Just fore a bunch of signatures and declare the place unionized!
It's almost like they have a pen and a phone.
Very misleading headline, I’m afraid. The union “exists” whether the company is required (normally as the result of a secret ballot election, but sometimes as a result of an employer (upon seeing that a large number of employees have signed cards) recognizing the union as its employees exclusive bargaining agent). The only issue is the company’s duty to bargain with whatever group claims to represent the majority of its employees.
As far as card check goes, my fairly extensive experience is that employees are invariably told by the organizers that their signature is only for the purpose of demanding an election (”after all, that’s the American way -— put it up to an election ...”) and do so despite the fact that the cards also say the union can use the cards to demand recognition without an election. Most employees are then SHOCKED when the union demands recognition on the basis of signed cards and somewhat grateful when the company rejects the demand and insists on a secret ballot election.