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EDITORIAL: Secret ballot elections are American workers' right
(The Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 15--Few things in America are more precious than the right of people to set the course for their futures by means of the secret ballot.
That's why the criminally misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act" is one of the worst pieces of legislation ever considered by Congress. That this bill even has a chance of passage is a sure sign of its backers' -- largely Democrats -- slavish devotion to their Big Labor supporters.
The Employee Free Choice Act isn't about "free choice" at all. It's about allowing American workers to be intimidated by union organizers into forming a labor union. The bill, defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate in 2007, was reintroduced into Congress last week. A vote is expected sometime around Easter. President Obama supports the bill.
Commonly known as the "card check" bill, the Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate the secret ballot workplace elections that allow workers to decide if they want to join a union. Under current law, such elections are triggered when at least 30 percent of eligible employees at a company sign a card indicating their interest in forming a union. The collection of the cards and submission of a petition to join a union triggers a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, usually in less than 50 days.
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow the formation of a union based solely on the collection of signatures from a majority of employees. That exposes employees to the brazen coercion and intimidation of union organizers. Imagine being cornered in a company lunchroom by four or five union supporters, each telling you that you should stand with your fellow workers. You support your fellow workers, don't you? It's kind of hard to say "No." There's no opportunity to vote as one's conscience dictates when there is no secret ballot.
The Employee Free Choice Act also removes the bargaining from "collective bargaining" by forcing companies to accept arbitration if no first contract is reached within 120 days. Arbitrators know nothing about how a particular business operates. How would allowing them to dictate terms of a contract help that business survive in a difficult economy? Why would union representatives make any helpful concessions when they know arbitration is just 120 days away? Surely we don't want government dictating the terms of labor contracts.
It's outrageous that senators and representatives would deny workers the same protections of secret ballot elections that put them in office. Would any of them stand for being removed from office based solely on cards collected in favor of an opponent? Of course not.
Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act perversely argue that the law is necessary because the secret ballot election allows intimidation of workers by management. The law clearly dictates what employers may or may not say in the course of campaigning prior to the election. It's hard to see how that is "intimidation." But if there is any intimidation, strengthen the existing law, don't replace the possibility of intimidation with the certainty of it.
This bill isn't about workers' rights. It's about Big Labor's decadeslong loss of power and its attempt to reverse that trend. Let your senators and representatives know that if secret ballots are good enough to put them in office, they're good enough to protect the rights of American workers.
To see more of The Eagle-Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.eagletribune.com/.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Eagle-Tribune, North Andover, Mass.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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