EFCA has become a proxy war
The battle over EFCA has become less a battle about EFCA, and more a proxy battle in a larger conflict about political sway, public opinion, and economic ideology. In the Huffington Post on Friday, third-generation union organizer Mike Elk asked “If EFCA is DOA, Why is the Chamber Still Lobbying Against It?” He wrote: “For months now [more...]

Posted Mon, 08 Mar 2010 .

Do you know who’s not one of the CEOs Obama admires?
Roger Smith, the CEO of American Income Life Insurance Company, that’s who. Then again, insurance CEOs aren’t usually on anyone’s top-ten lists these days, that is, except for unions’. Every time the unions need a CEO to embarrass other CEOs, they trot out Roger Smith. Need someone to shill for the Employee Free Choice Act? There’s a CEO [more...]

Posted Mon, 08 Mar 2010 .

Democracy Deficit

Unions vs. Elections
Legal recognition of a union has traditionally been achieved through secret ballot elections, in which each worker decides whether or not to support a union in the privacy of the voting booth -- just like a person votes for the President or a Senator. But unions frequently lose secret ballot elections. So they often bring intense pressure on companies to agree to a “card check” system instead of a secret election.
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(Card) Check Democracy at the Door
Welcome to the new world of union organizing, where union officials, desperate to stave off declining membership numbers, are increasingly turning to undemocratic “card check campaigns” to organize and collect dues from employees.
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Poor Election Records
Bruce Raynor, president of the union UNITE HERE, explains: “There's no reason to subject the workers to an election.” One SEIU local leader has flatly admitted, “We don't do elections.” And no wonder. Employees have chosen no representation at all in more than 2,000 elections over a two-year period.
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We don't do elections.

— SEIU Local 32BJ leader Mike Fishman