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Secret Ballot Watch

You Want Jobs? “Take ‘card check’ off the table”

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 4, 2009 | Alexa Marrero or Ryan Murphy ((202) 225-4527)

With much fanfare, the Obama Administration held a “jobs summit” yesterday in an all but direct acknowledgement that their massive $787 billion so-called “stimulus” package had not produced the jobs they had promised. The White House invited a friendly audience to discuss how the government can help jumpstart the job market. Union leaders – regular visitors to the White House – were in attendance, and no doubt the Employee Free Choice Act was on their minds. 

Whether or not EFCA was discussed, the fact the job-killing “card check” bill still remains in the Democrat playbook has many businesses and entrepreneurs on alert. In an open letter to President Obama today, Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, provided some candid advice to the president on how to ease the concerns of America’s business community and bring job growth back. High up on that list was to “take ‘card check’ off the table:”



Entrepreneurial companies are less likely to hire people if they face a secret unionization movement. Unions are looking backward - rather than focusing on creating next-generation jobs. They are seeking to swell their ranks through anti-democratic and bureaucratic maneuvering. Union membership is falling because workers in an innovation economy need the flexibility to adapt their jobs to address market demands. Unions kill innovation.

Gary Shapiro, “An Open Letter to President Obama on the Jobs Summit,” The Huffington Post, 12.04.09



It remains to be seen whether the Obama Administration and their congressional allies will heed the advice of America’s job creators. With unprecedented deficit spending, an intrusive government takeover of health care, and cap and tax also on the docket, businesses may be forced to wait and see when the next tax hike or burdensome mandate comes around. In the meantime, more Americans will have to continue to ask “where are the jobs.”

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