Secret Ballot Watch

Much of the criticism surrounding the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act has focused on the card check provision of the legislation. Under that proposal, workers would be denied a secret ballot in union organizing elections, and instead would be asked to publicly declare whether they wish to join a particular union by signing a card.

While the criticism of that provision is well-deserved, far less attention has been paid to an equally disturbing proposal that would once again strip workers and business owners of their rights. Under the plan, government bureaucrats would be empowered to impose work rules, pay scales, and benefit plans if a newly-formed union cannot reach agreement with management within just 120 days. Neither workers nor business owners would be able to modify or reject the plan, leaving both sides shackled to a government-imposed contract for two years.

These forced government contracts are a radical departure from longstanding labor law, and they’re drawing strong opposition. Just yesterday, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spelled out the dangers to workers and job-creating American businesses. The Hill has the story: 

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“Romney used a Monday conference call to attack a little-noticed provision in the bill that would require binding arbitration if a union and a business cannot come to a labor agreement within 120 days, which Romney called ‘about as un-American a thing as I can imagine.’

“‘Legislation of this nature would be calamitous for the U.S. economy, short term and long term,’ Romney said Monday. ‘This act represents an unprecedented attack on the individual rights of American workers and American citizens.

“‘You're basically saying the workers in a workplace and the management that is running the enterprise will not be able to set their own work rules,’ added Romney, who as governor vetoed a similar bill in his final year in office in Massachusetts. He called arbitration ‘a grab of power by the federal government.’

“Most of the focus on the bill has been on the so-called ‘card-check’ provision, which would allow workers to form a union if more than half of a company's employees sign union cards. Labor groups hope the bill would reverse the decades-long decline in union membership, while businesses have argued the provision will hurt them in an era of economic hardship.

“But some business lobbyists say binding arbitration worries them more than card-check does, as arbitration would hand over decisions about everything from contracts to healthcare to a government arbitrator.”

Wilson, “Romney slams binding arbitration,” The Hill, 04.13.09 

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The card check bill’s attack on workers’ privacy is a serious concern. But the attack on workers’ and employers’ right to negotiate contracts must not be overlooked.

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