Secret Ballot Watch

With yesterday’s news that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter will join Senate Republicans—and perhaps a handful of Senate Democrats as well—in opposing the anti-worker card check plan, it seems that workplace democracy is on safer ground, at least for now. Of course, efforts to tilt the playing field in favor of special interests are sure to continue, so it’s a safe bet that this controversial scheme, or something like it, will be resurrected soon.

The plan’s use of a card check process for organizing unions has drawn much of the opposition. Rather than protecting workers’ freedom to vote by secret ballot, without fear of intimidation, coercion, or retribution, the card check plan would force workers to publicly sign cards if they wish to organize, making both union organizers and management well aware of their vote.

As bad as the card check scheme is, it’s far from the only reason the legislation deserves defeat. As legal scholar Richard Epstein wrote yesterday, in The Washington Times:

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“So now it appears that unions may be prepared to scrap the card check - if they can salvage the more insidious portion of the EFCA, its compulsory arbitration provision.

“Here is what the key provision says: Once mediation has failed, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service ‘shall refer the dispute to an arbitration board established in accordance with such regulations as may be prescribed by the Service.’ The arbitration decision then binds the parties for two years.

“For the layman, here is what it means: An outpost of the Labor Department, the mediation service, will set the terms of all new labor contracts in the United States. It will do so under provisions that are undefined under the act. The FMCS will have sole authority to pick the arbitration panel, which will have the power to draft, on its own initiative, detailed contract provisions, tables and appendices that can run to more than 1,000 pages. The arbitrators' decision will be final: The EFCA allows neither employers nor unions to appeal arbitrators' decisions to a neutral judicial body. …

“As government arbitrators dither in deciding on terms for that initial two-year decree, the global competition will hobble the firm's economic prospects, leading to massive losses and job layoffs.”

Epstein, “Mandatory Labor Arbitration,” The Washington Times, 03.24.09

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Workers across the country can breathe a momentary sigh of relief thanks to Republicans in the U.S. Senate standing firmly against this misguided legislation. But no one concerned about workers’ rights and the U.S. economy should rest too comfortably. The battle for workers’ rights is sure to continue.

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