Free Republic

If you want to teach those unscrupulous Democrats down there in that Congressional Cesspool the value a secret ballot follow these instructions. 1. Establish a small temporary office manned by two people in each congressional district. Post a big sign in the office “Your share could be thousands of dollars !”. 2. Put the following ad in the newspapers, on the radio and television. “Order your absentee ballot now – bring your blank ballot to the office listed below and receive your share of the canceled one trillion dollar stimulus package if the republicans gain the majority in the House...

Controversial legislation that would make it easier to organize unions will pass this year, Vice President Joe Biden said today. Appearing at a Labor Day rally in Pittsburgh, Biden praised the role of unions in building the middle class and said the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will make it through Congress before the end of the year, the Associated Press reports. That's a very optimistic timeline, considering that Democrats are already putting all their legislative muscle behind healthcare reform.

Some scholars squabble about the particulars, but there is no question that democracy's roots go back at least 2,500 years to practices developed in the Greek city-state of Athens. But the adoption of a key pillar of democracy — the secret ballot — came far more recently. In England in the 1830s, disenfranchised working-class men and sympathetic members of Parliament launched the Chartist movement. The most crucial of its six objectives was universal suffrage for all men over 21, but not far behind was the secret-ballot provision. It took decades, but eventually the secret ballot became the democratic norm —...

It has to be the ultimate hypocrisy, but the Democrat Party has been touting its support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill that would eliminate the secret ballot for potential union members, but recently decided that a secret ballot for Senators on whether or not to vote in committee chairmen is quite important. The hypocrisy is stark. I say again, even as Senate Democrats have found no reason to protect the democratic right of the secret ballot for union workers they’ve decided that it is a must for themselves when voting in or out Senate committee chairmen....

One of the main premises of the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature eliminates the right of potential union employees to have the benefit of a secret ballot when they vote for or against organizing under a union. Recently, Rasmussen did a poll on the basic concept to see what the prevailing feelings were and it looks like the union position comes out heavily on the losing end of the stats with this one. What’s more, most people agree with the Republican position that opposes the union’s... Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

An interactive game about present day Organized Labor (Unions) push for doing away with the secret ballot and replacing it with public card signing. Play this interactive flash game to learn what life would be life if the so-called “Employee Freedom of Choice Act” passes and “card check” becomes the law of the land. Be sure to Contact Your Legislator Forward this link to your email forwards

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is getting squeezed by business and organized labor over her neutrality on legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions. Feinstein was a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, commonly known as “card check,” in 2007. But she is the only Democrat in the California congressional delegation who is not a co-sponsor of this year's bill, which is labor's top legislative priority. The senator has expressed reservations about forging ahead with such a fundamental change in union-organizing rules during a deep recession. “This is an extraordinarily difficult economy, and there are very strong...

The next governor of Virginia will have little impact on the heated debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, but that's not stopping one candidate from using the controversial issue to win headlines. Former Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R) has spent several weeks repeatedly bringing up the legislation, the so-called "card check" measure that would make it easier for unions to form. At a time when Virginia, like the rest of the nation, is hemorrhaging jobs, McDonnell casts card check as bad for businesses that need all the help they can get to begin rehiring employees. "It's a big issue...

Big Labor: If you thought "card check" legislation that would kill off workers' right to a secret ballot is dead, think again. Despite public repudiation, it's back — with its advocates using sneakier tactics.The Employee Free Choice Act would permit the establishment of new unions solely on the signatures of a company's employees, taken either on the fly or with union thugs standing in their doorways. Besides denying workers a right to a secret ballot, "card check," as it's known, also forces federal arbitration onto companies for union contracts, ensuring that either unions dictate the wages they want or a...

As Democrats and Republicans stand increasingly at odds over measures to help improve the economy, one bill under consideration highlights how critical party loyalty could be in determining policy measures. Mitt Romney, a likely contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, joined a forum of business advocates in Northern Virginia on Thursday to denounce a union-backed bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, as little more than political payback from Democrats that would worsen the nation's economic footing. The bill would be "catastrophic for the economy," Romney said. "The impact long term is people start less businesses here. It's not great...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Union leaders, clergy and liberal members of Congress gathered in the mostly empty U.S. Capitol Visitors Center early Tuesday morning to hear multicultural choir music, speeches from religious leaders--and to pray for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). The event was a prayer breakfast sponsored by Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness--a coalition of liberal religious groups that was formed for the sole purpose of promoting EFCA, commonly known as the “card-check” bill. Under this bill, union organizers could compel an employer to recognize a union as representing the employer's workers any time more than...

