In today’s Washington Examiner, Rick Berman highlights what is likely to be one of President Obama’s top priorities — passing the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act,” a giveaway to unions that is undemocratic with potentially serious consequences to the economy:
The Employee Free Choice Act, despite its name, would actually take choice away from employees and give corrupt and power-hungry union bosses control over thousands of American businesses. EFCA would change the process by which unions are formed, eliminating private ballot elections in favor of a deeply flawed system called “card check.”
Under current law, workers are given the opportunity to vote with a secret ballot, and the election’s fairness is ensured by an independent federal board. Under card check, if more than 50% of the employees in a work unit sign a card in favor of unionizing, the union is automatically recognized.
There’s no election, and virtually no government oversight. Union organizers have a long and well-documented history of harassing, deceiving, and intimidating workers into signing these cards. Even the AFL-CIO has admitted in an organizer handbook that workers often sign cards to “get the union off my back.”
It’s ironic that as the nation’s biggest automakers all tetter on the brink of collapse in part due to the effects of horrible union contracts which have driven employment costs through the roofs that lawmakers would be contemplating giving more power to union bosses to bully workers into following their lead. This is the kind of issue that is off most people’s radar but has serious consequences for our economic future. Let’s hope conservatives–and anyone who believes in the principle of secret ballots and true democracy–start talking about this and build a better understanding of why it needs to be stopped.