thetruthaboutefca.com | The Truth About The Employee Free Choice Act & Card Check

Chalk up yet another editorial supporting the retention of a secret-ballot workplace election. This time, it’s from the Greenville News, which writes:

American workers should not be denied the right to organize, and the current system really is the best environment for unionization elections. The card check system opens the door to intimidation by union organizers. What worker wouldn

Interesting news out of our friends at the Workforce Fairness Institute, which has released a new poll examining attitudes of Nevadans about card check and the tragically misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. The poll is of sufficient interest to garner the attention of the Las Vegas Sun, which reports:

The poll showed 57 percent of respondents oppose changing the way unions are organized and 64 percent oppose allowing mandatory arbitration to settle organizational disputes between workers and managers, as is proposed under the bill.

The poll also showed more voters would be less likely to support political candidates who support such changes.

The second figure — the one showing opposition to allowing the government to impose labor contracts on small business — is important because it shows that even if card check were dropped from EFCA, the bill would still be disastrous and unpopular.

Nevadans — well, most of them — know that EFCA is the wrong way to go. Check out this video from the state’s own Sen. John Ensign on why he opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.

One of four Democratic politicians hoping to fill the vacant seat left by the late Ted Kennedy has received a glowing personal portrait about his efforts to live up to Kennedy’s legacy, especially with respect to the sadly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act.

The Valley Advocate writes of Mike Capuano:

“I think that actually one of the problems in this country right now is that too few people are organized,” said Capuano, noting that the rise in union membership in the U.S. corresponded with the rise of the middle class

Important news out of the BNA Daily Labor Report (no link available):

Unions participated in fewer resolved representation elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board during the first half of 2009 than the same period in 2008, but the percentage of elections won by unions increased substantially, according to NLRB data analyzed by BNA PLUS, BNA’s research division.

Unions won 73.1 percent of 588 private sector elections held during the first half of 2009, up from 66.5 percent of 813 elections held during the same period in 2008. The BNA PLUS survey only tracks elections conducted by NLRB, not organizing outside of NLRB processes.

Wow, 73 percent is a serious winning percentage. To put that in perspective, consider that in the most recently completed season:

• Only 4 NFL teams won that often
• Only 3 NBA teams won that much
• 0 baseball teams won that much … in fact, no team has ever won 118 games (the toll needed to hit the 73 percent threshold for a 162-game season) in the nation’s pastime

And union officials still want to rig the rules to avoid letting employees vote in elections that Big Labor won 73 percent of the time?

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Similarly, it seems, one can provide lessons to organized labor leaders but you can’t make them internalize said wisdom.

That is most certainly the case right now with the issue of protecting the privacy of ballots for working Americans. First, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff shares his alarmingly unconventional wisdom that Democrats should not listen to voters in Virginia and New Jersey who rejected candidates supporting card check.

Not only should politicians retrench on card check, according to unions, they should find more ways to erode the sanctity of a private ballot. Katie Packer writes:

Airline labor unions are not only asking their friends in the Obama administration to change labor organizing rules to help them win elections, Big Labor is now demanding that technology be used in a way that would allow them to trace an employee’s vote.

On July 22, the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) asked the National Mediation Board (NMB)–the body that oversees airline and railroad union elections–to allow it to use a hyperlink in emails and on its web site that leads to the official NMB voting site where votes are cast. The hyperlink technology would allow the AFA to track which employees have accessed the voting web site. That information would make it easier for labor bosses to threaten or coerce individuals into voting.

Perhaps a horse is not the right animal for this analogy. Perhaps it is a more hard-headed animal that would be more appropriate.

Stephen F. Diamond writes a how-to guide for new AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka on making the AFL-CIO “relevant again.” It’s worth a read to look at where Big Labor has come from, where it is, and where it could go.

This is what caught our eye, though. Diamond opines Trumka:

must rally solid support in America for democratic rights and better pay and working conditions for the billion or so workers who now have joined America in the global economy, in countries such as China, Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam.

Perhaps starting with more democratic rights for workers in the United States would be a better place to start. That would include scrapping the Employee Free Choice Act, but that’s unlikely as the misnamed bill is Labor’s top policy priority.

So it goes …