House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

Though Members of Congress have left Washington for the President’s Day recess, their hometown newspapers haven’t let up on the consistent drumbeat of bad press aimed squarely at the undemocratic card check legislation moving toward consideration – possibly as soon as next week – on the House floor. Not only are local press outlets reporting that the legislation would expose workers’ private votes in union organizing elections and make them completely and utterly public, but local editorial pages from across the nation are exposing this bill as little more than a payback to Big Labor – even at the expense of unraveling the time-honored secret ballot election for American workers. 

In a scathing editorial published just today, Oklahoma City’s hometown paper, The Oklahoman, wrote: 

“Unions want to make it easier for labor bosses to streamroll workers who don't share their political views.  And Democrats are ready to help, as payback for union support in getting the Democrats back into a congressional majority.  By the way, the bill would preserve secret-ballot elections when a union is to be decertified.  How's that for fairness?” 

Earlier this month, the Grand Rapids Press expressed similar sentiments, noting: 

“The origin of this move is that union rolls have been in a free fall for decades.  Unions currently represent only 12.5 percent of the U.S. workforce, 8 percent of private-employer workers.  Repeated losses in representation elections have built pressure on Democrats to tip the balance with the card-check tactic.” 

And the Detroit News agrees, writing late last year – as House Democrats were plotting their payback to Big Labor – that: 

“The move is clearly a payoff for big labor's help in the election.  Unions' share of the workforce has fallen to less than 13 percent and they are looking for help.”  

Last week, during Education and Labor Committee consideration of the legislation, the panel’s Senior Republican Member, Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), predicted just this type of reaction from the American public, telling his colleagues, “I’m confident that as this debate advances, the more likely it will be exposed for what it is – and the more likely it will run out of steam here in the halls of Congress.” 

With the House poised to vote on the card check bill as soon as next week, it’s becoming increasingly clear why House Democrat leaders were so eager to rip-off the Band-Aid and force the bill quickly through Committee and onto the House floor.  The American people are learning more about the congressional Democrats’ payoff to Big Labor…and they don’t like what they see.