Secret Ballot Watch

The concept of card check – where everyone knows whether you wish to join a particular union, whether you want them to or not – is not the only reason why Americans are against the Employee Free Choice Act.

There are plenty of bad ideas to go around in this proposal.  

One equally troubling – and lesser known – aspect of the bill is that it can deny workers the right to vote on their first contract.

The forced government contracts would put federal arbitrators in charge of wages and benefits for two years if employers and union representatives can’t agree on a contract within four months of a union’s creation.

Even SEIU chief Andy Stern seems to back off his insistence on card check in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times editorial board. But he repeats the myth that these forced government contracts – binding arbitration – are non-controversial.  

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“Jim Newton, L.A. Times: What's the status of the Employee Free Choice Act?

“Andy Stern: I'd say … that the business community has done a remarkable job; I wish they had done a remarkable job running the economy as they have spending their time running against people's opportunity to try to get ahead. I think the bill is being -- I always like to say, we need to appreciate that the Senate is like a car wash: You put a Ford Explorer in, you get a Ford Focus out the other side. Whatever starts as a bill doesn't happen, so we are now in the process of seeing, you know, Sen. [Dianne] Feinstein suggested some ideas to think about.

“I think everybody now agrees that there needs to be binding arbitration; not everyone, I'd say there's an overwhelming majority that agrees there needs to be binding arbitration.

“Newton: A majority of the Senate?

“Stern: A majority of the Senate, yeah. An overwhelming majority appreciates the election procedures are not right, they're not balanced, they're not fair, and the penalties are not adequate, and the speed is not appropriate. And there's a discussion about are there ways to change what is affectionately called card check to make it more like a secret ballot and less like what people are concerned about, being coerced or intimidated by the union side to try to sign it.

“So I'd say there's an active discussion as opposed to for a while there was not much going on. I'd say the senator's comments are indicative that people are actually engaged in trying to find a way forward.”

Transcript, “SEIU’s Andy Stern on his relationship with Obama, Schwarzenegger and more,” Los Angeles Times, 05.20.09 

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While his acknowledgement of the pitfalls of card check – workers being coerced or intimidated by the union side to sign cards – is refreshing, the notion that there is agreement about the need for forced government contracts is simply out of touch.

Under this arbitration model, Washington bureaucrats would be in charge of figuring out salaries and benefits like vacation days. They would also determine work rules that decide what employees can do and when they can do it.

And what if the bureaucrats know nothing about the particular business they are now in charge of? Too bad.

Picture a bureaucrat decreeing a boost in vacation time for accountants in April.

Or declaring fewer job duties for retail workers in December.

That’s probably why former Senator George McGovern – once the Democratic party’s standard bearer, and an ally of organized labor – objects to binding arbitration. It’s bad for workers and American businesses. And it’s plenty controversial.

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