11/3/2008 - Card Check Legislation Threatens Private Ballot Union Votes

by Jay C. Moon, CEcD, FM
MMA President & CEO
Published in the Delta Business Journal
November 2008

Currently pending in the U.S. Congress is legislation, that if passed, would have serious consequences to manufacturers and employees regarding union elections. The so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is misleading in that it actually would take away the rights of employees to have a private ballot election when deciding whether to join a union. It would replace private ballot elections with a biased and inferior process called “card check,” which would allow union bosses to form a union if a majority of employees simply sign a card.

If Congress passes this proposal, they will be stripping away federally protected private ballots from the hands of American workers. In a card check system, an employee’s vote would be made public to employers, union organizers and co-workers.

The traditional method for determining whether or not employees want a union to represent them is a private ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The NLRB, an independent government agency, provides detailed procedures that ensure a fair election, where employees may cast their vote confidentially without peer pressure or coercion from unions or employers. According to the NLRB, these elections yield union support in 55 percent of cases.

One of the biggest dangers of the EFCA is that it would create an atmosphere of coercion by unions and employee peers. Under the traditional method, an NLRB agent is present at the election and oversees the entire voting process. This ensures that neither the employer nor the union can determine how an individual employee votes. The only way to protect workers from intimidation is through the continued use of a federally supervised  secret ballot so that personal decisions about whether to join a union remain private.

Union leaders, however, see secret ballot elections as an obstacle to unionization, and have made it clear that their highest legislative priority next year is passage of EFCA.
Recent polls show a majority of voters believe that private ballots are the cornerstone of the democratic process. Congress should listen to employees and continue to protect workers’ rights to private ballot union elections by opposing the Employee Free Choice Act.

The EFCA is certain to come up for a vote again when Congress reconvenes in 2009. Passage of the EFCA is considered by many as payback to organized labor for their help in the Democratic Party’s taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives. If the EFCA were to become law, it would dramatically overturn our current labor law system and eliminate more than 70 years of precedent established under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935.

The EFCA is an attempt to take power and voice away from America’s workers and give it to union leaders. I urge you to contact your congressman and senator and ask them to vote against this misleading legislation and vote to protect an employees’ right to private ballot union elections.

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