Big Labor Does Not Need Any More Help
Posted January 29th, 2009 at 9:33am in Enterprise and Free Markets 
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Sen. Reid has said he wants the Senate to vote on the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) this summer. The bill, Big Labor’s highest legislative priority, effectively eliminates secret ballot organizing elections. Instead of letting workers decide whether or not they want union representation in the privacy of the voting booth, EFCA requires workers to publicly announce their choice in front of union organizers.
How does the AFL-CIO justify getting rid of secret ballots? They claim the “system for forming unions is broken” because “employers routinely harass, intimidate, coerce and even fire workers struggling to gain a union.”
Intimidation is a problem, and the solution is to get rid of secret ballots?
Aside from the insanity of the solution, new government data undercuts Big Labor’s claims. National Labor Relations Board figures show that unions win 3 out of every 5 organizing elections – a record that anyone else would be happy with.
And new figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that in 2008 union membership rose for the second year in a row. The number of workers belonging to a union climbed by 428,000 last year. Today 12.4 percent of workers are union members, up from 12.1 percent of workers in 2007 and 12.0 percent of workers in 2006. Union membership increased in both the private and public sectors. If the system for joining unions is broken, you wouldn’t know it from the AFL-CIO’s recent membership increases.
The reality is that the current union organizing system actually favors unions. Unions get to decide when employees vote, may campaign at workers homes, and are free to make promises to workers that employers are legally preventing from matching. That is why unions win 60 percent of organizing elections. Congress has no justification for exposing workers to intimidation, harassment, and coercion by taking away secret ballot organizing elections.
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3 Responses to “Big Labor Does Not Need Any More Help”
Kent, Virginia on January 29th, 2009 at 9:33am said:
Big Labor shoveled $100 million in contributions into the campaigns of the Liberal Fascists now in power. The unions will receive favorable legislation and continue to grow in influence and power along with their political cronies in DC. Shades of Italy in the 20’s and 30’s. Il Duce dubbed it National Socialism. Wonder what these leftists will call it.
Ozzy6900, CT (The Blue State) on January 29th, 2009 at 9:33am said:
Sen. Reid is another example of why there should be an intelligence test to work in public office! Both he and the Labor organizations have something devious up their sleeves. I’ve carried a Union card for 30 years (because my job is a “closed shop”) and I haven’t heard anything from my Union about this “open election” idiocy. The only thing that I can see is this would be a tool for Big Union to use to keep people from voting the way they really want because if a person were to vote “no”, they would be afraid the “yes” voters would take them out back and “straighten them out”! Other than that, I can see no good from an “open election”.
Spiritof76, New Hampshire on January 29th, 2009 at 9:33am said:
Why do the Democrats always want to institute policies that kill free enterprise consistent with our founding principles?
Who is John Galt?