By Dan Foley
I was sitting around reading about all the people that President-elect Obama is looking at putting in his cabinet, and I thought we might wait until later to see what we think of them.
I then started thinking about the last few elections and all the work of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), together with groups like ACORN and the ACLU, to make sure as many people vote as possible. Clearly they have signaled they advocate allowing everyone to vote, documentation or not, as virtually anonymous participants. In New Mexico, they even went so far as to file a frivolous complaint about voter intimidation and suppression.
This made me think about the upcoming “card check” issue — a process they are pushing to force union representation on workers. In the matter of union “elections,” it appears the DNC, ACORN and the ACLU are working hard to make sure votes will not be cast in private. This seems a little different from the stance they continuously take each election cycle and very different from the attitudes displayed in their frivolous lawsuits.
These same organizations are working hard for a law that would no longer allow workers a free and open vote on the question of choosing to unionize. Instead, they are pushing for a change in the law that would allow union organizers to come into the workplace — or even show up at your home — and pester you to sign a card, with them looking over your shoulder, by the way. Can you imagine the outrage if any center-right organization or individual advocated such a method of “voting?” Coleen Heild and Dan Boyd would run four- or five-page “investigative” stories in the Albuquerque Journal. The blogs would go nuts.
The Democrats and their allies on the Far Left are saying no to a secret ballot, advocating that the very people who will benefit from a “vote” be allowed to stand looking over the shoulder of the “voter” as he or she decides the fate of the watcher. Can you imagine if the Republicans said, “Let us stand in the voting booth with you?”
The problem with card-check recognition
Under the National Labor Relations Act, workers may be organized in one of two ways: card-check recognition or secret ballot elections. To begin organizing workers, a union must solicit employee signatures on union authorization cards. Once the union has collected signatures from enough employees — a minimum of 30 percent — the union submits the cards to the company and requests the company recognize the union. This process is called card-check recognition. Very few employers accept card-check as the sole means of recognition.
Employers routinely refuse to recognize unions solely on the basis of card-check because publicly signed cards — quite obviously — may very well not reflect employees’ preferences. Public card signing exposes workers to pressure, harassment and threats from the union. Even union organizing guidebooks state that a worker’s signature on a union card does not mean that worker supports the union.
If, as in most instances, the employer doubts the cards reflect the workers’ actual preferences, union organizers then submit their cards to the National Labor Relations Board and request an election. The typical election occurs six to seven weeks after the union submits its petition. If a majority of workers — expressing their choice in the privacy of the voting booth — support the union, then the company must begin bargaining with it. If most workers vote against the union, then it does not represent them and must cease its organizing activities. Unions win recognition in over 60 percent of these elections.
I’m left to conclude that with a 60 percent success rate under the current system, unions are having a hard time organizing and getting members to join. Otherwise, why, if you are successful 60 percent of the time, would you try to change the system? Well, one reason that immediately comes to mind is that their new way will ensure they are successful 100 percent of the time. Now that’s change anyone can believe in, and a winning percentage that’s really worth the effort to get. But it should also raise questions in everyone’s mind.
The GOP as the protector of the working man
A bigger question remains: Why are the organizations mentioned earlier working so hard to implement a voting system that clearly contradicts their stated goals for allowing maximum openness in voting during presidential elections? It appears that everything they said in their frivolous lawsuit filed in New Mexico underscores the case for opposing the heavy-handed tactics of unions — who after all are fighting to suppress voting.
These positions, taken together, don’t make sense. Why do these Left Wing organizations say they support good, hard-working New Mexicans, who merely want an honest vote, while simultaneously attacking union members who also want a private, secret, honest vote?
Maybe it is that they could care less about being consistent, and they really stand for nothing other than wining power at all costs. Maybe Americans will wake up and ask the tough questions of these organizations and force them to not only talk the talk but actually walk the walk.
Meanwhile, it appears it’s going to be left to the Republicans to fight to make sure the workers of this country are protected. I’m sure that won’t stop the Democrats, however, from making their perennial claims to being the protectors of the working man.
Foley, a Republican, is the outgoing minority whip in the New Mexico House of Representatives.