Posted on 11/21/2008 9:40:03 AM PST by Fred
There is a curiously dated logic in unions insisting that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which belies the back and forth accusatory rhetoric of intimidation between business and big labor. There are two principal methods for employees to join and command employers to recognize their union's collective bargaining request. First: Company workers can get at least 30 percent of their colleagues to sign petition cards requesting representation, send the cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and have them oversee a secret ballot election. Second: If more than half of the workers sign up for representation, a union is deemed legitimate through "card check" procedures without Labor Relations getting involved at all, but the employer has the right to request a secret ballot election.
Union leadership seems to believe that mandating card check and removing the employer's right to request a secret-ballot election will somehow reflexively grow their numbers now and into the future to the 35 percent national representation they enjoyed in the 1970s. "We believe that it is integral to fixing the economy," said William Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO in a meeting with editors and reporters of at The Washington Times this week. "We hope it will be among the first bills to move through Congress. I have no doubt that it will pass and it will be signed."
Card check won't do anything to fix the economy, and the reality is most unions are created through the secret ballot process ,not because the employer objected to the card check but because union members prefer the outright legitimacy of the NLRB election.
Mr. Samuel chastised Republicans, even though some support the measure (Arlen Specter was a co-sponsor and introduced the bill) and called business'
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Yep.....the UAW is something to be really proud of huh?
...but VERY UNION!
The first big target will be Wal-Mart.
In 2004 the GOP had a chance to be rid of this curse on conservatism when he was seriously threatened in the primary but Bush and Rick Santorum threw their weight behind the liberal establishment guy Specter and threw the genuine conservative under the bus. Specter squeaked out a win and went on to win the general election on the theme "an independant voice", meaning "now that I won the primary thanks to Bush, its safe to trash him again" and he has been on a rampage to prove he really owes the GOP and Bush nothing ever since. This is but one example.
If Congress passes this then they ought to mandate that every vote taken in Congress is a roll call vote with no option of voting “present”! And no more hiding behind voice votes!
If I recall correctly, Specter was the lawyer defending that ‘60s hippy who killed his girlfriend and stuffed her in a trunk in his apartment which began to leak to the apartment below.
Ditto!
The Teamsters Union is not allowed on my premises.
The first big target will be Wal-Mart.
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Walmart is undoubtably the biggest employer in America and thus the biggest target.
Getting enough cards signed in an outfit that large would be quite a task and WMT has the guns to do battle with Big Labor.
I’d think they’ll instead look to pick off smaller more vulnerable targets that are outgunned by labor’s warchest.
They need to add an ammendment that employers have a right to use card check to get rid of the union!
I think the unions would revolt and demand that the bill be defeated.
The article gives two methods for unionizing a company. Both involve a secret ballot with the second method requiring that the employer requests it.
Seems like the card check thing in practice will always end up with secret balloting. What’s wrong with that?
Specter said in early 2006 "The Republican Party is now principally moderate, if not liberal!" I've also said that but in disgust. He said it with pride. And he was right. Yet since he declared conservatism dead in the GOP, they've lost the 2006 and 2008 elections decisively. If moderation is the path to success, someone should ask Specter why the GOP is in worse shape since he declared it a center-left party.
I work for a Japanese automotive supplier, and I have no doubt that they will shut down before being unionized.
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