Secret ballots protect voters from intimidation. As long as a vote remains private, no one can retaliate against individuals for voting the “wrong” way. The leadership of the union movement wants to replace secret ballot union elections with “card-check”—a system where workers would unionize by signing union cards in the presence of union organizers. Publicly, union leaders insist that union organizers would never intimidate workers if they knew how they voted. But it turns out union bosses know full well that without secret ballots, union organizers would intimidate workers. Two …
Big Labor’s number one priority in the 111th Congress was the Employee Free Choice Act. Also known as check, the law would have allowed union organizers to publicly solicit workers’ signed union authorization cards. If a majority of a company’s workers signed cards, then all workers would be forced to join the union without any opportunity to vote in a secret ballot election. Since union organizers would know exactly who did and did not sign cards, they could pressure the holdouts to change their mind. Fortunately, card check did not …
Predicting the extent of “lame duck” legislative shenanigans that would ensue if one or both houses of Congress changes hands in the Nov. 2 elections became a Washington parlor game during the August recess. But this is serious stuff to anyone who cares about, oh, limited government, rule of law, free markets and individual liberty. Not content with the damage they’ve already done, liberal lawmakers could really go for broke should they find themselves on the outs come the morning of Nov. 3. One endangered liberal, Senate Majority Leader Harry …
The snowstorms that have already dumped over two feet of snow on the nation’s Capitol and that are threatening to dump another 12 to 16 inches, have ground the legislative process to a halt. But that might not be such a bad thing. Senate Democrats had hoped they could pass President Barack Obama’s second stimulus today, but with only three of the Senate’s 100 lawmakers able to make it to the chamber, that vote has been postponed indefinitely. And the more we learn about what might be in President Obama’s second …
Sen. Arlen Specter, who opposed the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) when he was a Republican, recently announced that he has flip-flopped on the issue and will now be supporting EFCA-lite. As Specter described it, the latest version of the bill drops the card-check provision that has attracted so much controversy. This is a victory for workers who will not lose their right to a secret ballot. Unfortunately, the new EFCA replaces card-check with snap elections, which are intended to deprive employees of an informed choice. Instead of a …
The President has promised big labor that after health care reform, he will turn to their top priority … the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This legislation effectively eliminates secret ballot elections and replaces them with publicly signed union cards. But while Obama is promising to deprive workers in the private sector of their right to a secret ballot, his own Administration admirably insists on upholding its own employees right to vote. The Washington Times reported yesterday that employees of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) will be voting by …
Heritage fellow James Sherk reports: Organized labor argues that Congress should effectively take away workers’ right to vote in secret ballot elections because employers allegedly intimidate workers in the run-up to elections by firing and threatening to fire pro-union workers. However, a recently released study commissioned by two union-funded organizations, American Rights at Work and the Economic Policy Institute, shows that employers rarely break the law during organizing campaigns.
The Wall Street Journal reports today: As recently as 2000, the [AFL-CIO's] 8.5 million members had a $45 million surplus. By June of last year it had $90.6 million in liabilities, or $2.3 million more than its $88.3 million in assets. … As for the SEIU, as recently as 2002 total SEIU liabilities were about $8 million. According to its 2008 disclosure form, the union owed more than $156 million, a 30% increase over the $120 million it owed in 2007. Its liabilities now equal more than 80% of its …
LIFTING THE PAY CAP ON 8 MILLION WORKERS Unions Cap Their Member’s Pay Setting a Wage Ceiling: Currently union contracts set both a wage floor and a wage ceiling. Unionized employers may not give productive workers pay raises outside the collectively bargained contract. Seniority-Based Pay: Unions usually demand that employers reward workers for “time served” rather than “hard work.” No matter how good an employee does his job, he cannot earn higher wages than what his union contract specifies. Holding Back American Productivity: This “seniority ceiling” keeps union members from …
Earlier this month, Service Employee International Union President Andy Stern told the Las Vegas Sun, “We spent a fortune to elect Barack Obama — $60.7 million to be exact — and we’re proud of it.” Stern should be proud of his $60.7 million investment. There is a good chance that thanks to the Obama administration, big labor will succeed in passing legislation that has the potential to reverse big labor’s decades long decline. And that will mean less jobs and a slower economic recovery for all of us. Proponents of …
