Secret Ballot Watch

Opposition continues to mount against the undemocratic card check scheme, with small businesses speaking up this week about how the controversial legislation is bad for their workers and bad for the economy.

The Senate Republican Policy Committee and Senate Republican Conference joined together yesterday to host a hearing on small businesses and how they would be impacted by the so-called Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, more widely known as card check, would replace federally-supervised secret ballot organizing elections with a notoriously unreliable public sign-up process.

The bill also threatens American businesses, small and otherwise, with unprecedented federal interference through a new binding arbitration scheme that would put government bureaucrats in charge of how they operate. These new rules would be imposed for two years – with no opportunity for either businesses or workers to object – if unions and management cannot reach agreement within 120 days.

In response to these heavy-handed, anti-growth proposals, small business leaders have spoken out in opposition to card check or anything like it. Here’s just a sampling of the testimony delivered yesterday:  

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“It is no coincidence that the world’s most innovative companies are based in the United States. From semiconductors to computers, from games to Internet services, our entrepreneurial culture has made us the world’s economic leader,” said Kathy Gornik, President of THIEL Audio Products Company. “Unfortunately, a bill you are considering, S.560, the ironically named “Employee Free Choice Act” – would irreparably break our innovation culture, harm existing businesses and make it infinitely harder for anyone to start a new enterprise.”

“Workers should—as the title of this bill suggests—be free to choose whether to unionize or not. Unfortunately, the terms of the bill are the antithesis of what its title advertises,” said Eugene Scalia, a partner with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and former Solicitor with the U.S. Department of Labor.

“If we as a nation are interested in economic recovery, job creation, and developing the new technologies and industries of the future – the Employee Free Choice Act is a bad starting point,” said Augustine Martinez, President & CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.   

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Although the voices of small business leaders and labor experts are compelling, nothing can compare to the words of a worker who has seen – and been subjected to – the pressure and coercion that are linked to card check.  

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“Currently, workers like me are confronted with union intimidation on a daily basis and I believe this would only be heightened under a card check system. Even in secret ballot elections co-workers bully and coerce others into joining the union. The elimination of the secret ballot under the Employee Free Choice Act would only serve to make the threats of union organizers that much more effective and intimidating. … The secret ballot is not only our fundamental right, but the only safe and fair way that can allow a worker to decide whether or not to join a union,” said Frank Cannon, an employee with C.J. Coakley Co., Inc.  

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Support for card check seems to be evaporating at every turn, and with compelling stories like these, it’s no wonder.

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