Secret Ballot Watch

A majority of Americans – 74 percent, to be precise – think the card check process for publicly disclosing workers’ votes on whether to join a union is a bad idea. Now, our neighbors to the north are weighing in as well. A columnist for the Calgary Herald today spelled out in great detail the anti-worker consequences if a card check scheme is imposed on the American workforce. It’s a subject Canadians know well, having experienced the consequences of card check organizing in their own workplaces in recent years.

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“Once approved, this [card check] bill will deny workers the right to a secret ballot vote when deciding if they want to unionize their workplace. Unionization will instead be determined by a distinctly non-democratic process called card check, where a workplace is automatically unionized if 50 per cent plus one workers sign cards supporting certification.

"Card signing frees unions from having to win people over with dreary concepts likes facts, free choice and democracy. Signatures are very public, and are often obtained after coercive and intimidating encounters with union organizers.

“In some cases, misinformation is provided and workers are led to believe that everyone else has signed and they will be stigmatized as the lone holdout if they fail to get on board. In other cases, organizers approach employees who are most likely to sign and leave those who would reject unionization in the dark. They may not even know a union drive exists until a Notice of Certification is posted. …

“John Mortimer is president of the Canadian LabourWatch Association. He says the American bill is essentially ‘a knock-off of the worst of Canadian labour law’ and that ‘much of Canada has been subject to similar laws proposed by this Bill for decades.’ He cites research showing that unionization increases dramatically with card checks (by an estimated 25 to 40 per cent compared to secret-ballot votes) and results in a negative impact on employee productivity, a 28 to 50 per cent reduction in research and development spending, and a 15 per cent reduction in profits.”

Martinuk, “Obama's labour law will bring harassment,” Calgary Herald, 03.06.09

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This Canadian cautionary tale comes just a day after a new study was released – based in large measure on the Canadian card check experience – showing that America is likely to see a 1 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate for every 3 percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration. That translates to 600,000 American jobs lost in the first year after the card check plan is enacted if union bosses are accurate in their predictions that 1.5 million existing jobs will be unionized because of the legislation. Rather than putting hundreds of thousands or even millions of American jobs in jeopardy, it seems like we might want to take the Canadians’ word for it and discard the card check once and for all.

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