Secret Ballot Watch

With inside-the-beltway politicians and special interests plotting to take away workers’ right to a secret ballot, state and local leaders are fighting back. Indeed, in states across the country, grassroots movements are sprouting up to oppose or attempt to preempt the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, a bill more widely known as card check for its provision to replace federally-supervised secret ballot elections with a public sign-up process that opens workers up to intimidation and coercion.

For instance, organizers in South Dakota are spearheading a constitutional amendment to protect secret ballot elections.  

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“A petition drive has been started to pass a constitutional amendment that would require a secret ballot when South Dakota workers decide whether to form unions, a mandate that would run counter to a bill being considered by Congress.

“Organizers, including former U.S. Senate candidate Joel Dykstra of Canton, filed documents with the secretary of state's office Wednesday to start collecting petition signatures. If they collect 33,551 valid signatures by Nov. 2, the proposed amendment to the South Dakota Constitution would be put to a public vote in the 2010 general election. …

“The bill in Congress would allow a majority of employees at a company to organize a union by signing cards, a change from current practice that allows employers to mandate secret ballot elections. It also would boost penalties for retaliation against workers seeking to organize and call for arbitration if management and the union cannot agree on a first contract. …

“‘We're not anti-union. We just believe employees should have the right to select their representation by secret ballot,’ Dykstra said.”

“Proposal fights union organizing plan,” Sioux City Journal, 04.24.09 

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And in the state next door, North Dakota legislators are pursuing a proposal that would urge the state’s congressional delegation to oppose the card check bill when it is considered in Washington. 

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“A bill being proposed in Congress gets some attention in the North Dakota House...

“Representatives vote today to urge North Dakota's delegation and the U.S. Congress to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.

“The act would change the way unions are organized.

“(Rep. Jim Kasper) ‘What this process does in the Employee Free Choice Act is to eliminate the 50 day period before an election is held and to eliminate the secret ballot final vote of the employees. It also eliminates the opportunity for the employer to be able to meet with employees, bargain with them to learn their concerns and issues, and attempt to resolve them before a union is put in place.’”

“Employee Free Choice,” KXNet.com, 04.23.09

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State legislators apparently understand what some in the U.S. Congress do not – workers need real free choice, not a forced choice imposed through public pressure (in the form of card check organizing) or government bureaucrats (through contracts on which workers have no say).

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