A conservative commentator says by pushing controversial “card check” legislation so early in the Obama administration, congressional Democrats are demonstrating they have “misplaced priorities” and an earnest desire to reward Big Labor for helping fund their reelection campaigns.


Democrats in both houses of Congress have introduced the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow a union to form after enough workers in a shop sign cards or petitions, rather than voting by secret ballot. The measure, which failed in the Senate in 2007, was reintroduced by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and California Representative George Miller.

Allison Kasic of the Independent Women’s Forum says the largest threat posed by the so-called “card check” bill is the elimination of the secret ballot.

Allison Kasic IWF”Privacy is something that is essential to American democracy. From student council elections up to presidential elections, we always vote with the privacy of the secret ballot, and that allows us to vote our conscience rather than caving in to peer pressure or voting who we think our boss is going to vote for or anything like that,” she explains. “What card check would do is rob workers of that right to privacy when it comes to unionization elections — and that’s just tremendously undemocratic.”

Kasic notes that although Democrats need 60 votes to pass the bill in the Senate, the legislation is “tremendously unpopular with everyone except organized labor” in several states with Democratic senators.