What does creating an “enduring legacy for America’s wild places,” have to do with denying employees the right to vote by secret ballot during a union organizing election? Nothing—or so it seemed until the earlier this week, when the Sierra Club began urging its members to support the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In the March 17 issue of Currents—Sierra Club’s weekly electronic newsletter—the group urges its members to support EFCA. Their rationale?
The Washington Post reports: The Service Employees International Union, considered the most influential union in the nation, has notified the union that represents about 220 of its national field staff and organizers that 75 of them are being laid off. In return, the workers’ union, which goes by the somewhat postmodern name of the Union of Union Representatives, has filed unfair labor practices charges against SEIU with the National Labor Relations Board. The staff union’s leaders say that SEIU is engaging in the same kind of practices that some businesses …
“Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?” – James Phillip Hoffa, March 10, 2009. Before ramming the Employee Free Choice Act down the throats of American workers, maybe Jim Hoffa and his Teamsters should have cracked open the history books. The secret ballot, like democracy itself, was born in classical Antiquity. Ironically, given Big Labor’s backing of EFCA, modern usage of the secret ballot originated within the organized labor movement: A demand for secret ballot elections was one of the six original points of Chartism—a U.K. …
Former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao weighs in on the two major provisions of the “Employee Free Choice Act” at the Wall Street Journal: One of these counterproductive, special-interest initiatives is “card check,” which would deprive workers of the ability to vote privately in workplace unionization elections — a vital worker protection that dates back to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. There is a push in Congress to enact card check despite the fact that the vast majority of workers — including rank-and-file union members — want to keep the private …
Democracy itself is under attack from union bosses. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa issued a press release Wednesday saying, “Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?” He’s trying to excuse the inexcusable. Hoffa and other union bosses want to strip away workers’ right to a secret ballot election when deciding whether their workplace will join a union. The “card check” bill in Congress would let unions bypass the election process. Hoffa’s comment echoes the head of Utah’s AFL-CIO, who recently called a secret ballot guarantee, “unnecessary and …
Words can’t describe what occurred at yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. After encouraging the audience to applaud his remarks on the Employee Free Choice Act, Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) was forced to scold union members when they become belligerent — hissing, booing and even throwing things at Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN). [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnmpD1fwnw[/youtube]
Liberals are introducing the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act today on Capitol Hill. The legislation would effectively eliminate workers’ rights to a secret ballot vote on joining a union. Heritage’s James Sherk has done extensive research on card check, including a new paper that outlines why the bill would create government-run workplaces. Last month at a Heritage event, former UFCW Local 700 Organizing Director Rian Wathen described how unions will creatively manipulate workers into signing union cards if EFCA takes away their right to a secret vote. Click here to see …
Unions Rally against Democratic Elections Card Check: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would replace secret ballot organizing elections with publicly signed union cards, allowing union organizers to deceive, harass, and threaten workers into signing these cards and thereby unionizing. Stripping Away Privacy and Freedom: A worker may vote “no” against a union behind a curtain but may be less courageous if pressured in public. This is why most union organizers currently don’t call for elections until between 60% and 75% of a shop notes interest, knowing that there will …
Today Big Labor’s allies in the House and Senate will introduce legislation with the Orwellian title “The Employee Free Choice Act.” Contrary to the bill’s title, the legislation will strip employees of their choice in joining union, and it will lead to a lot less employees throughout the economy. President Barack Obama is strongly committed to the legislation however, telling the Washington Post earlier this year: “You know, now if the business community’s argument against the Employee Free Choice Act is simply that it will make it easier for people …
Warren Buffet is a known supporter of the Death Tax, a long-time Democrat, was an unofficial adviser on economic policy to President Obama during the 2008 campaign and he recently served on the President’s Economic Advisory Board during the transition between presidential administrations. Oh, and he revealed this morning that he also opposes ending secret ballots for union organizing elections: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH0SmNFfFTQ[/youtube] As scholars here at Heritage have chronicled, the bill has been a top priority of Big Labor for years. The bill’s intent is to strip away worker’s ability to …
