Card Check Opponents Advance Completely Nonsensical Arguments

Lobbying for the oppression of American workers since 1912.

The propensity of many Americans to oppose their own economic interests never ceases to amaze me. I find this utterly fascinating, as it is the most interesting and mind-boggling phenomenon in American politics. It’s a topic that I have touched upon in posts about the tea partiers, and I hope to explore it greater depth in the coming weeks. For now, I want to examine one particular issue through which this problem has so clearly manifested. That issue is Card Check.

Card Check, also known as “majority sign-up,” would make it easier for workers in a particular company to unionize. There is a bill currently stalled in Congress—the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)—that would make Card Check the law of the nation. The idea is very simple. Under Card Check, workers of a potential bargaining unit sign what are called “authorization cards” which state the employees’ desire to be part of a union. If a majority of workers in a unit sign cards, the cards are sent to the National Labor Relations Board for verification and certification. Once this is done, those workers are officially a union, even the ones who did not sign cards. Card Check simply allows the will of the majority to be obliged (either for or against unionizing), while preventing “free riding” in those units that do become unionized. It wouldn’t be fair if some employees didn’t pay any dues, and yet got to reap whatever benefits the union is able to secure. Even the current law dictates that once a union is formed, all employees are in the union regardless of how they voted. So Card Check changes nothing on this score.

Current law does not allow for automatic unionization after a majority of workers sign authorization cards. Under the present statute, if 30% of the employees or more sign authorization cards, which are then sent to the NLRB, the Board authorizes an election using a secret ballot, in which all employees vote on whether to unionize. The EFCA would keep this provision, while also adding the abovementioned majority sign-up rule.

Opponents argue, rather disingenuously, that Card Check would infringe on workers’ rights by eliminating the right to a secret ballot. But if a majority of employees have signed authorization cards expressing their wish to unionize, an election is superfluous. And if only 30% of employees sign cards, an election using the secret ballot is still held. So what’s really going here?

The main argument against majority sign-up is a strange one. Right-wingers do not publicly advocate against Card Check by stating the actual reason they oppose it, which is that it’s not a business-friendly piece of legislation. Any law that makes it easier for workers to negotiate collectively with management is anathema to American conservatism. But conservatives cannot tell the American people they oppose Card Check for this reason—that it has the potential to empower them as workers and to negotiate better compensation for themselves. Instead, the Right has had to cook up a farcical ruse of an excuse that invokes “worker rights” and the right to have a secret ballot.

A secret ballot is a good thing. But once again, under Card Check, if a majority of workers sign union authorization cards, there is no need—if you are an employee—to have any kind of election, secret or otherwise. However, if you are the employer, then you have every reason to drag out the process as much as possible. Opponents of Card Check argue that a secret ballot is necessary to protect “worker rights” because they say employees will undoubtedly feel pressured into signing a card by their coworkers. Take a look at this advertisement from the Orwellian-named Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is financially backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Retail Industry Leaders Association, among other groups of for-profit organizations:

Not that it would matter, but someone should tell the assholes behind this ad that this isn’t On the Waterfront. Not every union leader is a fucking mob caricature, which apparently is the only role that Vince Curatola can play. As someone who has engaged in a majority sign-up effort, workers don’t try to intimidate their fellow employees because (1) that’s not right; and (2) you’ll end up alienating people. The best way to approach coworkers is to tell them about the organizing effort and encourage them to ask any questions they have (which most of them will). In my experience, hardly anyone was outright against unionizing. It’s just that most of them had never even considered it and weren’t sure how it worked. I was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the employees who said they’d think it over, ended up asking to sign cards later on.

If workers have to worry about coercion from anyone, it’s their employer, who writes their paychecks. The employer, after all, can use the threat of job loss to whip employees against unionizing. (Even though this is illegal, it happens often.) If a majority of workers sign cards, all an election would do is allow the employer time to lobby against unionization through coercion and staff-splitting.

The passage of Card Check is questionable at this point, even with the supposedly worker-friendly Democratic Party in power. As for the American people themselves, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s magazine recently featured an article misleadingly titled, “Poll shows public opposes card check,” and cites a Voter Consumer Research poll indicating that 61% of respondents oppose Card Check. But if we look at the actual poll, we find that this figure represents 61% of the mere 28% of respondents who said they had actually heard of Card Check. It should also be pointed out that as a news topic, Card Check features more prominently in Right Wing media than anywhere else because it makes great fodder—albeit illogically—for screeds against Democrats and organized labor. Hence, it may very well be that politically-minded conservatives are more likely to have heard of Card Check than liberals.

So how is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce defining “public?” For that, we need only do some simple math. Take the 28% of Americans who’ve heard of Card Check, and multiply that number by the 61% of them who oppose Card Check, and we find that when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that the “public” opposes Card Check, they mean that 17% of Americans oppose Card Check.

That’s a strange way of defining “the public.”

It remains to be seen whether the EFCA will become unstuck in Congress. As of now its prospects look bleak, and if it fails (which is likely), this will only add to the number of ways that Barack Obama has disappointed the people who elected him. If the EFCA is resurrected, expect a fierce battle involving the kinds of crazy conservative rhetoric we became accustomed to last summer during the health care “debate.” It may be an uphill battle. In 2009, for the first time since Gallup started asking the question, “Do you approve or disapprove of unions?” in 1936, less than a majority said they approved. Now, I’m not going to sit here and claim that every union is great and only has the interests of its members in mind, because that is not the case. But there are a lot of good unions that really protect the well-being of their members because they create bargaining opportunities for workers that would not otherwise exist. Everyone recognizes the truth of the “strength in numbers” maxim. And yet, America’s peasant mentality only seems to be worsening. Idiots like Glenn Beck make millions by incoherently ranting against heretofore uncontroversial ideas, such as social justice and collectivism in a sinister effort to perpetuate a notion of extreme individualism. Sure, he’ll support collectivist activities such as the tea parties in the short term, but only as a means to achieve a culture of isolationism and marginalization.

So it is with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, and other business interests of this nation. These organizations have spent millions of dollars to lobby against Card Check under the guise of lobbying for worker rights, which is laughable. And the only thing more absurd than the notion of big business looking out for us, is the fact that people are actually believing it.

- Max