Secret Ballot Watch

If you want to see what America’s economic future would be like under the Employee Free Choice Act, look to the north.

Canada has experimented with similar laws about the public sign-up card check process for forming unions, and that experience has not been good.  Card check and the forced arbitration that goes with it have wreaked havoc on our northern neighbor’s economy.

In fact, Canada’s card check laws have been so harmful that a group of Canadian business leaders gathered in Washington last month to warn American politicians about card check’s consequences.

But as the Toronto newspaper The Globe and Mail reported, at least one of our northern neighbors saw a bright side in a potential American card check system:   

---

“Several Canadian business leaders, including executives of Bank of Montreal, Canadian Tire dealers and a leading Toronto law firm, joined the fray at a gathering in Washington, where they implored Americans not to repeat Canada’s mistakes by making it too easy for unions to organize.

“‘In the interest of my Canadian clients, if Congress chooses to shoot itself in the commercial foot with this legislation, God bless you, because we’re constantly competing against you,’ said Stewart Saxe, a labour relations partner at Baker & McKenzie in Toronto.”

McKenna,“Anti-union Lobby Fears ‘Armageddon on Capitol Hill,’”The Globe and Mail, 07.08.09 

---

In other words, some Canadians want card check passed because America would be willing to weigh itself down to their level. And it would not be far to go: According to the latest Index of Economic Freedom, the United States has just a 0.2 point edge over Canada in the rankings of the freest economies in the world.

Passing EFCA would certainly grind down that edge even further and make America less economically competitive with Canada and other countries. It is just another reason why EFCA must fail.

# # #