"Card Check" or "Employee Free Choice Bill" ... no matter the name, it stinks

Alton over at I'm Not Emeril has an excellent post about the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as Card Check, supported by Democrats, to take away the privacy of company employees to vote for unions.

Alton has been in a union; he knows what he's talking about. It's a scary proposition and one that very well may come to pass from the same Democrat-controlled Congress that brought us the stimulus bill, bailouts, and more.

Alton ends his post:

Virginians need to know that Senator Mark Warner has decided that the democratic (small "d") process need not apply to you and your workplace.

Be afraid ... be very afraid.

Card Check: Americans for Prosperity rally to protect voters' privacy rights

Things got rowdy in Pennsylvania Monday night when Joe the Plumber teamed up with Americans for Property's president Tim Phillips to protest a proposed pro-union bill that could eliminate an employee's right to a private vote.

Held in a hotel ballroom, the crowd, estimated at 150, was reportedly evenly divided between anti-union and union supporters. Tempers flared between the two forces as Mr. Phillips spoke with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Event organizer Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a Washington-based pro-business nonprofit, said union members would use the public petition method to intimidate workers into signing. Phillips is using Wurzelbacher's two-day, three-stop tour to organize a Pennsylvania chapter of his organization.

"Take a look right back there. What they're doing is making our point," Phillips said.

When Joe the Plumber, formally known as Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, addressed the crowd the chorus of boos from the pro-union forces were some of the loudest of the evening as he was taunted about not having a plumber's license in his home state of Ohio. According to the Tribune-Review, Mr. Wurzelbacher tried to quiet the crowd:

"A little bit of respect and courtesy and we'll get through this," Wurzelbacher said.

"Joe" gained fame during last year's presidential campaign when he asked a question of then-candidate Barack Obama. But he has faced what others who speak out on issues have faced -- scrutiny and oppositional research from an unfriendly media, something that prevents many from becoming involved and drives others away:

Wurzelbacher rose to prominence during a presidential debate last year when Sen. John McCain used him to attack President Obama's tax plan. McCain and running mate Sarah Palin brought him on the campaign trail.

Wurzelbacher, who said he's not stumping for a political party, blamed the "mainstream media" for what he said were attempts to discredit him.

"I served my country. I'm allowed to ask any politician any question I want," Wurzelbacher said. "But they have no reason to try to discredit me in any way, shape or form."

These days, he makes his living from speaking fees and limits his plumbing work for family and friends, he said. Wurzelbacher, who declined to say how much he makes in appearance fees, will speak in Harrisburg and Philadelphia today.

He plans to appear soon in commercials supporting a switch from income to sales taxes.

It's good to have Joe the Plumber standing up for the privacy rights of union members, and it's good to know Americans for Prosperity is working to protect those rights, too.

Bob McDonnell supports workers' rights to secret ballots

By Bob McDonnell

Early in this race we have witnessed the emergence of a defining issue. That issue is which candidate will stand up for Virginia’s pro-business environment, and stand up to big national unions attempting to take away the basic right of workers to cast secret ballots in workplace elections? After this week it is clear I am the only candidate running for Governor who will do this.

On Tuesday the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” was introduced in the United States Congress. This legislation, far more aptly titled “Card Check”, would eliminate a worker’s most basic right: The right to cast a secret ballot in elections to determine if a union will be organized at their place of employment. Further, under this legislation, in newly organized workplaces, if the employer and the union do not agree to a contract in the first 130 days of negotiations, an arbitration panel from the federal government can be brought in and its decision would be binding on the employer.

This legislation threatens to significantly weaken our economy at a time when we can least afford it. For that reason this bill is adamantly opposed by workers, small business owners, and local Chambers of Commerce nationwide. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor who actually supported Barack Obama for President, came forward this week to make his opposition to the legislation clear.

Warren Buffet said this: “I think the secret ballot's pretty important in the country. I'm against card check to make a perfectly flat statement."

I am too.

This week I asked my three possible Democratic opponents to join with me in standing with the workers and business owners of Virginia in opposing this legislation. Would they choose Virginia’s best interests over their national special interests?

They chose their special interests. They chose the side of the big national unions.

All three refused to say a bad word about “Card Check.” Given recent reporting in The Washington Post that union donations to Virginia Democrats are reaching record levels, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the Democratic candidates positions.

It is clear. “Card Check” is a defining issue in this race. I am the only candidate running for Governor opposed to this job-killing legislation. And I know this means I have a bulls-eye on my back for big unions nationwide.

I don’t think we should turn Virginia into Southern Michigan. I believe we must oppose federal policies that would weaken and undermine our pro-business environment here in the Commonwealth. Too many jobs are on the line.

If you agree, I hope you will consider joining our campaign.

Please visit www.BobMcDonnell.com to get involved in our effort to stop “Card Check” and bring new jobs and greater prosperity to every region of Virginia.

Additional information on "Card Check" legislation:

-- Circus Act (RTD Editorial)
-- McDonnell Decries Federal Labor Proposal (Roanoke Times)
-- McDonnell Rails Against “Card-Check” Legislation (Virginian-Pilot)
-- Gubernatorial Candidates in Virginia React to Employee Free Choice Act Bill (RTD)
-- Gubernatorial Candidates Spar on Union Practices (WHSV)
-- McDonnell Opposes Card Check Legislation (Washington Post Blog)

Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com

"Freedom Not Fear" ... stop Card Check

Sign the petition at American Solutions. "Freedom Not Fear" ... stop card check and protect workers' privacy.

Del. Saxman moves to protect right-to-work

AP political writer Bob Lewis covers Del. Chris Saxman's constitutional resolution to protect Virginia's right-to-work status:

Despite decades of state law banning compulsory union membership, Republicans took an important step Tuesday toward welding the anti-labor provisions into the state Constitution. The House voted 56-43 to advance Del. Chris Saxman's resolution to the Senate, the first in a 21-month series of hurdles the measure must clear to become part of Virginia's 233-year-old Bill of Rights.

