House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

It seems that every day brings a new critique of the cynical "card check" legislation passed by the House last year.  The latest ... Mickey Kaus writes at Slate.com:

It's a permanent structural change in the economy. With "card check," unions wouldn't have to win the right to represent workers in a regular secret ballot election. They'd merely have to collect cards from a majority of workers. ...

You can be against "card check" for all the various process reasons we normally favor secret ballot elections--privacy, freedom from intimidation--and still favor greater unionization of the American work force.

The "card check" bill isn't about helping workers, as its supporters contend, but about stripping them of their right to a secret-ballot election to boost the shrinking union ranks.  This isn't the change workers deserve.

Posted in Card Check | 0 Comments | Permalink

Ever since it was rushed through the House last year, the Democrats' "card check" bill -- deceptively named the "Employee Free Choice Act" despite the fact that it strips workers of the right to free choice through a secret-ballot election -- has been panned by critics of all ideological stripes.  The latest critique appears in today's Politico, in a piece written by John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates.

Labor will spend exorbitant amounts of money to elect a Democratic president and to secure a filibuster-proof Senate, so the threat of EFCA being enacted is real. . .

Voters intrinsically support the concept of private ballot elections. They are worried about the potential of workers being coerced and intimidated under the card-check scheme. And they see little need to change the existing balance in current labor laws to make it easier for unions to organize nonunion workplaces.

More important, they resent and oppose efforts to take away an individual’s right to a private and secret ballot.

Luckily for workers, Senate Republicans last year blocked this Big Labor power grab.  As Rep. McKeon noted at the time, workplace democracy is still on safe ground ... for now.  Unfortunately, the threat to workplace democracy remains all too real.

Posted in Card Check | 0 Comments | Permalink