Secret Ballot Watch

They say that timing is everything, and now is a really bad time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Associated Press reported today that eight – count ‘em, eight – states saw record unemployment rates in May.  

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“The Labor Department says 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest recession since World War II was the worst in Michigan. Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent.

”The eight states that set records are: California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia.

“The West region reported the highest jobless rate at 10.1 percent. The last time any region had a rate of at least 10 percent was September 1983, when the country was emerging from a severe recession.”

Aversa, “Jobless rate in Western US tops 10 percent,” The Associated Press, 06.19.09 

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Record high unemployment – it’s yet another reason why Congress should not pass EFCA, a plan better known as card check for its provision that would allow unions to be formed through a public card signing process that eviscerates worker privacy.

As we’ve noted before, card check excels at killing jobs. To make it law now would rub salt into the open wound of this recession – and make matters even worse.

Under the proposal, if labor and management can’t agree on a contract after 120 days, the government steps in and essentially takes over the entire workplace for two years. Never mind if the bureaucrats who would run the business know anything about it. And never mind if the government contract is a bad deal for workers, who don’t get a chance to vote on the plan.

Of course, that assumes these workers still have a job at all – an open question if card check ever becomes law.

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