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Secret Ballot Watch

Card Check: Public Policy or Political Theater?

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15, 2009 | Alexa Marrero ((202) 225-4527)
Faced with an unpopular product, supporters of the controversial Employee Free Choice Act are doing what any desperate marketer might: bringing in celebrity endorsements.  

“…the AFL-CIO recruited the star power of 47 actors, musicians, Broadway performers, comedians, writers, and others to support a bill in Congress that would make it easier for unions to organize.”

Rhee, “Unions call out 'star power',” Boston Globe, 05.14.09  

Of course, backers of this undemocratic plan are going to need more than a slick marketing campaign to convince the American people to take away workers’ right to form a union through a secret ballot election and to have a voice and a vote on their first contract.

There’s also a danger that all this political theater might backfire. The Employee Free Choice Act has always been viewed as a whopper of a bill name. But Bob McWilliams, a columnist for Maryland’s The Capital, sees the misnamed legislation as part of larger trend—  

“These days, our laws and political hopefuls are packaged in much the same way as laundry detergent or lipstick. The Democrats are especially good at this game. According to them, it's not a ‘war on terror,’ it's an ‘overseas contingency operation.’ …

The goal isn't to communicate; the goal is to define issues in a way that best supports a political position. With Cover Girl cosmetics, we played the same game, but we had a bunch of lawyers who demanded our advertising claims be properly substantiated.

In today's government, you have a bunch of politicians who aren't held to a similar standard. …

“The ‘name’ of a bill is also often titled in a way that fails to communicate its contents. Why give legislation a restrictive name such as Card Check, when you can call it the Employee Free Choice Act? How could anyone be against a bill called the Employee Free Choice Act?”

McWilliams, “Plain Speaking: Be wary of government marketing, it could be a bait and switch,” The Capital, 05.15.09 

Celebrity endorsements and marketing ploys? Sounds like card check’s proponents are trying to sell the American people something that they’re just not interested in.

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