FreedomWorks Calls on Congress to Stop Union Power Grab

Union membership continues to fall in America. This is because the economy rewards flexibility and adaptability. This is a troubling trend for Democratic leaders who depend on union funding for a major source of campaign cash.

Democratic leaders like Senator Ted Kennedy and Representative George Miller have promised to bring legislation to a vote that fulfills the wishes of unions in the Employee Free Choice Act. The corner stone of this legislation is the “Card Check” provision that will end secret ballots in union organizing campaigns, exposing the process to intimidation and coercion.

Under current law, employees vote by secret ballot in a government-monitored election to decide if they would like to join a union. This process ensures anonymity and fairness, but is apparently unacceptable to union bosses.

FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented on ‘Card Check’ in an op-ed published in Townhall on January 12, 2007 and was subsequently distributed in a Dear College letter on capitol Hill;

“For all their rhetoric about standing up for all of America’s workers, the Democrats are most interested in preserving a big player in their 1930’s era political machine.”

“Card Check is a top down system which does away with secret ballots. Employers would be forced to recognize a union without an election with just over 50 percent of workers participating. Card Check removes privacy protections for employees. It opens the workplace to intimidation and corruption, and to say the least, is a violation of the American principle of a secret ballot.”

“Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor, stressed that voluntary associations are preferable and more legitimate than compulsory institutions. Big unions are pushing Card Check along with an aggressive protectionist agenda at the expense of the rest of us. Reaping the benefits of this agenda will be union bureaucrats and Democratic Party coffers. The immediate casualty is worker freedom from coercion, but the long term economy will suffer from a lack of innovation, an inability to compete, and a high tax, big government political culture.”

FreedomWorks will issue a key vote notice against the Employee Free Choice Act and continue to monitor the issue for our 800,000 members.