News Flash: Americans Still Like Unions!

By Dick Meister, AlterNet. Posted January 6, 2009.

The key provision of the proposed law would grant union recognition on the showing of union membership cards by a majority of an employer's workers rather than holding an election, as is now done in most cases. The law was like that originally, with no lengthy election campaigns and thus less opportunity for employers to intimidate workers.

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have seized on that so-called card-check provision as a violation of democratic principles. They claim it would deny workers the basic democratic right of a secret ballot. But there are at least two major flaws in that argument:

The act says if a majority of an employer's workers ask for unionization to be determined by a secret ballot election rather than by a card check, an election will be held. Secondly, those union-representation elections that opponents of the proposed law like so much are in themselves serious violations of basic democratic principles.

Employers now openly violate the provisions of the Labor Relations Act that govern election campaigning. They electioneer among voters at their workplaces any time they wish, while prohibiting organizers from entering the premises or even posting pro-union material. And they require voters to attend pre-election meetings at which only the employer's side is presented.

What's more, the voting is held on the employer's property, with voters escorted to the polls by employer representatives. And employers who lose elections can delay recognizing the results for years. That's democracy?

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the House handily last year, but failed to get the 60-vote majority to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Chances seem much better this year, in part because of strong support by President-elect Barack Obama, who was a co-sponsor of the measure in the Senate and has pledged his continued strong support, as have most Democratic members of Congress.

The AFL-CIO's campaign for the law is one of organized labor's biggest ever, involving millions of dollars and millions of members. But the opposition is waging what's shaping up as an even more expensive effort, the biggest anti-union campaign in many years. It's being waged by many powerful corporate employers, the entire Republican establishment, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other influential stalwarts of the anti-union right.

They may think they have a majority of Americans on their side, since such a small percentage of workers belong to unions. But even should they win their battle with organized labor, the polls make clear that a significant majority of Americans nevertheless support the unions that the powerful opponents of free choice would destroy.

See more stories tagged with: labor, union, poll, public opinion, efca, gallup

Dick Meister is a San Francisco journalist who has covered labor and political issues for a half-century. Contact him through his Web site, www.dickmeister.com.

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