Employee Free Choice Act: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

The casual observer probably believes that unions are opposed to secret ballot elections. Unions have made it their top legislative priority to get the Employee Free Choice Act passed, which essentially outlaws secret ballot elections in NLRB campaigns.

Unions rail against the heavy-handed tactics of employers, who force their employees to vote in secret ballot elections instead of “voluntarily recognizing” the choice expressed by employees in petitions or authorization cards. They complain that the election process is heavily stacked in favor of the employer and that it is unfair and should be abandoned.

So unions always oppose elections, right? Not always. Sometimes they actually WANT employees to vote in an election. Unions want elections when THEY are the employer.

For example, this month United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 5, was approached by 75 employees who wanted to form a union. One would expect that the union just sat down, looked at the authorization cards signed by their employees and recognized the “free choice” they made to join a union. Not so fast. These employees were forced to file a petition with the NLRB and to go through a secret ballot election!

This is not an isolated incident. Since 2000 unions forced their employees into secret ballot elections 126 different times. It is more than a little ironic that the labor movement is so violently opposed to secret ballot elections except then they are faced with a union election among their own employees.

I think that any Congressperson who supports the Employee Free Choice Act should demand an explanation for this double standard by unions. Why do unions oppose secret ballots for non-union companies, but force their own employees to go through them when the shoe is on the other foot?

What are unions hiding? Surely unions aren’t suspicious about the strategies and tactics used to get cards signed by THEIR employees. Come on – many of these employees are the same choir-boys and girls whose day job is to go out and sell employees of real companies on the great advantages of unions. These salespeople are trained to use only non-intimidating and totally above-board “persuasion” techniques. Surely unions aren’t concerned that these employees might not be totally sure about what they’re signing?

If I read one more editorial about how horribly unfair the secret ballot election process is for union elections (and how far superior the card-check process is as an alternative) I am going to be physically ill. Don’t judge unions by their words – judge them by their deeds. And unions act exactly the same as the employers they criticize when their own employees want to organize a union. If unions don’t trust union organizers, why the heck should anyone else?