Secret Ballot Watch

Although card check remains the top legislative priority among union bosses, the Las Vegas Sun is reporting that internal squabbles may be threatening prospects for the controversial plan.

It’s good news for workers, but the big spending special interests behind the bill will certainly be disappointed: 

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“After spending hundreds of millions of dollars to win Democratic majorities in Congress and elect Barack Obama president, the labor movement’s No. 1 legislative priority — a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize — is in severe jeopardy, in large part because of high-profile infighting among some the country’s most progressive unions.

“Exhibit A: Unite Here General President Bruce Raynor resigned last week from the apparel and hotel workers union after six months of legal and verbal jousting with co-president John Wilhelm over union resources and the direction of Unite Here.

“He said he decided to quit after Wilhelm’s allies, accompanied by nearly a dozen security guards, broke into his New York union office and stole personal files related to mediation sessions aimed at reconciling the two leaders’ differences. Raynor likened the incident to something one would see on the HBO mob series ‘The Sopranos.’”

Mishak, “Card check might be union war’s collateral damage,” Las Vegas Sun, 06.03.09 

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The Raynor-Wilhelm feud may seem like an unrelated sideshow, but in truth, it paints a revealing picture about the consequences of this ill-considered legislation.

The card check organizing method called for in the legislation has received the greatest public scrutiny, but the forced government contracts – called for in the form of binding arbitration – are equally troubling.

Under the legislation, businesses and union leaders who are unable to sort out a complex first contract within 120 days would hand over the reins to a panel of federal arbitrators to hash out salaries, benefits, work rules, and much more.

Empowering a federal bureaucrat to take over every single business that is unable to secure a contract within a compressed timeline is a disturbing prospect. And not just to business owners.

It seems that union leaders have the same concerns about relinquishing their bargaining rights. In fact, the same John Wilhelm cited in the Unite Here spat wrote to SEIU President Andy Stern last month to object to his proposal for arbitration as a means to resolve the union’s internal dispute:  

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“No International Union has ever submitted its very future—its membership, its organizing jurisdiction, and its financial resources—to arbitration.”

John W. Wilhelm Letter to Andy Stern, 05.01.09 

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Wilhelm has every reason to object. Whether we’re talking about a job-creating business or an international labor union, no organization would welcome the idea of handing critical decisions over to a nameless, faceless bureaucrat.

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