March 13, 2007

Card Check Voting and Unions

There are plenty of words being spilt over the Empoyee Free Choice Act and the proposed card check voting system. For instance, yesterday's Washington Post guest editorial on this legislation. Eric Folley responds:

To be fair, the Post does say that the current system is tilted too far in favor of employers, and they suggest a number of tweaks to the system: shorter elections, greater union access to the workplace, and harsher penalties for intimidation by employers. But this seems to me to be just another way of skirting the main issue, which is: if a majority of workers want a union, they should get one. And since card check is the fairest way to determine the will of the majority, it should be allowed. QED.
He couldn't be more wrong with respect to his main issue.

If any number of workers, a minority or a majority, want to form a union they must be allowed to do so.

What they can not be allowed to do is force any other workers to join their union or pay dues to it.

Posted by Steve on March 13, 2007
Comments

Amen on both counts. I'm not a union kind of guy--just another layer of self-serving bureaucrats, if you ask me--but that's fine since I don't really work in a unionized industry. Watching my girlfriend fend off the bullying and guilt trips of her teachers' union local representative, though, irritates me no end.

She doesn't agree with their politics, thinks that the unions are overly protective and insular, and doesn't want to be a part; mostly, she doesn't like the idea of her money being used to promote things that she doesn't believe in. Luckily we live in a "modified" right to work state--that is, it's possible, but extremely hard, to create all-union shops.

That's not to say that I hate all unions. If I worked in another industry--say mining--I would definitely consider union membership. But I don't like compulsory membership.

Posted by zombyboy at March 13, 2007 1:30 PM
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