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HK

wrote:
On Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:00:06 -0400, "Reginald P. Smithers, IIII, Esq."
wrote:

in an effort to strip workers of
the secret ballot,

That is the only part of this that confuses me. How is removing the
secret ballot (the cornerstone of our democracy) establishing "free
choice". It sounds more like opening up the voters to intimidation.
Would anyone tolerate having public disclosure of how they voted in

The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1409 / S. 560) puts the decision of
how to form a union in the hands of workers, not employers. Under the
measure, workers would continue the long-established process of
collecting signatures on cards from their coworkers indicating that they
support forming a union.

If a majority of workers sign cards voting for a union, and if those
cards are validated by the NLRB, the agency will certify the workers as
a union.

The employer would be legally required to recognize the workers’ union
and bargain with them.

Employees could still choose to use their signed cards to petition for
an NLRB election. But given the many flaws with that process, many will
choose to avoid conflict-ridden elections.

Under current law, management can refuse to recognize a union even when
100 percent of employees have signed union authorization cards, and even
if the employer has no reason to doubt the validity of the cards.

Instead, employers can insist on an election process that enables them
to take advantage of weak labor laws and launch a one-sided campaign to
intimidate their employees out of supporting a union. When workers try
and form unions, 91 percent of employers force employees to attend
one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors, 51 percent coerce
workers into opposing unions with bribes or special favors, and 30
percent fire pro-union workers. In fact, these elections don’t measure
up to the most fundamental standards of democracy.

NLRB “elections” invite more coercion and intimidation than majority
sign-up. That’s why majority sign-up is so critical – it helps level the
playing field and offers workers a fair and direct path to form unions.
During NLRB elections, 46 percent of workers report management pressure
compared to only 14 percent of workers reporting union pressure during
majority sign-up. And it is very rare for workers who organized their
union through majority sign-up to report any incidence of union pressure.

"Free Choice" is needed in order to level the playing field. As it is
now, employers simply intimidate employees into not joining with the
union, even after enough cards are signed to hold an election.
Anti-union law firms make hundreds of millions of dollars every year
helping corporations skirt and break the laws that relate to joining unions.

Once Al Franken gets to the Senate, there will be a vote on this, and
now the odds are about even it will pass.

There are tens of millions of wealthy Republicans who feel that somehow
capital is more valuable than labor. Well, it isn't.