Union Supported “Card-Check” Is A Bad Idea

According to the United States Department of Labor accounted 2008 union membership was 12.4 percent of employed wage and salary workers.  That is an increase from 12.1 percent a year earlier.  Total union membership was 16.1 million people.  In 1961 union membership totaled 30 million people.  Clearly union membership does not have the impact on America that it had in the mid 20^th century.

Employees now vote by secret ballot election when deciding whether they want union representation in their workplace.  Elections are overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, which has numerous procedures in place to ensure fair, fraud-free elections.  Because of NLRB safeguards, employees can cast their vote confidentially, without peer pressure or coercion from unions or employers.  The rub is that there can be delays of as much as six months from the time employees sign cards asking for an election until the actual election is held.  However, most election do occur within 100 days.

Both unions and companies claim that there is harassment by the opposing sides during the period from card signing until elections occur.  Pressure from employers during that campaign period does have an effect on unionization efforts.  I can confirm that fact from personal experience.

The failure of unions to organize in so many companies is the result of business recognizing its responsibility to pay workers decent wages and benefits.  A good example is foreign car manufacturers in the United States.  They are not unionized but do provide their employees with reasonable pay and benefits.

If Congress passes the Employee Free Choice Act, employees lose their right to secret ballot elections. The bill would establish a so-called “card-check” union organizing system, in which a majority of employees simply sign a card in favor of union representation.  The flaw in this proposal is it will increase the likelihood of coercion, intimidation, and pressure to sign those cards.  The passing of this law will be payoff by the Obama administration to the unions that were vigorous supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.  This will unfairly force unionization where it may not be wanted.