Secret Ballot Watch

Earlier today, Democrats formally introduced the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would replace federally-supervised secret ballot elections with a public sign-up process that opens workers up to public pressure, intimidation, coercion, and retribution. Introduction of the legislation was carefully timed to follow a hearing in the U.S. Senate designed to make the case for this undemocratic scheme. What card check supporters may not have anticipated was that today’s hearing was a showcase for exactly why card check should not become law.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard testimony from a worker who saw firsthand what he called the pressure, badgering, and intimidation that comes from a card check public sign-up process. Larry Getts, an Employee of Dana Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, described his experience:

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“Union organizers waited for us in the break room, sat with us at lunch whether we wanted them to or not, and walked us to our cars at the end of the day.

“The entire time they were constantly badgering us to sign the cards. …

“I refused to sign the card every time they asked, and I know many others shared my sentiment.

“But none of that mattered to the UAW, because the pressure did not let up.

“In fact, one day, an official approached me again claiming fifty percent of the plant had signed -- so now I was going to have to sign the card to 'get my information in the system.'

“I signed the card then because I thought I had to. 

“I didn’t learn until later that even then, I should not have been forced to sign the card. …

“I hope you’ll vote to defeat the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.”

Larry Getts, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, 03.10.09

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Even after hearing this disturbing account, card check supporters apparently have not been deterred. The legislation has now formally been introduced, never mind the fact that a worker who had experienced the intimidation of the card check scheme was only moments earlier pleading that the bill be defeated. If Democrats aren’t listening to workers, who are they listening to?

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