A Thank You Card to Unions

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FYI: Over 200 Democrats co-sponsored the "Employee Free Choice Act" last year, when they were the minority party in Congress. And why not? It doesn't hurt to show support for friends before an election. Or does it?

What was solely a symbolic gesture last year is now a real payoff, or "Thank You" card. Few, if any, outside the Beltway have found this bill to be anything but. By stripping the fundamental American tenet of the right to a secret ballot, this bill will effectively limit worker choices to joining a union or having their knee-caps broken.

Today's editorial pages, opinions leaders, and even a high-profile labor organization all agree - the "card check" bill scheduled for a vote in the House today is atrocious public policy. And when the LA Times editorial page slams a bill authored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), you know Republicans have won the debate before it has even started.

Ø An editorial in Los Angeles Times notes, "The bedrock of federal labor law is not unionism under any conditions, but the right of workers to choose whether they want to affiliate with a union... Unions once supported the secret ballot for organization elections. They were right then and are wrong now."

Ø The Wall Street Journal says, "So far this Congress, Democrats have been trying to present themselves as "moderates" who won't return to their bad special-interest selves pre-1994. But this union-enabling bill strips away that mask and exposes an anti-business animus out of the 1970s, if not the 1930s."

Ø The San Francisco Examiner writes, "Making public the votes or nonvotes of every employee in a company being organized exposes them to the worst kinds of intimidation. We guarantee secret ballots to voters who elect congressmen and senators. Why end that same right in the workplace simply to help Big Labor?"

Ø The Fraternal Order of Police told Speaker Pelosi, "Law enforcement officers are uniquely susceptible to such pressure. The FOP is an organization run by law enforcement officers for law enforcement officers and without the anonymity of the secret ballot, the FOP would probably not exist today."

Ø And today's National Review observes that "an interesting twist is this tale that one congressman feels pretty strongly about workers having private-ballot rights - George Miller! That would be the same George Miller who wants to strip away private ballot rights for workers in H.R. 800. The catch is that he apparently thinks that only Mexican workers should have this private-ballot right."

For more on this ill-advised bill, click here.