Response to Barron’s Open Letter To Obama……………………… The “Card Check” Issue
Barron’s put out an Open Letter to Obama on November 15th, outlining the 8 steps or recommendations “he should take to restore order to financial markets and bolster the economy.” (full article)
This post addresses the 8th recommendation on the Employee Free Choice Act, which has to do with the workers right to choose to Unionize their workplace.
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Here is Barron’s 8th recommendation to Obama on how to handle the “Card Check” proposal:
8. Keep Union Ballots Secret
Prove you are not beholden to special interests by promising to veto any “card-check” plans favored by the labor unions. Mr. President-elect, if you want stock markets to rebound, follow our advice and make this clear to investors as soon as possible.
You should echo the sentiments of former Democratic presidential contender George McGovern, who in an Aug. 8 op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal said, “The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak.”
The key provision of such legislation would change the way unions are organized. Instead of secret ballots, union organizers would merely need to gather signatures on cards from more than 50% of workers in the workplace. This system invites enormous abuses. As McGovern pointed out: “There are many documented cases where workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards that have led to mandatory payment of dues.”
The secret ballot allows a worker to vote his conscience and not be cajoled and intimidated by a bullying mob or persecuted for standing alone on an issue. The card-check proposal would breed tyranny and lead to higher labor costs, dramatically slowing the formation of new business in America. Like it or not, we are competing in a global economy, not a closed one, and America would be less competitive.
You co-sponsored card-check legislation as a senator. You promised unions while on the campaign trail that you would sign such legislation into law. You have more responsibility now and should be considerably more circumspect. This proposal is a job-killer, not a job creator. It is designed to fatten union coffers, not encourage innovation and investment.
You were elected by secret ballot, why can’t unions face elections the same way?
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In response to your 8th plea to Obama about the ” Card Check ” proposal. Let me first say that I was a union member for 30 years in the Hotel and Restaurant industry in San Francisco and I agree with you that members should have a secret ballot. But something needs to change because the current system tips the scales more in favor of business than of the workers.
What most people don’t know is how the current system works.
In a nut shell, the Union goes out to try and organize a business, and get enough card check signatures by approaching employees outside the workplace. Once they have enough signatures they approach the business and ask them to engage in contract negotiations. On a rare occasion a company will accept the employee wishes and will enter into negotiations with the Unions. More often then not a business takes the case to court to fight unionization or simply ignores the wishes of the workers which cause the Unions to take the businesses to court and there it hangs for years.
Now what we have to ask ourselves is, is the current system fair to the workers that want to “vote their conscience”. Yes they have a right to a secret ballot but it takes years to process because business fights it so vigorously.
Let’s be honest, businesses like the status quo and don’t want this proposal to make it through Congress because it allows them to delay the inevitable, not because they are worried about the rights of their workers. Employers do not have the interest of their workers at heart, they have the interests of the company at heart. If they cared about the right of workers and didn’t want them “cajoled and intimidated by a bullying mob or persecuted for standing alone on an issue” like you say then they would lobby for an “expedited secret ballot”. Often the cajoling and intimidation happens in the workplace by the employer who resists unionization. Example
But to be fair we also have to admit that Unions like the proposal because it would speed things up and make things easier to increase Union membership, which has been decreasing for years. But a card check alone is too open to corruption and dishonesty and would only lead to more lawyers and court cases and more delays.
I’m sure a lot of people are looking at the situation with the auto industry and the lucrative Union contracts that the UAW was able to negotiate for their workers and blaming those contracts for the downfall of the Big3. But let’s not forget that contracts are negotiated, management of the auto industry is just as much to blame for signing these unsustainable contracts as are the Unions for proposing them. When the CEO of a company brings the company down, and walks away with Golden Parachute worth millions of dollars who is at fault for that contract, the CEO or the people who approved his contract without tying the compensation to their performance? After all who knows better the financial situation of a company than the management.
As for being a global economy, we have been that for years and recent times have shown that business models that have not been successful, whether unionized or not, have failed not so much for non-competitive wages as for the greed and mismanagement by the management. Maybe giving large bonuses to the few instead of small wage increases to the many has proven not to pay off afterall.
The average workers need someone on their side and the employer is not it, it’s kind of a conflict of interest for the employer. So what is the answer. A better proposal for the right of workers to vote on union membership that would work and would be fair for all, one that includes a secret ballot and an expedited process. Once a majority card check is proven, secret ballot voting should take place within a reasonable time frame like a couple of months, not years. And when it comes time to negotiate sustainable contracts, businesses and unions have to be open and reasonable on both sides for the success of the companies and the workers.
I’m sure we could convince Obama of that.
on December 4th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Interesting take… as a union member myself it is of concern. Anyways check out my blog if you like.
http://www.risingbluetide.blogspot.com