacy.
Card check is an obvious attempt to circumvent these protections and side-step the secret ballot election. But according to this editorial, workers should be equally concerned about political influence changing the role of the NLRB from the inside.
# # #
