Card Check

Practice What You Preach, You Hypocrite

Will Collins — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:25:27 -0500

Politico reports that House Dems are gearing up for a battle over the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee between Representatives Waxman and Dingell:

The race itself remains a tough one to call. “I’m not even sure the candidates know,” said Washington Rep. Jay Inslee, a Waxman supporter.

And most lawmakers dread picking sides.

Asked who she would be supporting, Rules Chairwoman Louise McIntosh Slaughter of New York exclaimed, “Oh, it’s a secret ballot, thank the Lord.”

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“Streamlining” Union Intimidation

Anthony Riedel — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:29:27 -0500

Last week, blogger Clayton Cramer gave his take on why Big Labor bosses would want to wipe out secret ballot elections from the American workplace. His account includes some telling examples of union boss intimidation:

I am more inclined to suspect that a lot of people sign the union authorization cards because they are either strongly encouraged or even directly threatened to do so. Labor unions are fundamentally institutions of organized violence. A friend who has since passed on left me this account of working in a union shop in California during World War II (when the federal government leaned pretty heavily on employers to accept unions):

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National Right to Work in the Wall Street Journal: Union Power Grabs Could Turn Market Crash Into Depression

Patrick Semmens — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:02:32 -0400

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation and the National Right to Work Committee, has an op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal on the disastrous economic implications of handing Big Labor more forced unionism power:

By the mid-1930s, the U.S. economy appeared to be climbing out of the Great Depression. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which had bottomed out at 41 in 1932, was advancing. It increased 73% from the beginning of 1935 through the end of 1936, when it hit 180. The number of unemployed, 13 million in 1933, dropped to 9.5 million in 1935 and 7.6 million in 1936.

Then, in 1937, the DJIA plunged 33% in what is often called "a depression within a depression." Joblessness skyrocketed.

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VIDEO - Union Organizers On Card Check Intimidation: "Get the card signed... by hook or crook"

Patrick Semmens — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:55:06 -0400

Here's a telling video of former union organizers describing the pressure, intimidation and even outright dishonesty that goes into collecting cards for a card check.

USA Today Comes Out Against Card Check Instant Organizing

Will Collins — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:29:02 -0400

Today USA Today, the largest circulation newspaper in the country, editorializes against efforts to impose the coercive Card Check Instant Organizing on every worker in America:

Under the current system, once 30% of a company's workers sign union authorization cards, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administers a confidential vote, typically 39 days after it receives the cards. The union and employer campaign for votes.

Under a major rewrite of U.S. labor law being promoted by unions, when more than 50% of employees sign authorization cards, the NLRB would have to recognize the new union. No campaign. No secret ballot.

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Foundation Prepares for Tsunami of Card Check Organizing Victims in Early 2009

Nick Cote — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:10:51 -0400

You wouldn't know it from watching any of the debates, but the potential for Big Labor to ram "card check" down American workers' throats is very real and very immediate. Accordingly, the Foundation is bracing itself for a new wave of employee requests for legal aid. Mickey Kaus, a lefty blogger reveals the rapid timeline:

Obama's Fast Labor Payoff: kf hears from a trustworthy non-Republican source (with access to actual insider information) that the Dems are getting set to pass "card check" legislation fast next year, right out of the box, assuming Obama wins and the Democrats get their expected big Senate majority. The legislation--which would eliminate the secret ballot in union organizing elections, allowing union organizers to gather signed cards person-to-person--is cheap, in budgetary terms. And it's very, very important to organized labor.

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Dana/Metaldyne One Year Later: The Myth of the "September Massacre"

Patrick Semmens — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:18:15 -0400

Ever since the National Labor Relations Board ruled in the Dana/Metaldyne case exactly one year ago yesterday, pro-forced-unionism "scholars" have rushed to decry the decision as "revolutionary." Apparently giving workers more freedom of choice is deeply disturbing to union bosses.

Card Check Forced Unionism: Biggest Intervention Since New Deal?

Nick Cote — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:10:34 -0400

Big Labor apologist Mark Weisbrot had a piece defending the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times. Money quote (emphasis mine):

This law would probably change Americans' lives more than any legislation since the New Deal brought us Social Security. The political influence of millions of new union members would also bring us closer to such basic reforms as universal health care. It's all long overdue.

Of course, millions of new forced dues paying union members would only increase union bosses' influence, not the workers' influence -- nearly half of whom do not support Big Labor's political agenda.

Shut Up! AFL-CIO Bosses Have the Gall to Talk About Voting Rights

Nick Cote — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:15:57 -0400

Laboring Away at the Institute points out this flagrant piece of hypocrisy from the AFL-CIO blog:

We have learned painfully that in this third century of our republic, we cannot take our right to vote for granted. We have to defend it. There are people in our political system who think that voting is a privilege reserved for those like themselves, that it is fair and right to confuse and intimidate people into not voting.

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Mediation Board's "Card Check" Promotion Proposal Yanked... For Now

Patrick Semmens — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:29:52 -0400

Last week we reported on an attempt by National Media Board (NMB) bureaucrats to reposition the agency as a promoter of coercive "card check" union organizing. The NMB is a federal bureaucracy whose purpose is supposedly to, among other things, “to promote… the effectuation of employee rights of self-organization where a representation dispute exists…” within the railroad and airline industries.

Today we learn via the Daily Labor Report that the NMB's proposal has been yanked, at least for now. The move is a victory for the National Right to Work Foundation, which opposed the changes: