Posted on 10/25/2008 7:28:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
Just days from now, voters will head to the polls facing the ultimate irony: potentially electing a President and congressional majority prepared to strip millions of Americans of the same right they will exercise on November 4th inside voting booths across the country: the right to a secret ballot. At stake is the American working men and women’s right to preserve their privacy during workplace unionization elections – a right Democratic leaders like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are ready to replace with a decidedly undemocratic process known as a “card check.”
Union elections have been monitored for decades by the National Labor Relations Board and decided by the secret ballot process that citizens of our nation have come to take for granted. The fact is, under the secret ballot, Big Labor has not fared very well. It’s not that the process is unfair – it’s a secret ballot, after all. Quite simply, it has become apparent Americans workers no longer see unionization as a priority. For proof, just look at the numbers. About 50 years ago, about four in 10 private sector workers were unionized. Thirty years ago, that level fell to one in four. Today, it’s less than 10 percent. Big Labor bosses are scrambling to stop the bleeding, and they’ve turned to the card check, even though it undermines a worker’s privacy.
Under the card check process, union organizers and bosses gather authorization cards purportedly signed by workers expressing their desire for a union to represent them. But these card checks often leave workers vulnerable to coercion, pressure, and outright intimidation and threats – from either the management or the union side of the election. That’s why nearly 90 percent of Americans polled on this issue oppose the process.
Imagine campaign workers for Sen. Obama or Sen. McCain – or even the candidates themselves – standing beside you, staring at your ballot as you make that critical choice on November 4th. Imagine your selection being made public to everyone: your family, your friends, and your co-workers. Not a very pleasant scenario, is it? Not a very democratic one either.
While John McCain opposes the undemocratic card check, Barack Obama has promised, “We’ll make it the law of the land when I’m President.” That sort of rhetoric should send a chill down the spine of every man and woman who treasures his or her privacy in the workplace. But if Sen. Obama wins the White House and Democratic majorities are returned to both the House and the Senate, the promise of ending secret ballots in the workplace will not just be part of campaign rhetoric; it will likely become a reality.
In the Democrat-controlled Congress that ends later this year, House Republicans mounted enough opposition to sustain a threatened presidential veto in the House, and Republicans – including John McCain – were able to bring the bill down in the Senate, so the measure never even arrived on the President’s desk.
Stronger Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, however, most certainly would get the bill to a President Obama’s desk, and as he has told his supporters in Big Labor, he’d sign it without a second thought. With the stroke of a pen, a time-honored right would be signed away into the pages of history.
To say there is a great deal at stake in this election is an incredible understatement. From the economy and national security to judicial nominations, health care, and energy policy, the ramifications of the choice our nation will make on November 4th will be felt for decades to come. Yet on no single issue could the ramifications be felt more swiftly or more severely than workplace elections.
By killing secret ballot union elections within the first several months of an Obama Administration, a major payback would be delivered to leaders of Big Labor – just one group of radical special interests to whom Democrats in Washington are beholden. Decades of fairness, order, and tradition in the workplace would be overhauled. And worst of all, a tenet of American democracy would be effectively shredded. That’s change alright – change of the very worst kind.
Pretty bad when George McGovern says it’s bad.
Who is bigger and more influential , Walmart or big Labor?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
“Your papers please.” Coming to Amerika near a place where you work.
Another reason to not work where there is a union. If a union was trying to come into a company, I would pack up and leave. I have before. Now am self-employed.
I have been in 5 unions in my lifetime- all before I was 38. The BS and the lying is a mirror image of Nobama.
Say anything to get the union in there. When you are out on strike, the union goon still gets his paycheck and still can afford his $300 suits and $200 shoes. Been there, seen that, and fought against it.
Was even in the Teamsters when Hoffa was on trial for stealing our pensions.
Attended a union meeting for a vote whether to strike or not. High attendance. Voted NOT to strike. Union goons came out the next day and said just the opposite. I quit the job as soon as I could find another.
Was a grocery checker at one time. Wildcat strike called for by union goons. Holiday season. Totally illegal strike.
I volunteered to work at store where checkers had been driven out. Union goon charges up to me and asks my name, where I lived and what chain I had come from. I told him Peter Pan fron The Land of Nod. He was sputtering and sputtering. Threatened me. I told him to take his best shot, but I wouldn’t go down without a fight. He had no right to ask any of us our names or whatever.
Got back to my store (24 hr one) after my first shift at striking store and got a round of applause. Seems my standing up to the union goon got all over town. The strike only lasted 3 days as I remember, but I worked all those days at the chain where they were wildcatting. My car was parked in the front row where I could see it, all windows were down, and dog was letting everyone know she could guard it just fine.
As I type this, the ABC Sat am show is talking about the farewell to the Delta Queen. They are being punished for not hiring union help on the boat. It has run for over 90 years just fine.
More crap from Congress.
You think you will ever start a business? You will not even have a job with an existing business if Nobama gets into office.
If I had a decent sized business right now, my plans would be in place to pull back to a bunker mentality. Fewer employees- less overhead- less gross and net income- but not contributing taxes to the Congress of Confiscators.
Walmart will crushed them.
His saw his ad down here in TX. He's right. It's very bad.
As concerned as I am that America, the PLACE, is in danger, I am far more concerned that America, the IDEA, is on the verge of being devastated in ways the Founders could never have imagined.
My great-great grandfather fought with the 80th Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Chickamauga, Vicksburg and marched to the sea with Sherman. My wife’s great-great grandfather also fought on the Union side. Given the quasi-tyrannical nature of the current central government, we’re both sad that they fought in a struggle to secure Washington’s grip on the states in violation of the VOLUNTARY compact between those states to create that central government in the first instance, the Declaration of Independence.
Now that central government — and the power it has usurped from the states and the people — may be about to fall into the hands of a group of men and women who care even less for those principles than Mr. Lincoln did when he launched one of the deadliest wars in history.
I admit to having many problems with Mr. Lincoln. Forensic historians now view him to have been more motivated by his own internal demons and depression than by a desire to keep together by force a union some voluntary members of which chose to “...alter and to abolish..., and to institute (a) new Government...”
Inasmuch as history is always written by the victor, I recognize this will be totally foreign to those who have not spent time examining that history in detail. But I said all that to lay the basis for this, one of the few things on which a younger, pre-presidency Lincoln and I might agree:
“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic giant to step the ocean and crush us at one blow Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years.
“At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1837
America, the IDEA, may soon suffer a blow which will render it a small footnote in world history. Given that history IS written by the victors, it might not even be mentioned at all.
I tremble for our grandchildren.
–noun 1. a theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
2. (often initial capital letter) a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.
I saw McGovern’s ad on Fox News yesterday, boy that was a shock. Oevielbambi is left of McGovern, maybe he will vote for McCain
Thanks for sharing your battle. We can take lessons from it.
I will also pull back on business. I will not work for them to confiscate my money.
My brother-in-law is an electrician...union all the way..despite the fact that he has been unemployed most of his life mostly because of the way they dole out the work (and his lack of wanting to work too I suppose). Of course, the guys at the top always get their money. He still has to pay union dues, even when unemployed. Their “insurance” sucks big time. He blames everything on the republicans; the union has NOTHING for him, but
He’ll be voting for Obama. What’s the definition of insanity again?
THIS IS SO OUTRAGEOUS.
I think American citizens ought to scream at these cretins about this every time they dare to show their faces in public or on the media.
Abolishing secret ballots
-—HOW MUCH MORE UNAMERICAN CAN THEY GET??? AND STILL WALK THE STREETS????—
WHAT ORGANIZED BRAZEN THUGGERY!!!!
EVIL FROM HELL PURE AND SIMPLE. LITERALLY FROM HELL.
Actual quote from a N.O. citizen after being asked why he will vote for Obama.
I saw that on TV the other day and I was really surprised that he came out against Card Check.
Being a business owner who 35 years ago had the Teamsters who struck the company and we hired non-union employees and went back to work. They tried twice with secret ballot to reorganize and failed because of having the NLRB conducting a secret ballot. This is much different and would really be a risk to all businesses as an open Ballot would force intimidation on the employee.
The Democratic party is the sponsor of the bill namely Mr. Barack Obama. This bill would be like the 1930’s German and the beginning of the Nazi’s . This time the Nazi’s would be the Unions as the Brown shirts and the goons.
When an employee can just sign a card and give it to the union organizer and call for an election for all the company to be unionized. This will kill Small,Med and Large business. This is a really threat to American business and the American way of life.
We as a nation are really slipping down a slippery slop and will never be able to regain our growth again if we fall for the Obama regime.
As a businessman if Card Check “EFAC” passes and they come into my business it will be time to close it and move on. I don’t need the money bad enough to fight the Union’s again. I have plenty to take care of my generation and my kids generation so it will be time to pull my capital off the table. Why risk my life’s investment is something that I would be losing control of with a new partner.
The Obama plan for America is the end of the Free Market System.
Votes for president were to be cast by secret ballot, and opened at the time of voting.
Maybe this precedent could be used by the Supremes to strike open card elections down
Republicans are opposed to filibuster on judges.
The Obama judges will sail through the senate.
here is some basic wording from the EFAC site.
What does EFCA means for Workplace Democracy?
Download Fact Sheet
The deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) strips workers of their right to a government-supervised, private-ballot vote and replaces it with a forced-unionization system, where workers must publicly declare their support for a union and publicly sign a binding contract without seeing the “fine print.” After 51% sign up, the remaining 49% of workers never get a choice.
At its core, EFCA is an undemocratic power grab by special-interest union lobbyists. It strips workers of their right to privacy and exposes them to intimidation, deception, and coercion.
You can learn more at this web site.
http://www.employeefreedom.org/getTheFacts.htm
and this pdf file: http://www.employeefreedom.org/downloads/EFAC_Facts.pdf
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