The Employee Free Choice Act, which would take away employees’ free choice about whether to join a union, has brighter prospects now that Arlen Specter is in the mood to compromise. This is wretched news, of course, because secret ballots matter (I'll point out why in Sunday's Journal Sentinel) and because the bill also imposes binding arbitration on company-union negotiations. As George McGovern recently put it, this is lunacy. Diana Furchgott-Roth points out that Specter’s compromise might well be to give way on the secret ballot – unions would have to swallow not winning 100% of the time – but...

Both business, labor claim recess victories By Michael O'Brien Posted: 04/18/09 06:59 PM [ET] After two weeks of wrangling over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) during the congressional recess, both business and labor groups are claiming victory before the return of Congress this week. Organized labor groups have cited what they claim was the largest grass-roots mobilization since the election as a sign of their success over the congressional break, while business groups point to signs that the legislation will fall short of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. The Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI) declared Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-Ark.)...

If you have a long enough lever, you can move the world. That's an old saying attributed to Archimedes. But what Archimedes didn't add is that a long enough lever may splinter in your hands if the material is not strong enough. You may end up not moving the world where you wanted it to go and finding yourself in a position you didn't want to be in. That's pretty much the position of organized labor -- the leaders of America's large labor unions -- today. For the past several years, they have been attempting to move the world by...

Organized labor is “very close” to winning a breakthrough legislative victory that could help restore a healthy middle class, a top national union official said in Lincoln. “We want to reverse a 30-year assault on the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively,” said Stewart Acuff, special assistant to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Acuff is spearheading the drive to win enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow workers to choose union representation at their workplace without a secret ballot vote. Under current law, employers can demand a secret ballot vote even if a majority of...

HARRISBURG - Americans for Prosperity (AFP) will defend workers’ rights to cast secret ballots in Pennsylvania as part of its nationwide Save My Ballot tour in opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “card check,” which would strip workers of their rights in union organizing elections. “Some lawmakers want to abolish private ballot elections through the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, and allow unions to organize just by collecting signatures on union cards. This would give them the ability to pressure and intimidate workers in public,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “We support the secret ballot so...

If anyone were still in doubt as to the importance of a Senate filibuster, we'd point them to Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter's announcement yesterday that he will not support "card check." Maybe Big Labor won't be able to up-end the economy, after all. Mr. Specter's decision means Republicans now have 41 votes against "card check" -- legislation that would do away with secret ballots in union organization elections. The Pennsylvanian was the only Senate Republican to have previously voted in favor of a debate on the bill, and as such had been the target of a furious lobbying fight by...

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday he will oppose card check, giving an apparent death blow to the most important congressional issue to organized labor. Specter made the dramatic announcement in a floor speech. His opposition means Democrats can count on a maximum of 59 votes to move the bill forward, one short of the 60 required to clear Senate rules. Winning 59 votes would require Democrat Al Franken to beat Republican Norm Coleman in the still-contested Minnesota Senate race. Democrats also would have to count on holding the rest of their votes, and several centrists have raised doubts about...

AFTER MUCH PRESSURE, SPECTER TO OPPOSE CLOTURE & PASSAGE ON CARD CHECK… According to multiple sources, Senator Arlen Specter will vote against cloture and passage on Employee Free Choice Act legislation…

The Obama administration's budget is full of proposals that threaten to weaken our staggering economy. Higher taxes on high earners and reduced deductions for their charitable contributions and mortgage interests. A cap-and-trade system that will impose higher costs on everyone who uses electricity. A national health insurance program that will take $600 billion or so out of the private-sector economy. But the most grievous threat to future prosperity may be off-budget -- the inaptly named Employee Free Choice Act. Also known as card check, the legislation would effectively abolish secret ballots in unionization elections. It provides that once a majority...

