Card Check Bill Stripping Workers' Rights Opposed by 91 Percent of Democratic Voters
Dem Bill A Payback for “Desperate” Big Labor Contributors
Washington,
Feb 27, 2007 -
Why would House Democrats push the misleadingly titled Employee Free Choice Act to undermine the most basic right of working Americans – the right to vote via secret ballot – even though a large majority of Americans, including most Democrats, oppose it?
A recent McLaughlin & Associates survey found that 89 percent of the public want to preserve the right to a secret ballot when deciding whether to form a union and oppose the Big Labor-backed card check procedure that leaves workers vulnerable to threats, harassment, and intimidation – including 91 percent of Democrats.
Why would House Democrats continue to insist on doing this favor for their union boss friends even though the public roundly rejects it? Could it be because organized labor gave more than half a billion in contributions to Dem candidates since 1994 – with more than $1 million in direct contributions to House Dem leaders in the 2006 cycle alone?
An op-ed in Townhall.com by Rep. John Kline (R-MN) talks about the real reason behind this bill:
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“[W]hat is the real reason for the card check bill? Two words: desperation and power. Union membership is in sharp decline – down to 12 percent nationwide and seven percent in the private sector. And that trend isn’t showing any signs of reversing. That is, unless something dramatic occurs.
“And that’s where the so-called Employee Free Choice Act comes into play. It gives Big Labor and the Democrats they helped elect one last, best shot at reversing their flagging fortunes.”
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A column today by George Will in the Washington Post says the declining membership is making labor leaders “desperate”:
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“Under the card-check system, unions are able to, in effect, select the voters they want. It strips all workers of privacy and exposes them, one at a time, to the face-to-face pressure of union organizers who distribute and collect the cards. The Supreme Court has said that the card-check system is ‘admittedly inferior to the election process.’
“Repealing a right – to secret ballots – long considered fundamental to democratic culture would be a radical act. But labor is desperate. The card-check shortcut to unionization comes before Congress after last month’s announcement that union membership declined, yet again, in 2006, by 326,000.”
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This bill is little more than a ploy by Democrats to forcefully boost Big Labor’s numbers, thus ensuring a critical source of campaign cash continues to flow. If Democrats are willing to take away a right as fundamental as the private ballot to pay off the union bosses for their support, what else could be in store for hard-working Americans?
Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), senior Republican on the Education & Labor Committee, today released a sampling of organizations steadfastly opposed to the bill.
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