Veterans, Beware of "Card Check"

By Mike Griffith, Staff Writer

Veterans, do you work at a non-union factory or for a large non-union franchise like Costco or Wal-Mart?  If union organizers attempted to form a union where you work, would you want to be able to vote on this matter in the privacy of a secret ballot election?  Would you resent being publicly pressured to sign a union organizing petition (or "card")?  Are you one of those folks who doesn’t want to see your company crippled or bankrupted by a bad union, such as what the UAW has done to GM, Ford, and Chrysler?  If so, you need to be aware that there is a bill pending in Congress that would take away your right to a secret ballot and would make it easier for union organizers to pressure you into voting to form a union.  And if the bill makes it through Congress, President Obama has promised to sign it.

As with many coercive labor schemes, the bill is misnamed the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  Nicknamed "Card Check," this bill has nothing to do with free choice and everything to do with making it easier for unions to pressure workers into forming unions and with making it harder for companies to get rid of unions, even if the union is indisputably corrupt.

EFCA apologists claim that Card Check would not abolish the secret ballot.  This is a phony argument, not to mention a dishonest one.  Technically, secret ballots would still be possible under Card Check, but under the EFCA’s provisions they would be virtually unheard of.  Why?  Well, for one thing, under Card Check there would only be a secret ballot if union organizers requested one.  Figure the odds of that ever happening.  Labor leaders have long railed against the secret ballot, so it’s no surprise that under Card Check there would be no secret ballot unless they asked for one.

Card Check defenders are lying about this provision of the EFCA because they know that in poll after poll the vast majority of Americans, and even a majority of union workers, favor the secret ballot.  Didn’t we learn long ago that public ballots lead to corruption and intimidation?  Most people understand this basic, commonsense lesson of history.  Card Check’s defenders know all this too, so they are doing their best to make people believe that the EFCA would not end the secret ballot. 

Another key provision of Card Check is that if by some miracle union organizers agreed to request a secret ballot, the voting would be supervised by . . . the union!  Under current law, federal officials from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) supervise all organizing elections.  Under Card Check, this supervision would be ended.  How convenient.

In addition, under the EFCA, once a union got 50% plus 1 of a company’s employees to sign an organizing card, the company would eventually have no choice but to recognize the union, even if the union had a reputation for mismanagement and/or incompetence and/or corruption. 

It’s no wonder, then, that groups and public figures from across the political spectrum oppose Card Check.  For example, the National Black Chamber of Congress has come out strongly against the EFCA, calling it "a business killer."  Former Senator George McGovern, the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee in 1972, has condemned Card Check and urges his fellow Democrats to reject it.  And small business associations overwhelmingly oppose it.

This has nothing to do with any desire to end labor unions.  Union membership has been steadily declining over the last two decades, not because of some vast conspiracy to crush labor unions, but because numerous federal labor laws have made unions substantially unnecessary.  Jonah Goldberg has made this point well:

"Organized labor is not dead in America, nor should it be. But it’s simply not as important as it once was, because the government has an alphabet soup of agencies dedicated to protecting the rights of workers. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, OSHA, and the Family and Medical Leave Act make the need for unions far less acute."

Many unions behave ethically and perform a valuable service for their members.  Sometimes unions provide needed protection against unethical businesses.  But many other unions are corrupt or grossly incompetent and end up hurting the people they’re supposed to help.  Most people have no objection to unions, as long as they’re formed without fraud or intimidation, as long as they aren’t forced on companies that don’t want them, and as long as they deal fairly with employers.  Card Check would remove longstanding checks and balances against union abuses and would end up costing America hundreds of thousands of jobs. 

Sources for Further Study:

Labor’s "Card Check" Tricks 

Card Check’s Bounce

Union Recognition — Secret Ballot Elections and Card Check Schemes

Rapid Response: Employee Free Choice Act

Minority Business Advocates Wage War on Card Check

Secret Ballots are Free Choice

Card Check Bill Isn’t Good for Workers

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