Workers Win As Senate Nixes Labor Union ‘Card Check’ Bill

Washington, D.C., June 26, 2007— The Senate today voted against shutting off debate on a key union balloting bill. The bill would have circumvented secret ballot elections and empowered unions to intimidate workers in the voting process.

Statement by Ivan Osorio, CEI Labor Policy Analyst and Editorial Director on the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800, S.1041):

While the preservation of the secret ballot in organizing is good news for workers, union bosses aren’t about to roll over. They’ll be back to try to get future Congresses to pass a similar bill. With private sector union membership in steep decline, they hope to rope more workers into unions through card check, under which a union needs only to get over 50 percent of workers at a workplace to sign union cards to become recognized as monopoly bargaining agent for those workers. Under card check, cards are signed in public, which exposes workers to the kind of high-pressure tactics that a secret ballot protects against.

See also:

Ivan Osorio Bio

More On Union "Card Check":

• "It’s Miller Time," by Ivan Osorio
• "Secret Ballots Are OK For Me, But Not For Thee," by Doug Bandow, CEI Bastiat Scholar in Free Enterprise