George McGovern is a cheerleader for Barack Obama, and so you know it had to take a mighty matter of conscience for him to throw a stumbling block in the candidate’s way.
He did just that, however, by appearing in a nationally televised commercial expressing concern “about a bill in Congress that would effectively eliminate an employee’s right to a private vote when deciding whether to join a union.”
“It’s hard to believe that any politician would agree to a law denying millions of employees the right to a private vote,” the ex-senator said. “I have always been a champion of labor unions. But I fear that today’s union leaders are turning their backs on democratic workplace elections. . . . Quite simply, this proposed law cannot be justified. Working families deserve a voice and a private vote.”
He is obviously right, only I would express it in tougher language: Union leaders are up to something despicably foul and it is in fact difficult to grasp how any halfway decent politicians would say, hey, OK, let’s do this base thing — let’s strip away secret ballots in union-formation votes so that card-signing workers can be bullied into doing what union organizers wish.
And yet, hard to believe or not, politicians are agreeable to this deed, including what seems to be all or certainly most congressional Democrats and, of course, Obama. Many of these characters trot out a handy excuse for their perfidy, namely that we really, really need lots more unions and that employers have used the present system unfairly to get their own way.
Of course, even if things were slanted on the employers’ side — and they aren’t — this argument is a way of saying the end justifies the means, and the end would not be so wonderful, anyway.
It’s certainly the case that unions have done some good here and there, but it is equally true that they have done bad here and there, such as gross exploitation of the people they pretend to represent by misusing pension funds and stifling job-producing economic growth through strikes that made no sense.
Despite saying so, unions aren’t necessarily workers’ friends, which may be one reason something like 92 percent of those in the private sector aren’t union members, relying instead on laws and ever-more enlightened management for protection of their interests.
Whatever anyone thinks of unions, however, it ought to be clear to everyone that there is no difference in principle between taking away the right to secret ballots in union elections and doing the same thing in congressional elections or the election of a president.
Free choice becomes a joke when our choices are known even when we would rather they not be. Not much imagination is required to think of a long list of ways in which intimidation can be brought to bear by all kinds of forces.
Maybe some of those supporting this power grab are just ideologically blind, but let’s don’t overlook all the money and volunteer work unions dish out to campaigns. Could it be that something on the order of corruption is having its day?
Surely, you say, that could not be true of Saint Obama, but there he is, holding this banner high, ready to sign a bill into law if he is elected and the Democrats extend their control of Congress.
One Democrat, at any rate, isn’t having any, even if his saying so could draw the ire of some friends and do damage to other political druthers.
Thanks for the integrity, Senator McGovern.
Examiner columnist Jay Ambrose is a former Washington opinion writer and editor of two dailies. He can be reached at: [email protected].
