Congressional Democrats are backing a bill to abolish secret ballots in workplace union representation elections in exchange for the heavy financial support they received from labor unions, during the 2008 campaign, according to critics of the bill and business community advocates.
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA or Card Check) passed in the House last March but fell short of the 60 votes required for cloture in the Senate. Under current law, workers are guaranteed a federally supervised secret ballot election when formation of a new union is disputed.
Section Two of the Card Check bill declares that if unions obtain signatures from 50 percent plus one of a company’s workers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is required to certify the union without a secret ballot election.
Democratic supporters who claim the proposal permits secret ballots are being disingenuous and hypocritical, according to Card Check opponents, because an election cannot be held once enough cards are signed to mandate recognition of the new union.
Although a secret ballot election would still be technically possible under some circumstances, it would likely be impossible for workers opposed to a union to win it, said Glenn Spencer, executive director of the Workforce Freedom Initiative with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“To say you can have a secret ballot election under this bill is like saying you could step off an airplane after it takes off. In theory, you could; in practice you won’t,” Spencer said.
Moreover, there is no provision in the bill that would prevent union organizers from gathering additional cards, which means they could continue collecting until they break through the 50 percent threshold making it illegal to have an election, Spencer said.
The debate on the merits of a secret ballot has already been won by Card Check critics, which is why Card Check supporters are using such careful rhetoric, said Jeremy Lott, editor of the Capital Research Center’s Labor Watch newsletter.
“What President Obama and the Democrats are trying to do is indefensible and they know it,” he said. “The stimulus bill was used as a test to see if they would have enough raw muscle to force legislation. This will be the key question.”
In a 2001 letter addressed to Mexican officials, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), lead sponsor of the Card Check bill, and nine other Democratic co-sponsors, defended secret ballots as essential to protecting workers from being intimidated into voting for a union.
“They’ve had a tough time explaining that one away because it’s so obviously hypocritical,” Stefan Gleason, a National Right to Work Committee spokesman, said. “For those members of Congress to insist our trading partners respect the secret ballot, while they are trying to shred it in the U.S. puts them in a difficult situation, and they know it.”
So Card Check advocates, particularly signers of the 2001 letter, have fallen back on “red herring arguments” to rationalize their support for EFCA, Gleason said.
“Under card check, the union knows who voted for and who voted against,” he said. “The harassment, intimidation and late night visits begin once someone decides not to sign the card. Unions are not going to seek elections and the reality is workers will not be able to force an election to vote a union down because they will not have access to the cards. At the end of the day, if the card check bill passes there will almost never be a secret ballot election.”
Gleason also expressed concern over the amount of “coercive power” Card Check would give union leaders when the economy is in recession, and he cautioned against handing out additional privileges for organized labor.
He claimed the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 derailed what would have been a recovery and instead prolonged The Great Depression.
For more:
Card Check co-sponsors favor secret ballot for Mexico, but not for U.S. workers
State legislators, workers’ rights activists seek new safeguards for secret ballot.
Critics fear Card Check is bait for compulsory arbitration system.