The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow unions to organize worksites without secret-ballot elections, was introduced in Congress last week. And this week, we saw how far Big Labor will go to pass it. On Tuesday the Service Employees International Union posted a YouTube video about the horrific death of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, man who fell into an industrial-sized clothes dryer while clearing a jam of wet laundry. The accident occurred at a plant operated by Cintas Corp., a large uniform supplier. The implication is that the accident never would have occurred if the worksite had been...

Organized labor's highest legislative priority, the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), is harmful to both American workers and businesses. The bill has two key components: 1) Eliminates Secret Ballot for “Card Check” The bill replaces secret ballot union organizing elections with "card check," a process where union organizers publicly solicit workers' signed union authorization cards. If a majority of a company's workers sign cards, they all automatically join the union, without an election. Union activists privately acknowledge that workers often sign union cards because of peer pressure or harassment and that publicly signed cards do not reflect workers' true...

Labor: In the same week legislation that would kill the secret ballot used to form a union is introduced, a poll finds fewer than one in 10 non-union workers wants to join a union. No wonder coercion is necessary.The bill is called the Employee Free Choice Act. But instead of liberating workers, it would enslave them to unions. Under current law, a work force is organized when a simple majority of workers, voting with secret ballots, approves of unionization. The Employee Free Choice Act, more appropriately called the card check bill, turns that honorable practice on its head. If it...

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. Fans of the...

Coming to a country near you: Labor contracts dictated by federal arbitrators who know little about the businesses they will be regulating by their decisions, and the advent of near universal unionization. The country near you is your country — yes, the United States of America. If high corporate taxes, increased dividend taxes, increased capital gains taxes, the anti-energy carbon tax and metastasizing regulation won’t kill American business, entrepreneurship, and innovation, this will: the wildly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) backed by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, now the far left party. EFCA is the top priority...

I think by now, a lot of Americans have heard about the proposed change by the labor unions and the Democrats to eliminate secret balloting when a company's employees decide to unionize. This change in the collective bargaining laws is called the "Employee Free Choice Act" or EFCA. It is also more commonly known as "Card Check". (See Wikipedia's Coverage of this topic) No matter what you call it, those who object to it are usually against it because it abandons the democratic process of voting in secret. It is this process of secret balloting that has, for decades now,...

The labor policies of the Obama administration and the Democratic Party controlled Congress are being praised in certain quarters. Some see this praise as an indication of the Democrats’ true agenda. The appointment of Hilda Solis as Labor Secretary was noted with accolades on the Web site of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). A story written yesterday by Joelle Fishman, chair, Political Action Committee, CPUSA, said, “The appointment of Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor with an overwhelming vote despite right-wing opposition, is a great victory to celebrate this International Women’s Day. It is no wonder that Hilda Solis, born...

Barack Obama bought and paid for these banks. They better get in line behind his plan to abolish the secret ballot in unionization elections. That’s Rachel Maddow’s position. The MSNBC host is furious that banks taking bail-out funds have the audacity to do what they think is in the best interest of their businesses, instead of supporting the president’s scheme to do away with what most Americans consider a sacred element of democracy: the secret ballot. Apparently Citi and Bank of America have hosted conference calls in which opposition was expressed to the Obama-backed, Orwellian-named, Employee Free Choice Act, which...

Tuesday, March 11, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was reintroduced into both houses of Congress. This is an important step forward for the country. Senate bill S. 560 and House bill H.R. 1409, if passed, would help working Americans improve their wages and working conditions by making it easier to join a union if they choose, and passage would also be huge step out of the current economic crisis the country is in. Also, EFCA—and a stronger trade union movement generally—is key to building a bigger, more united progressive movement that can address all the issues of civil rights,...

Teamsters President Blasts False Claims About Secret Ballots Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today praised House and Senate sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill would give workers the choice of forming a union through majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board election. It would make it easier for workers to form a union. “In these dire economic times, I can’t think of a better way to restore stability to middle-class families than to strengthen unions,” Hoffa said. “History shows that the economy does well when unions are strong.” Hoffa blasted the hostile, multimillion-dollar campaign to defeat...

"We feel the secret ballot is allowed for but not required by Mexican laobor law. However we feel that the secret ballot is absolutly necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose". That was the message submitted to the Mexican government the sponsors of the so called "Employer Free Choice Act which would eliminate the secret ballot in US union organizing. The document was signed by congress members;California's; Miller, Baca, Filner,Lee ,Lofgren ,Stark ; Massachusetts; Barney Frank, James McGovern , and Ohio's ;Kucinich, Kaptur. All sponsors of the...

