Secret Ballot Watch

Picking up where we left off last week with the list of 10 more reasons the so-called Employee Free Choice Act must fail is an obvious indicator of legislative doom: The act has drawn the ire of elected officials on both sides of the political divide. Although the act’s supporters don’t highlight this fact, it’s not just Republicans opposing EFCA. More than a few Democrats oppose the job-killing bill as well.

One of those Democrats is Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. She’s been against the act because she’s wary of its effects on the economy, as The Economist noted in a recent profile here:  

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“The Democrats’ plans for energy and labour depend a lot on whether Mrs Lincoln sides with her own party; and she has a habit of bucking it.

“For example, she is one of only a couple of Democrats to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill the party’s union allies crave more than anything else. They want the power to unionise firms without a secret ballot, simply by persuading a majority of workers to sign a card. Employers fear that union heavies would visit workers at home and pressure them into signing. Arlen Specter, a senator who recently defected to the Democrats, has floated a compromise which would preserve the secret ballot. He thought this would win over Mrs Lincoln, but it didn’t. The bill still says that, if a union and an employer fail quickly to agree on a contract, a government-appointed arbitrator can impose terms. That would be ‘unbelievably difficult for small businesses,’ says Mrs Lincoln. She hears from hospitals in Arkansas worried that, if they have 40 nurses and 21 opt to form a union, they would have only a few weeks to agree on a new contract, despite having no idea what the health-care system will look like next year.”

“Blanche Lincoln's balance,” The Economist, 10.01.09 

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Other Democrats that have kept EFCA mercifully mired include Arkansas’ other senator, Mark Pryor. He has remained “stubbornly noncommittal” about EFCA, which is definitely not an “aye” vote that supporters need. Then there’s Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who has called attempts to make a compromise on this ill-conceived legislation “a fool’s errand.”  

All this bipartisan opposition shows just how terrible the act really is and it’s just one more reason why EFCA must fail.

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