While the fight over pro-union card check legislation rages on in Congress, a second front has opened up in the battle: the states.
Critics of card check are trying to get states to amend their constitutions to require secret ballots in union organizing. They've already managed to get one state, Utah, to put the proposed changes on the ballot in the 2010 election.
In most cases, card check would make union organizing easier by using what amounts to a simple petition drive to replace a federally overseen secret ballot by workers asking whether they want to join a union.
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Critics call it a power grab. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, has endorsed the anti-card check drive in his state.
"This issue is fundamental to our economic development efforts as a state and safeguards our long tradition of being a 'right to work' state," Huntsman said.
Similar efforts are being pushed in Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota. Most are still at the preliminary stages.
The organization pushing this effort — Save Our Secret Ballot, a nonprofit group — is trying to get states to adopt the following language to their constitutions:
"The right of individuals to vote by secret ballot is fundamental. Where state or federal law requires elections for public office or public votes on initiatives or referenda, or designations or authorizations of employee representation, the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot shall be guaranteed."
Former Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook, another Republican, is chairman of SOS Ballot. He says the issue is too important to be left to Congress, where card check's fate lies in the hands of