[Antiracism] [Workers' Rights] Secret Ballots Aren't Enough

[WMass Jobs With Justice]

Please forward widely .

Imagine if the only place you could campaign for President was outside the
U.S.  That's just one of the many differences between a real election and a
Union Representation election under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Yet as our campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act heats up, the
anti-union lobby is claiming that the law is anti-democratic.  The following
is from American Rights at Work at
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/resource-librar
y/secret-ballots-arent-enough.html. 

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act have a one-note strategy to derail
reform of our broken labor law system.  The anti-union, right-wing, business
lobby simply spins the same broken record of lies, over and over again.
Track 1 is the bogus assertion: "The bill does away with secret ballot
elections, and, elections without secret ballots are undemocratic." Track 2
is the counterfeit claim: "Elections for union representation are just like
elections for Congress." 

American Rights at Work can't turn off their cacophony, but we can expose
the lies of these lip synchers.  First off, a quick read of the legislation
reveals that the bill does not eliminate secret ballot elections. The
Employee Free Choice Act gives workers the chance to choose their union
formation process: elections or majority sign-up
<http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/resource-libra
ry/why-majority-sign-up-is-needed.html> . 

election standards comparison

Second, as the above chart makes clear, current union elections involving
secret ballots bear no resemblance to political elections. 

The chart illustrates the analysis of University of Oregon political
scientist Gordon Lafer, Ph.D., who measured the current union representation
process involving secret ballots against the range of American democratic
election standards used to elect public officials.  In his 2005 study,
<http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/free-and-fair-how-
labor-law-fails-u.s.-democratic-election-standards.html> Free and Fair? How
Labor Law Fails U.S. Democratic Election Standards, Lafer discovered that
current union representation elections fall alarmingly short of the
democratic process Americans envision when we use the term "election."
Concluded Lafer, the presence of the secret ballots can't overcome the
undemocratic nature of the current process. 

For more on Lafer's study, Free and Fair? How Labor Law Fails U.S.
Democratic Election Standards, click here
<http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/free-and-fair-how-
labor-law-fails-u.s.-democratic-election-standards.html> . 

For more on how the Employee Free Choice Act will uphold democracy, and
strengthen workers' rights to a free choice and a fair chance to form
unions, click here
<http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/employee-free-choice-act/resource-libra
ry/why-workers-need-the-employee-free-choice-act.html> . 

 

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