Secret Ballot Watch

The proposal to conduct union organizing through a public card signing process is surely the most infamous provision of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act. In fact, it’s where the bill gets its better-known nickname, “card check.”

The provision has come under fire because of its obvious potential to harm workers by denying them the privacy and protection of a secret ballot election. It’s a well-known argument, but it still may have come as a surprise to some when the Service Employees International Union – one of the biggest backers of the card check plan – sounded the alarm about the card signing process underway in an internal battle between the union and a newly-formed rival:  

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“For years, the powerful Service Employees International Union has played a lead role in the campaign for a landmark federal law that would allow workers to join a labor organization simply by signing petitions.

“Now, as part of a high-stakes battle in California, the union is urging federal officials to throw out petitions signed by tens of thousands of its own members who have asked to be represented by a rival upstart group. …

“One of the giant union's allegations echoes a key argument that corporate interests make against the proposed law, the Employee Free Choice Act: that labor activists can intimidate or mislead workers during organizing campaigns.”

Pringle, “SEIU borrows business' anti-union tactics to fend off a rival,” Los Angeles Times, 06.24.09 

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Republicans – and more than a few Democrats – have warned for months about the potential for intimidation, coercion, and the threat of retribution in public card signing organizing drives. In fact, the Education and Labor Committee heard testimony during the 110^th Congress about exactly what type of unsavory tactics can be used to pressure workers into signing cards.

That’s why Republicans continue to support the Secret Ballot Protection Act. It guarantees that all workplace organizing will take place with the protection of a secret ballot vote, guarding workers against being intimidated or misled.

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