Secret Ballot Watch

As the two week congressional recess starts to wind down, it seems that the special interest spending spree in support of the anti-worker card check scheme has failed to sway public opinion as its backers had hoped. Despite a seven-figure ad buy, editorial pages from coast to coast and everywhere in between continue to denounce the card check ploy, which would deny workers the privacy and protection of secret ballot organizing elections in favor of a public sign-up process that leaves workers vulnerable to intimidation and coercion.

Nebraska’s Grand Island Independent is one of the latest papers in America’s heartland to come out against the so-called Employee Free Choice Act because it offers workers anything but a free choice when deciding whether to join a union. In an editorial published yesterday, the paper explained—  

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“The secret ballot option under the National Labor Relations Act has effectively protected the privacy of the worker’s vote by shielding workers from coercion or intimidation exerted by either management or labor organizers. Voters in all public elections have been protected in this same way since the founding of the Republic.

“This is big labor’s 4th attempt since 2003 to thwart the free and fair secret ballot election process that has been in place for 60 years.

“The proposed law allows a union to automatically organize a worksite if more than 50 percent of workers simply sign an authorization card, so pressure for employees to sign in public view would be enormous.

“The bill as it is written also imposes a contract through binding arbitration if labor and management reach a stalemate, thus involving Washington bureaucrats in basic decisions about jobs and business functions on a level never before experienced in this country. …

“The biggest crisis confronting Congress at present is the state of the nation’s economy. Heavily unionized industries such the auto industry and the airlines are in a fight for survival. The radical changes mandated by the EFCA would cripple the nation’s chances for full economic recovery, force middle class families to give up part of their shrinking take-home-pay for union dues, and reduce the competitiveness of U.S. businesses in the global marketplace.”

Editorial, “Employee Free Choice Act losing support in Congress,” Grand Island Independent, 04.14.09 

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As the Independent noted, the secret ballot protects workers from coercion or intimidation exerted by either management or labor organizers. Secret ballots are the only way to ensure workers truly enjoy free choice in the workplace. That’s why Republicans have proposed the Secret Ballot Protection Act, the only legislation that would guarantee that all future workplace organizing elections would be conducted with the protection and privacy of a secret ballot. If employee free choice is the goal, protecting the secret ballot is the answer.

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