Card Check — Giving Unions More Power
February 6th, 2007 by Brendan SteinhauserPatrick Cleary has written a great piece over at the NAM blog. Here is an excerpt:
Today in Congress, A Blow To Democracy
A sad day in Congress today, for today is the day that Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, is expected to formally introduce the “Card check” bill –a most innocuous name for a most pernicious bill. This bill will upset not only some 70+ years of settled labor law in this country but with it, over 200 years of democracy.
Under current rules, a union seeking to represent a group of workers must get “authorization” cards signed by at least 30% of those workers saying they want an election. This is a process known to all practitioners as rife with what polite people would call, “intimidation.” It’s a face-to-face process — often in the employee’s home — where the union, uh, asks the employee to sign the card.