Secret Ballot Watch

An illuminating editorial appearing in today’s edition of Investor’s Business Daily pulls back the curtain on the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, exposing the legislation as a payback to organized labor that would disenfranchise millions of American workers.

"Despite its noble-sounding name, the legislation won't expand freedom. The bill could be more accurately called the card check act, for it has nothing to do with free choice.

"Quite the contrary, it seeks to reverse unions' waning influence by eliminating the secret ballots that workers historically used to organize in a federally supervised election.

"Instead, under card check, a union is certified when a majority of workers signs the cards that are now used to merely gauge employee interest in voting on union participation. These cards aren't secret, so it's a fundamental violation of the secret ballot principle.

"It's not hard to imagine the intimidation workers would be subject to when they're offered cards to sign. And it's not as if nonunion workers are clamoring to join a union but are afraid of management reprisals if they do. By more than a 3-to-1 margin, polls show, workers say don't want to be part of organized labor."

The full editorial can be viewed online here.

Card check is notoriously unpopular with the American public, and for good reason. It eliminates secret ballot unionizing elections, exposes workers to intimidation and coercion, and threatens jobs through a binding arbitration system that would exclude both workers and management from key employment decisions. It’s no wonder supporters of this undemocratic power grab are trying to mask the bill’s true intentions.

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