Secret Ballot Watch

Recognizing that small businesses are critical to the American economy, the White House today hosted a conference on small businesses in which the Obama administration outlined new plans purportedly aimed at helping small businesses weather the economic storm. What the administration failed to mention, however, is that one of the greatest threats to small businesses today is the one-two punch of higher taxes and the job-killing card check ploy that could soon be making its way through Congress.

The card check plan has been panned by editorial boards and individual citizens who see it as a threat to an already struggling economy. Small businesses are seen as particularly vulnerable to the coercive tactics that would be possible under a card check system. Consider an editorial that appears in today’s Augusta Chronicle, entitled simply, “The job destroyer”:

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"How bad an idea is the ‘card check’ bill Democrats have introduced to force workers to vote yea or nay on unions right in front of their peers?

"It's such a bad idea that, with the mere threat of the legislation, Citigroup downgraded the stock of Wal-Mart, the world's leading retailer.

“The bill would be even more damaging to small business. And it would put a knife in the back of an economy already staggering from a housing and banking crisis.”

Editorial, “The job destroyer,” Augusta Chronicle, 03.16.09

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An editorial in Michigan’s Jackson Citizen Patriot agrees that the bill will be bad news for business:

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“The Employee Free Choice Act is a mistake and one that must not become law. It will drive up the cost of business and, ultimately, American-made products. …

“In fact, businesses would see higher costs thanks to the bill. One provision forces federal arbitration if employers and newly formed unions cannot reach a contract. Companies then would be locked into two-year labor deals whether they could afford them or not.”

Editorial, “Pro-union bill very bad for businesses,” Jackson Citizen Patriot, 03.15.09

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The Oklahoman weighed in this morning as well, echoing what economists have been saying for weeks about the impact on small businesses:

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“The business impacts are obvious. ‘Small businesses ... will find themselves besieged with insistent demands for unionization, for which they are ill-equipped to cope,’ writes law professor Richard Epstein. Card check will have the ‘worst possible consequences for the workplace and through it for the overall economy.’

“Lawyer and consultant Anne Layne-Farrar has studied the EFCA and believes for every 3 percentage points in union membership gained there will be a 1 percent increase in unemployment and a job creation decrease of about 1.5 million jobs.

“That’s serious business. Beyond the un-American notion of replacing the secret ballot with a system that fosters coercion — from garden-variety peer pressure to we-know-where-you-live tactics — card check will be bad for U.S. businesses, bad for a struggling economy.”

Editorial, “The Obama Plan: ‘Card check’ proposal bad for business, U.S. economy,” Oklahoman, 03.16.09

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A conference on small businesses is not going to blunt the very real anti-small businesses consequences of the card check plan. If Democrats are serious about helping small businesses, they can begin by rejecting the card check scheme once and for all. 

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