Making sense of the central political objective of organized labor.Whether the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)—known as “card check”—is introduced in the next hour or next year, it remains the central political objective of organized labor. It was also championed as a domestic priority by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats during the 2008 campaign. The EFCA would undercut the idea of a secret ballot in unionization drives and guarantee mandatory arbitration of many initial collective bargaining agreements. Canada’s experience with card check illustrates how it could further hobble the U.S. economy.

Look, if you want to have the secret ballot in elections for President of the United States, that’s OK. I mean, what does a president decide, after all? But a unionization election? Now there’s something really important. It’s better to do away with the secret ballot there. That in essence was the argument of a union official in favor of permitting secret ballots to be denied in unionization elections, as would potentially be the case under the Orwellian-named “Employee Free Choice Act” introduced in Congress today. Stephen Lerner of the SEIU was the official in question. He made his argument...

Barack Obama provides a study in contrasts. He is personally measured, but his agenda is radical. Although his top personnel are largely centrist, his objectives are standard leftist issue. If his program succeeds, the U.S. will look a lot more like Europe, with far more of life controlled by the central government. Rather like American Uncle Sam meets French Sun King. One of the most important goals of the Obama program is to strengthen labor unions. Explained the president: "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution." Of course...

Obama supporter, campaign economic adviser and super-rich guy Warren Buffett says he is against 'card-check'; "Let's make it a perfectly flat statement" Buffet said on CNBC this morning. Just last week at a posh hotel in Miami Florida both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden told the AFL-CIO that they were behind the 'card-check' bill, known officially as the Employee Free Choice Act. In July of last year, Obama touted Buffett as one of his "core economic advisors" in an interview with Tom Brokaw on NBC's Meet the Press. Card-check is legislation that makes it easier for employers...

He just said it live on CNBC...deflected it before but Joe Kernen asked again...Warren Buffett "I'm against card check" Here is posting from CNBC blog: 8:33a: Buffett says union elections should continue to be by secret ballot. He is opposed to the "card check" proposal for worker votes on joining unions.

Let your voice be heard today to protect this precious right In office less than 40 days, President Obama is already working to strip American workers of their right to vote by secret ballot in union elections. Under a bill being proposed by President Obama, secret ballots are tossed aside and workers are forced to vote in front of intimidating union officials. The bill being pushed by President Obama is deceptively named the "Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)."

Recent articles surrounding the Employee Free Choice Act have focused on it's likelyhood of passing the Senate. A statement by the AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Sammuel to reporters claims that the unions think they have the votes needed to pass card check. However, I disagree. Now, I am assuming everyone knows what "card check" and the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is. If not, click here. Ok, now that you are informed, let's walk through the numbers. It is expected that EFCA will be introduced in the House and Senate on Monday. Ok. We all knew that it was going...

(CNSNews.com) – When Vice President Joe Biden speaks to the annual meeting of AFL-CIO officials at the plush Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach Thursday morning, television cameras will not be allowed to cover his speech – on orders from the White House, Fox News reported. The Fontainebleau, which recently had a billion-dollar makeover, describes itself as “a spectacular blend of Miami’s glamorous golden era and stylish modern luxury." It has 1,504 rooms and suites, 22 oceanfront acres, 11 restaurants and nightclubs including three signature name chef restaurants, a 40,000-square-foot spa, and a "sophisticated poolscape" with private cabanas. The AFL-CIO Executive...

President Barack Obama is in the second month of his administration and Congress still hasn’t passed the Employee Free Choice Act – aka Card Check – to abolish the secret ballot in workplace employee representation elections. So, the Big Labor bosses who spent more than $300 million in 2008 to get the best Democratic president and Congress that dues money can buy are getting antsy. Yesterday Obama offered an AFL-CIO gathering a video message reassuring them that “we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act.” Note that Obama conspicuously said nothing about when he expects Card Check to become law....

