Secret Ballot Watch

In this era of government-run banks, insurers, and car companies, it is unfortunately not a surprise that another government bailout may be in the offing.

An editorial in today’s Washington Examiner looks at the looming pension funding crisis among multi-employer pension plans and speculates about how pending card check legislation could put taxpayers, workers, and businesses in the position of bailing out these underfunded plans:  

---

“Private firms could be required to save underfunded union pension plans even if doing so reduces profits and jeopardizes the retirement savings of non-union workers. That's the consequence of a binding arbitration provision in a proposal now before Congress. The provision is included in the horribly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) and may actually be the primary driving force behind the measure, which is described by labor bosses as their top legislative priority for 2009. …

“Card Check would not bar federal arbitrators from forcing companies into union-negotiated multi-employer pension plans, many of which are severely underfunded and staggering under steadily increasing rising liabilities. Pensions for nearly half of the nation’s 20 largest unions are classified as either ‘endangered’ or in ‘critical’ condition due to underfunding, according to federal actuarial reports. …

“…a Card Check compromise that includes mandatory arbitration would give unions that inadequately funded their pension plans a backdoor way to get a bailout, paid for either by the company or the tax payers.”

Editorial, “Forcing companies to bail out failing union pensions,” The Washington Examiner, 06.18.09 

---

By empowering federal bureaucrats to dictate everything from work rules to pension benefits, the binding arbitration provision of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act disenfranchises workers and the employers who actually create jobs.

Worse still, it could put unsuspecting workers and their employers on the hook for billions in unfunded liabilities. And if they can’t pick up the tab? Could a taxpayer bailout be far away?

# # #