>The anti-worker, pro-big business Center for Union Facts has decided to be super efficient today and accomplish two goals: bash a union and attack the Employee Free Choice Act.
Unfortunately, today’s argument today sort of negates the one they’ve been using for months now–you know, “Big bad labor’s trying to get rid of secret ballots!!!!!! Aaaaah!!!”
Oh, and the argument’s also completely false.
CUF, in trying to distract from the real issue at hand, is arguing that secret ballots exist in name only today–and that evil unions like the UFCW use “deception” (their word, not mine) to get worker to sign up for unions all the time without elections. Out of the Trojan horse’s mouth:
The UFCW has been at the forefront of using EFCA-style Card Check/Neutrality campaigns to organize new workers. In those campaign, the union card is the only method of gauging an employee’s interest in joining the union. If the company agrees (which the union see to), then the union is certified. Basically, the card is the vote.
So if that’s the case, then what’s all this fuss about getting rid of secret ballots? It looks like the big bad UFCW already got rid of them, anyway, according to CUF’s blog, which refers mockingly to a UFCW union card reading, “Filling out and signing this card is a demonstration of your interest to be represented by UFCW Local 324. Doing so does NOT automatically make you a member.”
“…except when it does,” say the folks at the CUF, no doubt feeling snarky and clever. For folks claiming to be experts when it comes to labor, maybe they should learn a little about how union membership works.
You see, you don’t become a dues-paying member of a union when you sign an authorization card–even during majority sign up. Membership (and dues withdrawal) begins only when workers ratify a contract.
But CUF probably already knows this. Just like the corporations they work for, they’re petrified that the Employee Free Choice Act will help level the playing field for workers–and they’re throwing everything against the wall when it comes to Employee Free Choice, hoping something will stick. So if they seem to jump from false argument to false argument (“They’ll take away our secret ballots!” “They’ve already taken away our secret ballots!”) don’t worry if you’re left feeling a bit baffled.
After all, as Harry Truman once said, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”
