What's Happening to the Secret Ballot?

Labor unions across the country are pushing Congress to take away the right of American workers to cast a secret ballot in deciding whether to join a union. Legislation to do just that - a bill deceptively named the Employee Free Choice Act - easily passed the House in the 110th Congress and fell only nine votes shy of passing in the Senate. Now, with proponents holding a larger majority in both chambers, the threat of this anti-worker legislation becoming law looms large. We must not let this happen.

By Johnny Isakson — Dec 26, 2008

In an irony that none other than George Orwell would appreciate, the Employee Free Choice Act actually deprives employees of their free choice by replacing secret ballot elections - the method by which most workers join unions - with publicly signed union petitions.

Labor leaders enthusiastic support for this legislation is predicated on the fear that, if left to their own devices in the privacy of a voting booth, American workers might choose not to join a union. They want to prevent such a possibility. Instead, the proponents want to impose a system where union organizers could show up at your home and refuse to leave until you sign a public petition allowing union bosses to be your sole representative in the workplace. Once they have coerced, cajoled and connived 51 percent of workers into signing the petition, the entire workforce at that site is unionized. The other 49 percent of workers may not even know the organizing campaign had begun when they have to start sending mandatory monthly checks to union leaders in Washington.

However, this is just the beginning of the problems associated with this deeply flawed legislation. Ninety days after the union leaders have obtained their required 51 percent of signatures, a process called “mandatory arbitration” will commence. Under this process, a federal bureaucrat will arrive at the newly organized business and proceed to write the rules under which the business will operate for the next two years. How this bureaucrat has the expertise to devise wage systems, working conditions, vacation policies, pension arrangements and health care benefits for a business about which he may or may not know anything is a mystery. Moreover, both sides would have no choice but to accept the bureaucrat’s ruling, no matter how removed from reality it may be. The employer could not appeal the decision, nor would the workers have the opportunity to vote on whether or not to ratify the new contract.

There are areas where Democrats and Republicans can work together to get this economy moving again, but under no circumstances could I support negotiation on this profoundly anti-worker legislation. Bipartisan compromise can only occur when both sides share a common goal. I cannot and will not support even a watered-down version of this brazen attempt to deprive American workers of the right to cast a secret ballot during unionizing campaigns.

Johnny Isakson represents Georgia in the United States Senate.