Card Check: Turning Logic On Its Head
Monday, June 29th, 2009 by AdminA great op-ed running in the Visalia Times in California looks at the history of protecting secret ballots for the state’s farm workers and efforts there — like the national effort to pass the ballot-impairing Employee Free Choice Act — to open up employees to intimidation by union organizers through a “card check” process.
Don Curlee writes:
California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act was established in 1975. It is often referred to as landmark legislation, and touted as a showcase because of its provision for secret-ballot elections.
Now, suddenly, union adherents are saying they need a different mechanism by which workers can choose to be represented by them, one that doesn’t involve secret voting. They offer the notorious “card check” procedure as an alternative.
Wherever the “card check” system has operated, it has demonstrated how easily workers can be intimidated by union representatives who seek their signature or mere check marks in the union organizer’s presence. In the secret-ballot process, nobody knows who approves or rejects a union. Only the final vote count is important.
Current “card check” supporters have turned reason and facts on their heads by saying workers feel intimidated by their employers when the secret-ballot process takes place.
