Secret Ballot Watch

All across America, from rural communities and small towns to large cities and urban centers, an alarm is being sounded about Democrats’ dangerous card check proposal. This anti-worker plan—trampling worker privacy by using a public sign-up process rather than a secret ballot election when workers decide whether to join a particular union—is triggering concern among American employers who worry that it will harm their workers, drive up their costs, and lead to further job losses. Workers at businesses of every size, from small, family-run businesses to community-based industries, would be vulnerable to the threat of intimidation, public pressure, or outright coercion under the card check scheme.

Consider some of the warnings being heard in communities across the nation, like this one, in Appleton, Wisconsin— 

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 "Milwaukee attorney Jon Levine spoke on Thursday at a forum to prime attendees on the impending legislation, which promises to be the most sweeping change in the national labor law in 75 years.

"'I personally view this as the union equivalent of a government bailout,' Levine said. 'It is a remarkably short piece of legislation that packs a remarkably large punch.'"

Bach, “Employee Free Choice Act compared to a union 'bailout',” Appleton Post-Crescent, 01.23.09 

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"More than 100 area hotel executives heard local labor relations lawyer Tim Davis … outline the measure’s political prospects (very good) and its economic consequences (very bad) on business.

"'This is a huge deal if it passes,' Davis said. The 'employee forced choice act,' as he calls it, 'will absolutely change the way the world works.' The measure is being pushed by organized labor as a remedy to its declining U.S. membership rolls. As currently drafted, the measure’s key and most controversial provision would eliminate secret balloting by workers and force a company to bargain with a union once it gained 50 percent plus one worker’s signatures on 'card check' forms."

Alm, “Pro-union act comes at inopportune time for lodging industry,” Kansas City Star, 01.20.09

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States are already fighting to protect their workers by ensuring the secret ballot is a guaranteed right. But with Democrats intent on enactment of this special interest payback, it’s no wonder workers and employers are getting nervous.

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