Secret Ballot Watch

Although the Employee Free Choice Act has been tied up for months in Congress, we already have an idea what one federal agency thinks about “card check,” a key part of the legislation.

Its verdict? “Unreliable.”

In September, The Washington Times reported that the Legal Services Corp., which provides grants to legal-aid groups that help the poor, determined the card check method of organizing to be flawed. Indeed, when some of its own workers wanted to organize that way, it flatly rejected the attempt. The Times picks up the story here:

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“The Legal Services Corp., a congressionally chartered, taxpayer-funded entity, even hired a law firm to rebuff the efforts of workers in its oversight offices to gain union representation by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), forcing the workers to conduct a vote by secret ballot later this week. 

“The LSC's decision has prompted concerns on Capitol Hill that the government may be trying to impose a solution on private businesses that its own agencies and panels are reluctant to follow. … 

“Employees in LSC oversight offices, with the help of the IFPTE, appealed to LSC President Helaine Barnett in a July 20 letter, asking her to accept authorization cards signed by ‘an overwhelming majority’ of workers signaling their intent to unionize. Ms. Barnett dismissed the request in a July 28 letter, saying that ‘authorization cards are often an unreliable indicator of support for a union,’ according to a copy of the correspondence obtained by The Times. … 

“The preference of the LSC, which is legally structured as a nonprofit corporation, for using the secret-ballot election process complies with federal organizing requirements. Federal agency employees, unlike their counterparts in the private sector, aren't permitted to unionize voluntarily using authorization cards. 

“‘They have to go through the secret-ballot election,’ said Sarah Whittle Spooner, legal counsel for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, which has jurisdiction over government agencies. ‘There is no process for voluntarily organizing in the federal sector.’”  

Carpenter, “Federal Program Rejects ‘Card Check’ Effort,” The Washington Times, 09.09.09  

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As the newspaper noted, it would be stunningly hypocritical for the government to force private businesses to accept card check drives through EFCA while protecting secret ballot organizing methods for its own workers. This is why lawmakers proposed the Secret Ballot Protection Act. That way, all workers – both private and public – can have a proven and reliable way to organize.  

But the government has been hypocritical on the secret ballot before. And it’s another reason why the Employee Free Choice Act must be defeated.

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