For the last 70 years the NLRA has provided a framework of industrial democracy that is second to none in the world. But organized labor says the law needs to be changed because management intimidates workers and uses the election process as a way to fire union organizers. Union bosses want to replace secret ballots with a "card check" process which they say would be more transparent.Companies oppose the plan because it would involve more government interference in the private sector and would increase cost at a time when the economy is very fragile.
A few thoughts from this former union member, organizer and negotiator:
- In a Zogby poll union members by the stunning margin of 84% to 11% said that employees should have the right to vote whether to join a union
- Despite Big Labor's claim that secret ballot elections limit unionization, unions last year won a full two-thirds-66%- of the elections they called
- Despite the claim of labor bosses that employers can use the ballot process to intimidate workers into voting against union representation, fewer than 3% of union elections end up with employees fired for organizing the shop
- No less than the U.S. Supreme Court 40 years ago (the liberal Warren Court) said that the card check process is "admittedly inferior to the election process."
- Rather than management intimidating union organizers, the federal courts have found that it is the union bosses who sometimes use the card check process to bully workers into joining a union.
- When the Democratic congressmen who will once again approve this bill in the new Congress met to elect their leadership following the November election they voted in secret--the very same right they now seek to take away from workers.
I'm all for pro-worker legislation. But not a bad bill that would only result in swelling the coffers of union bosses without having any noticeable effect on the lives of working men and women.
Just thought you might like to know.
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