Card Check For Dummies

Union membership in America by the numbers since 1950……

In the mid-1950s, 36% of the United States labor force was unionized. Even at America's union peak in the 1950s, union membership was lower in the United States than in almost all comparable countries. Link

…there were 16.1 million union members on the employment rolls at the end of last year, amounting to 12.4 percent of the U.S. workforce. Link

The decline of private sector union membership is the heart of the issue, dropping from 19 percent to under 8 percent in just 25 years. Link

Wages for all workers, despite big gains in productivity, has remained flat since the middle seventies….

What today's employers do to stop workers from unionizing….

Ninety-two percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda; 80 percent require supervisors to attend training sessions on attacking unions; and 78 percent require that supervisors deliver anti-union messages to workers they oversee.

Seventy-five percent hire outside consultants to run anti-union campaigns, often based on mass psychology and distorting the law.
Link

If that wasn't difficult enough for workers seeking to organize, we also have this….

Even after workers successfully form a union, in one-third of the instances, employers do not negotiate a contract.

There is a big fight coming between minority Republicans, who represent capital and business, and majority Democrats, who represent workers…..over something called EFCA….Employee Free Choice Act.

What the EFCA, or "card check", will do…..

The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers, not corporations, to choose whether and how they want to form a union. It would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by:

• Guaranteeing that if a majority of workers wants a union, they can have one, allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation;

• Providing mediation and arbitration for first contract disputes; and

• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first contract negotiations. Link

The biggest fraudulent campaign waged since W. and his Dick lied to America about Iraq being a "grave and gathering danger"….is the frenzied campaign to convince Americans that card check eliminates the secret ballot. It doesn't…..and they're lying about it.

Here's the essential, and truthful, points on the matter….

EFCA doesn't eliminate secret ballot elections. Since the National Labor Relations Act was passed, there have always been two ways to join a union, either through "card check" or a ballot election. Current law allows companies to force an election, even if a majority of workers have signed up. In effect, EFCA switches the choice to the workers; they can choose whether to hold a card check election or whether they want a regular secret ballot election. Effectively, EFCA would increase the frequency of card check elections, which are easier for unions to win. Link

The issue is really not secret ballots versus no secret ballots…..that's a dishonestly contrived distraction. The issue is whether employers or workers get to choose how the workers can organize.

In addition, it's crucial to any discussion on this topic to take into consideration the current rules on how an already unionized workforce can decertify that status, if they so desire. The essential part of the video below….

"currently, if unionized workers no longer want to be in a union, they sign a petition (card check) and when a majority is reached of 50% + 1 , then the union is decertified." "if people can decertify with a petition, then they should be able to certify with a petition."

Start at the 2:40 mark…..

Detailed discussion also found here.

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