Editorial: Save the secret ballot for voting on unions

On March 14, 2009, in Corruption, by Warner Todd Huston

Another newspaper comes out against card check and the EFCA.

Secret ballot voting is one of those things Americans hold sacred. When asked to decide an issue by a majority vote, we prefer to cast our ballots in private and decide for ourselves whether we want to tell the world where we stand.

Workers would lose that right if Congress pushes through the card check legislation introduced this week at the urging of the nation’s labor unions. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to organize a workplace simply by collecting signed membership cards from a majority of the workers. It would end the current requirement for a secret ballot election to form a union.

Supporters say the bill would level the playing field between management and labor. Unions have been losing membership and have had difficulty organizing new workplaces during the past 20 years, and they blame intimidation tactics by employers for their failures.

But there’s no balance in the card check legislation. It would tip the organizing advantage steeply in favor of labor and deeply involve the federal government in contract negotiations.

Workers would be subject to public pressure from their peers to sign cards, and would have no additional chance to consider their decision. Vote totals in recent organizing elections show a big fall-off in the number of workers who sign cards asking for a vote and the number who actually cast ballots in favor of the union.

See the rest at The Detroit News.

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