Today in Congress, A Blow To Democracy
The Dems' Case Against Secret-Ballot Elections
By Pat Cleary Posted in Congress — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
A sad day in Congress today, for today is the day that Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, is expected to formally introduce the "Card check" bill -- a most innocuous name for a most pernicious bill. This bill will upset not only some 70+ years of settled labor law in this country but with it, over 200 years of democracy.
Read on...
Under current rules, a union seeking to represent a group of workers must get "authorization" cards signed by at least 30% of those workers saying they want an election. This is a process known to all practitioners as rife with what polite people would call, "intimidation." It's a face-to-face process -- often in the employee's home -- where the union, uh, asks the employee to sign the card. Once they get their 30%, the union petitions the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency, which promptly investigates and, if appropriate, orders a secret ballot election among that group. Any allegations of improprieties are also adjudicated by this 1800-employee, quarter of a billion dollar agency. So what's the beef?
Well, over the years, unions have been losing more and more elections, or, worse still for them, not even getting to an election because they fail to get 30% of employees to sign authorization cards. What's a union to do? Lower the bar, that's what. Enter the card check bill. Think of it as a thumb on the scales of democracy. This bill would say that if a union is able -- by whatever means necessary -- to garner cards from 50%+1 of the employees in that group, the union would automatically gain recognition of the workers, no election.
Yup, you read that right: "No election."
This bill is a measure of the gap between Washington and the real America. Why? Because while people outside Washington read this and scratch their heads, this bill will likely enter this world with well over a hundred co-sponsors, virtually all beneficiaries of union PAC largesse. It is serious and is a serious threat to this Nation's fundamental democratic principles. Imagine any other context where people would actually be entertaining the notion of tossing out secret ballot elections. But here in Washington, with enough money, anything can happen.
The weakness of the unions' arguments here is eclipsed by the strength of their checkbooks. At the end of the day, it's just more dues money down the rathole, papering over and propping up a movement that has long since lost its way.
For the US, the beacon of democracy around the world, the introduction of the anti-democracy card check bill makes this a sad day indeed.
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Today in Congress, A Blow To Democracy 3 Comments (0 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Once again, if President Bush doesn't veto this, we have no friend in the White House.
Run like Reagan!
if there is some support from the health care industry for this legislation. SEIU and AFSCME seem to have forged an alliance with some of the big healthcare providers. This has become a "third sector" industry since so much of its money comes from Medicare/Medicaid and other government subsidized schemes, e.g., medical care for illegals and indigents. Apparently the sense is that the companies and the unions can combine their money and lobbying influence to reach further into the public trough.
I was at an Association of Labor Relations Agencies national meeting in Seattle last year and sat stunned as the HR/LR VP of a big California provider waxed prolix about the wonderful relationship they had developed with SEIU since they had entered into a voluntary recognition agreement after the union gathered a showing of interest. Elections and all that stuff would have been so contentious and disruptive, so when the union flopped down the cards, they just recognized them and gave them the right to start confiscating dues. NO responsible employer would EVER enter into a voluntary recognition agreement.
Senate Republicans SHOULD stop the bill there, but unfortunately there are all too many Republicans who still believe that if they're just nice to the AFL-CIO, they can get it to like them. President Bush SHOULD veto it if it gets out of Congress, but who knows if he will for the aforementioned reason.
Even if it passes, employers are not without tools in the kit; an employer can only be ordered to bargain with an "appropriate" bargaining unit and determining whether a unit is appropriate under the NLRA can be an expensive, and more importantly, time consuming process. Unfortunately, smaller companies won't have the resources to effectively assert their rights and the rights of their employees, but the big ones can take care of themselves - another reason that industry opposition will be anything but unanimous.
Should it become law, many many public sector bargaining laws explicitly defer to federal practice, so you can expect this to become the practice in the Blue states for recognition in the public sector. There are all sorts of constitutional impediments to this practice in the public sector, but don't count on any Blue state or city going there.
This is a bad, bad law and shows just what lengths the AFL-CIO and the Democrats will go to in order to keep the dues ATM working.
In Vino Veritas
The very industries that organized labor seems to be strong in are those that are rapidly failing because they cannot compete. Except for the government sector of course, but then again they neither have to be efficient or competitive.
Big labor has been acting like a parasite to our manufacturing base, and short sited management and bought politicians keep providing them with new hosts to bleed.
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Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes