here. Except for the part where no one explains to me how a card check preserves rights better than a secret ballot. I’m entirely sympathetic to the majority of the changes EFCA would effect, but I remain unconvinced about the central aim of the bill. That its proponents seem to skim over it every time it’s discussed makes me all the more sceptical.
Mark Brooks
I think that it has to do with less employer intimidation in the workplace surrounding the union vote question.
As a former union member, and being from a family that includes a 55-year union carpenter, I know what the pressures of trying to get recognized, law or no law.
My sister lost her job 25 years ago for just this reason; organizing in the workplace. (airlines) She went on to be a member IAM for 20 years as a United Airlines employee.
tx2vadem
Well, it depends on whether you believe collective bargaining is a right. If so, then it seems to me card check better preserves that right than allowing the employer to choose a secret ballot. Not that signing up 50%+1 of an eligible bargaining unit isn’t a difficult task, but the employer will always opt for the more onerous task which is the secret ballot. Then it is easier for the employer to convince employees not to vote for unionization. And the employee can vote against it without fear of being ostracized by their peers.
Unless you are concerned about the right to free association. But in a Right-to-Work state like Virginia, that right is still preserved. In other closed-shop states, not so much. But you can always choose not to be a lathe operator in those states and retain your right of free association. Or you could try to find a non-unionized shop.
So, after I rambled, what right are we looking to preserve?
MB
I’ve been thinking about exactly what right it is, Tx, and maybe it’s coming down to my valuing of the simple right to be left alone. Not to be bullied (from either side) for my opinion on how best to conduct relations between labour and management.