Secret Ballot Watch

A worker’s privacy. An employer’s freedom. The future of a wobbly U.S. economy.

These are just a few of the issues at stake in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, but there’s one that particularly concerns the act’s biggest supporters: power.

As Bloomberg News columnist Albert R. Hunt recently wrote in The New York Times, the future of Big Labor’s storied clout in Washington also rides on EFCA’s passage:  

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"If labor fails on the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, it would be a huge blow and it would likely produce internal and political recriminations. …

“Some analysts wonder whether labor can be effective on both legislative and political matters when it is divided. Four years ago, seven unions, including the Service Employees, the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers, broke from the AFL-CIO, which they said wasn’t aggressive enough in organizing and on other matters. They formed the ‘Change to Win’ coalition.

“There are moves to get these factions back together so labor can present a more united front. A former Michigan congressman, David Bonior, has been tapped to try to reconcile some issues. It’s a tough task.

“Originally, it was thought unity might occur after the current AFL-CIO president, John Sweeney, stepped down. Mr. Sweeney and Andy Stern, head of the Service Employees, are enemies. The federation, however, has tapped Mr. Trumka, former head of the mine workers, to succeed Mr. Sweeney this month; his relations with Mr. Hoffa and some other Change to Win leaders are also said to be bad.”

Hunt, “Infighting Is Blunting Labor’s Clout,” The New York Times, 09.06.09 

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The squabbling among unions is their affair. But the Employee Free Choice Act is everybody’s business because of its ability to set aside the secret ballot, kill jobs in an economy that needs them, and force government contracts on businesses. EFCA supporters should think about that instead of maintaining their pull on Capitol Hill.

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