Free Republic

A bipartisan Senate vote to kill the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would have eliminated secret ballots in union elections, is (now) becoming reality ... the measure, which also would have increased penalties on employers (but not unions) for violating the National Labor Relations Act.

Congressional Quarterly: Senator Says Secret-Ballot in Private Meeting to Determine Whether Democrats Punish Lieberman Senate Democrats will vote by secret ballot on Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman ’s fate this week, according to North Dakota Sen. Byron L. Dorgan . The caucus is due to meet Tuesday to decide whether Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent from Connecticut, should be punished for his aggressive support of Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz., for president. Secret ballot, eh? Well, reminding Democrats of this episode should prove amusing when they try and pass card check legislation.

(CNSNews.com) - In April, then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in Philadelphia, “I’ve fought to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate. And I will make it the law of the land when I’m president of the United States of America.” President-elect Obama will move into the White House with increased Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, which also support legislation designed to stem the tide of declining union membership. The bill replaces the secret ballot by allowing union organizers to publicly ask workers to sign a card in favor of unionizing. If a bare majority...

Democrats narrowly avoided a major embarrassment before holding their abbreviated roll call of the states.

As a congressman, senator and one-time Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've participated in my share of vigorous public debates over issues of great consequence. And the public has been free to accept or reject the decisions I made when they walked into a ballot booth, drew the curtain and cast their vote. I didn't always win, but I always respected the process. Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending...

Some of the nation's largest labor organizations are calling for legalization of all the nation's undocumented workers and have conceded the guest worker issue. "There is no good reason why any immigrant who comes to this country prepared to work, to pay taxes, and to abide by our laws and rules should be denied what has been offered to immigrants throughout our country's history -- a path to legal citizenship," said Ana Avendano, assistant general counsel for the AFL-CIO, which represents 53 unions nationally. The AFL-CIO and the Change to Win coalition, collectively representing about 15 million workers, or about...

EFCA, or the “Card Check” bill, introduced by Democrat Rep. George Miller (CA) and passed the US House of Representatives failed the Senate cloture vote with no Democrats voting in opposition. In a recent statement, Executive Director Brian M. Johnson said, “it should be no surprise that the left in Congress and the Communist Party are beholden to carry out the anti-democratic bidding of Labor Union bosses. Campaign contributions from Big Labor to the left translate directly into votes as not one Democrat in the Senate opposed this measure which strips the private ballot voting right of the American worker!”...

On August 8, George McGovern had an editorial published by the Wall Street Journal that astounds for the fact that it runs counter to union aims. In it, McGovern warns the unions against their woefully misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act," the legislation that has as one of its main goals the elimination of democratic styled, secret balloting for union elections. Unions actually wish to eliminate the union member's ability to keep his vote private. This act will serve to put pressure on union voters to conform to the union's party line because, after all, every vote they make as individuals...

Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak....

House Vote on Card-Check.

Legislation that would make it more difficult for workers to hold a private ballot vote in unionization drives, which critics say would lead to harassment and intimidation, has spurred a pitched battle between powerful labor unions supportive of Sen. Barack Obama and big business in the presidential campaign. Seen by the AFL-CIO as a way to boost union rolls by hundreds of thousands of new members, the hotly-contested bill has become this year's No. 1 election issue for organized labor. Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has promised union bosses that the Employee Free Choice Act will become law in...

How would you like elections without secret ballots? To most people, the notion of getting rid of secret ballots is absurd. This is modern-day America. Such an idea could not be seriously considered, right? People support secret balloting for very obvious reasons. Politics frequently generates hot tempers. People can put up yard signs or wear political buttons if they want. But not everyone feels comfortable making his or her political positions public. Many would rather vote without fearing that their choice will offend or anger someone else. Secret balloting has solved another potential problem: vote buying, which they essentially ended...