Only the deaf, blind and liberals have failed to see the greatest roadblock to a more favorable financial climate and economical status of our automotive producing industry. There can be no question that the obscenely high wages paid to the heavily unionized auto workers have been the downfall of all American automakers. Proof of this problem can be found when comparing U. S. auto workers wages employed in U. S. auto factories to those employed in foreign auto producing plants. The difference between the two groups is stunningly over-balanced in the U. S. workers’ favor. It is also the primary...

Here are the remarks (as prepared for delivery) that President Barack Obama spoke via video to the AFL-CIO executive Council in Miami today. At the very end of the speech, Obama made what all of labor hoped and expected: a promise to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, or 'card-check' for short. Here goes:

In the "card check" bill, if a newly unionized employer can't reach an agreement with the new union, an arbitrator will step in and impose a two-year contract. I thought Jennifer Rubin must be wrong when she said that this arbitrator would be a government employee: snip But it turns out Rubin is right. Or at least she might be right. The arbitration parts of the card check bill are so vaguely drawn that nobody knows who the arbitrators will be. The job of appears to be delegated entirely to the Federal Mediation Service. The FMS might decide to use...

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after introducing the Secret Ballot Protection Act. The bill, authored by Rep. John Kline (R-MN), Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA), and Rep. Price, guarantees the right to a secret ballot to workers deciding whether to unionize. “The secret ballot is a pillar of American democracy,� said Rep. Price. “Unfortunately, congressional Democrats have said they are willing to throw the secret ballot aside in order to advance a political agenda and expand the influence of Big Labor in the workplace. Forcing a worker’s decision to be made public would open the door for coercive...

If a union-boosting bill is passed by Congress later this year, it could cost members of the African American community their jobs, members of a panel hosted by the National Black Chamber of Congress (NBCC) said at the National Press Club on Tuesday. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) or “card check” bill, is heavily favored by labor unions and their Democratic allies. The bill would give more leverage to union organizers by replacing the secret ballot with a system in which workers would openly sign a card saying they want to join a union. To unionize a workplace, fifty...

Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, and Mike Enzi (R-Wy.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Wednesday introduced in the Senate the Secret Ballot Protection Act (SBPA) -- legislation that would guarantee the right of every American worker to have a secret ballot election when deciding whether or not to unionize their workplace. Reps. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the Republican Study Committee chair, John Kline (R-Minn.), and Buck McKeon (R-Ca.) introduced the House legislation with over 100 cosponsors, including minority leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). The bill would amend the National...

Capitol Hill Republicans threw the first legislative punch in the fight over union law on Wednesday, February 25. But Democrats could land a haymaker of their own later with a bill that is much more likely to obtain congressional approval. Members of the House and Senate GOP introduced a bill that would mandate secret-ballot elections to form a union. The measure is meant to counter a bill Democrats could debut any day that would make it easier for employees to organize. Called the Employee Free Choice Act, the Democratic bill would force companies to recognize unions when a majority of...

American labor law is a dank miasma of special-interest legislation that tramples on the rights of some citizens in order to advance the interests of others. The main beneficiaries are labor-union officials who lobbied for and received extraordinary and unique powers from compliant politicians. The victims are business owners and workers who prefer to have nothing to do with unions. Even with their powers, however, union officials have seen a steady decline in the popularity of their “product” ever since the 1950s. The percentage of workers in the private sector who are unionized has fallen from 36 percent in 1953...

Whether the misleadingly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)--known as "card check"--is introduced next week or next year, it remains the central political objective of organized labor. It was also championed as a domestic priority by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats during the 2008 campaign. The EFCA would undercut the idea of a secret ballot in unionization drives and guarantee mandatory arbitration of many initial collective bargaining agreements. Canada's experience with card check illustrates how it could further hobble the U.S. economy.Card check would replace the government-monitored secret ballot election procedure, the cornerstone of federal labor law since the...

US Congress: Pass Employee Free Choice Act Proposed Law Protects Right to Organize, Bargain Collectively JANUARY 27, 2009 Download the report "The Employee Free Choice Act: A Human Rights Imperative" Weak US labor law effectively denies millions of workers the right to form a union and bargain collectively. Congress should bring worker protections closer to international standards by passing the Employee Free Choice Act. Carol Pier, senior researcher on labor rights and trade for Human Rights Watch (Washington, DC) - US lawmakers should back a proposed law to strengthen protections for workers who are trying to organize a union and...