Saxman, a Republican and owner of a bottled water company in Staunton, said the bill arose from federal union card-check legislation. That bill, now before Congress, would let workers form a union by signing a card of petition instead of holding secret ballot elections. Labor leaders say the card-signing method makes it easier to get enough votes to form a union.

Card check removes the secret ballot process for employees in a union vote:

... Del. Harry R. Purkey, R-Virginia Beach, said it's necessary to put the right-to-work law in the state Constitution because of the changed political environment, with President Barack Obama's new pro-labor administration and a strengthened Democratic majority in Congress. "We're seeing card check marching its way down the aisle to what appears to be a vote at the national level. We're seeing the possibility of doing away with the secret ballot," Purkey said.

Save Our Secret Ballot

Do away with secret ballots for union votes? Enter Save Our Secret Ballot:

Ernest Istook, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, is the SOS National Advisory Board chairman. He says the issue of secret ballots is not just a freedom issue, but a civil rights issue as well.

"It's sad that in a time when Americans have fought for the right for people to elect their own leadership by a secret ballot in places such as Iraq, we have the U.S. Congress trying to undercut that right -- at least when it comes to members of unions," says the former lawmaker.

Istook says without secret ballots Americans would lose freedom from intimidation, freedom of choice, and freedom of conscience.

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the U.S. House in 2007 but died in the Senate under a Republican filibuster. Unions are hopeful it will win passage in 2009 with the support of president-elect Barack Obama and a stronger Democratic majority.

This is an issue Del. Chris Saxman has taken a stand on for the upcoming 2009 General Assembly session, saying that doing away with the secret ballot is a mistake.

Editorial: Saxman says ending secret union ballot a mistake

Among other things expected to occupy Congress and Barack Obama next year will be legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, a name that strikes some, including Del. Chris Saxman, R-Staunton, as oxymoronic.

Particularly objectionable in the mind of Saxman and business is an element that would eliminate secret ballots for union elections, leaving workers subject to coercion by union bosses eyeing power and dues.

The right-to-work status of Virginia, Saxman explains, would be shattered, and so he acts.

Read the entire editorial in the Star Exponent.

Del. Saxman stands up for right-to-work

From the Waynesboro News Virginian comes news that Del. Chris Saxman plans to work toward keeping Virginia as a right-to-work state:

Del. Chris Saxman said Monday he will introduce a constitutional amendment in next month’s General Assembly to protect the state’s right-to-work law.

The Staunton delegate’s anxiety about Virginia’s right-to-work status is in part motivated by pending federal card check legislation.

The 2009 General Assembly begins January 14, 2009.

Sen. Jim DeMint's nationwide blogger phone conference

I participated in a phone conference call this morning with Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) who is considered one of the rising stars in the GOP. The call, which lasted 25 minutes and was attended by bloggers from across the nation, was an opportunity for Sen. DeMint to discuss the Card Check issue and then answer questions.

Sen. DeMint, who voted against the auto industry bailout, thanked the bloggers and said they are needed to sound the alarm and get the word out. Bloggers have been helpful with energy, immigration, spending, and earmarks ... and he encouraged them to keep up the good work.

The Card Check issue is dangerous, he said, as a way for the Democrats to pay back unions for their help in winning the 2008 election. It is but one more step toward socialism in America along with nationalizing the auto, finance, and banking industries ... and should startle most Americans to see where we are headed. He pointed out that the socialist movement has always been very closely associated with unions and workers' rights dating back to 1800s Europe.

Sen. DeMint believes in the right to join a union ... but he also believes in the right to be able to not join a union if a worker so chooses. He does not believe it is the place of government to require people to be members of unions in order to work especially when those unions demand dues from their members that are given to the Democrat Party. Workers then become part of a political machine that people are forced to be a part of. He commented that as union membership declines, unions are looking for ways to bring in more money and new members, and reminded that unions are the only organizations that can give dues to candidates without approval of their members.

A main strategy for forcing unionization is Card Check. If a union wants to organize a company, they have a process: 50% of the members must sign a card, there is a campaign by the union and the employer, and then a vote is taken by secret ballot. Unions want to remove the "secret" part of voting which could then intimidate workers to vote to join the union.

Card Check needs to be stopped by legislation but the danger comes if the Democrats say they will compromise and then allow forced arbitration.

Forced arbitration could be a larger danger for employees and employers because it would allow unions to sit on their hands, delay decisions, and then turn to arbitrators who would control the first contract with the unions. Problems would arise with third party decision-making, a lack of flexibility, delay in moving or closing plants -- all are strung out longer than necessary with delaying tactics. Arbitration will contribute to those problems.

Sen. DeMint urged citizens to call their senators and let their views be known about Card Check and the bailouts. Americans, he said, need to make it a priority to stop these issues.

Responding to follow-up questions about the bailouts, the Senator said it appeared the majority of the senate had blurred the lines between where government should stop and the private sector begins. Companies, he said, will not be competitive unless they realign union contracts. Voting for the bailouts, he said, was throwing the Constitution out the window and betraying the oath of office.

Commenting on the recent arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Sen. DeMint said too much power in the hands of politicians causes corruption which is why our Founders wanted a very limited government.

The phone call ended when the Senator had to go to a TV interview but he again thanked the bloggers and again encouraged them to keep up the good work.

Listen to the audio of the blogger conference call.

See We're Going To Have Riots by Carter Clews at the Daily Grind.

Disclaimer: I have stated to the best of my ability the conversation that took place. If there are mistakes it is a misunderstanding of what was discussed.