Unions want unfair elections
November 7, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
“[O]ne of organized labor’s highest priorities has received very little public attention,” Heritage economist James Sherk writes. “Labor officials want Congress to abolish secret ballot elections in union organizing drives.”
The current system of secret worker ballots to decide whether to form a union, he explains, “is designed to ensure that each worker’s vote reflects his or her desires and is not based on outside pressure.” Big labor knows that many people simply don’t want to join a union, so they’re arguing vehemently to abolish the secret ballot, thus allowing organizers to better intimidate workers into supporting the union. “Not surprisingly, organized labor prefers to ‘persuade’ workers to join a union and start paying dues if their votes only count when they are standing face to face with paid union organizers.”
And what does this “persuasion” consist of? When public ballots, known as card-checks, are taken today, workers are often deceived about the purpose of the ballots. Sometimes, Sherk continues, “[w]orkers who do not sign the cards are subjected to repeated home visits by union organizers harassing them to sign.”
It’s no wonder the unions like the AFL-CIO are resorting to these desperate tactics. Sherk notes that “three in four Americans tell pollsters that they do not want to belong to a union, and union membership has dropped to a 70-year low.”
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
