Secret Ballot Watch

Joining a growing chorus of voices speaking out against the anti-worker card check scheme, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao today penned an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal arguing against the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act, which she noted would “deprive workers of the ability to vote privately in workplace unionization elections.”

She goes on to explain—

"There is a push in Congress to enact card check despite the fact that the vast majority of workers -- including rank-and-file union members -- want to keep the private ballot system in workplace unionization elections and do not want it replaced by a signature card process that will subject them to the pressures of solicitation and potential intimidation by union activists. Ironically, to decertify a union, labor leaders insist on holding private-ballot elections to protect workers from employer intimidation.

"Another destructive and undemocratic aspect of the card-check bill is a provision for government-dictated labor contracts in newly unionized workplaces. Under the bill, if an initial labor contract is not agreed to within a congressionally dictated timetable, the government could designate an 'arbitration board' to write a labor contract that employers and workers would be forced to live under for two years. This is not just a problem for employers. Workers would not have any right to ratify or reject the contract."

Chao, “Our Workers Deserve Secret Ballots," Wall Street Journal, 01.14.09 

Secretary Chao articulates the concerns that have drawn widespread public opposition to the card check proposal, including the nearly 80 percent of Americans who opposed the plan when it was last brought to a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives. With mounting public opposition to this undemocratic proposal, will Democrats relent? Or will they move forward with their plan to reward special interest allies by taking away workers’ right to a secret ballot?

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