“Card Check” Is Bad For Our Economy

The Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau earlier this year opposed a federal proposal that would eliminate the secret ballot process and strip a Redondo Beach employee’s right to privacy in union organized elections. The proposal, known as the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) or “Card Check”, will be a top priority of this new Congress and President.

The Chamber is opposed to the EFCA because it will exploit workers and unfairly create unions by enacting a process that has been outlawed for many decades. The Chamber is dedicated to keeping its members up to date on legislative proposals that will ultimately impact each business in Redondo Beach. Businesses are urged to oppose any effort to pass a EFCA proposal.

“Congresswoman Jane Harman needs to understand the impact to Redondo Beach businesses of any EFCA proposal before she votes in support,” stated Marna Smeltzer, President and CEO of the Redondo Beach Chamber. “Our business community cannot afford another job killing proposal at a time when we need to work with business to get our economy moving forward,” continued Smeltzer.

Recently, the Hoover Institution of Stanford University released a study on the EFCA proposal from last year, H.R. 800. The study outlines specific complications to businesses if the proposed law were to pass this year.

On the real impact to American workers…

“Job creation will swamp whatever distributional gains H.R. 800 promises for some select group of workers. Increased coercion never leads to increased productivity. The proposal will surely exert an overall negative effect on the wages and job opportunities of employees. Furthermore, the consequences of unionization for small firms should not be evaluated solely in terms of the number of workers who are unionized in each year. Rather the key question is the extent to which unionization of small firms inhibits the potential for growth so that these firms do not realize their full economic potential."

On the decline of unions in the private sector…

"Some likely candidates for the observed decline include the expansion of free trade across national borders, more intensive global competition for employees, the reduced appeal of unions to younger workers, the entry of smaller decentralized firms, the rapid turnover of workers in a relatively open economy, the better wages and working conditions that nonunion employees can command in an open economy, the rise in government regulation that confers certain protections (i.e. against discrimination) that no longer are subjects of bargaining, ineffective union organizing, and the rigidity of the internal governance structure of unions themselves. Most important perhaps is the fundamental switch in the political economy of the United States. The 1930s marked a corporatist period, in which monopoly unions shared power with regulated monopoly industries, shielded from competition by a powerful state.24 More recently, the economic environment has switched by allowing the free entry of smaller firms whose vitality and growth has gone a long way in undermining the old monopoly models, posing more challenges to established firms and their long-standing labor unions. No account of the decline in unionization is complete without taking these changes in account, which defenders of EFCA blindly refuse to do."

On replacing the secret ballot with card check:

"But in [the unions'] zeal to condemn the employer they never explain why it is necessary to leap to the card-check outcome without figuring out how to expedite or improve union elections within the current framework…Nor do EFCA supporters address the allegation that union organizers, or overzealous pro-union employees, are also capable of coercive behavior during a union election."

On the relationship between workers and the unions that represent them:

"The key point to remember is that there is, going forward, no identity of interest between the unions who profit from EFCA and the workers whose job opportunities are limited by its passage. A far better strategy for helping worker interest is to opt for a more competitive labor environment at home. In the end new job creation will swamp whatever distributional gains the EFCA promises for some select group of workers. Increased coercion never leads to increased productivity. EFCA will surely exert an overall negative effect on the wages and job opportunities of employees."
 

January 15, 2009

Who’s Looking Out for Employee Rights?
 

By Marna Smeltzer

President and CEO

One could argue that one of our most fundamental rights in this country is the right to vote by secret ballot. Knowing that your vote is confidential allows you make choices without the fear of repercussions. Currently, there are certain organizations and individuals elected to office to protect our rights who may be doing just the opposite.

Federal legislation, under the misinformed title, The Employee Free Choice Act, proposes to abolish an employee’s right to secret ballot elections during union organizing drives. It is also known as the “card check” scheme.

The card check scheme takes away a worker’s right to choose freely and anonymously whether or not to unionize by replacing the private ballot with a scheme that allows a union to organize if a majority of workers simply sign a card. This process gives union organizers the ability to put pressure on individuals who may be reluctant to sign the card. The Redondo Beach Chamber believes that workers are better protected from intimidation and coercion when an employee casts his or her vote with a secret ballot rather than in public. To do so would be considered undemocratic.

The federal legislation allows unions to establish representation of employees of an employer, large or small, for bargaining through a card check process instead of secret ballot. The legislation would also wipe out over a half a decade’s worth of regulations and many functions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB is in place make sure the fair and secret ballot process is in place.

I urge you to join with the Chamber in protecting all individuals’ rights to the secret balloting process by contacting your local federal representatives. We need to ask the hard questions because I am as-tounded that anyone could even suggest a non-secret ballot in this country. Whatever happened to the right to privacy? Isn’t this a free country? Ask your local federal representative these questions and help protect our rights.