What would you say if your Congressman advocated doing away with our current electoral process in which you enter a secret ballot for the candidate of your choice; instead opting for a more “efficient system” in which a representative will knock on your door and convince you why its in your best interest to sign a card opting for a certain candidate?

I do not believe, given those two options, any American would choose to be “convinced” what their best interest is. Politics is already dirty enough without having a 6′4″ 250 lb man named Bruno knocking on your door to “convince” you to sign a card opting for his candidate of choice.

H.R. 800: Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 does exactly this. The bill which recently passed the House by a 241-185 vote, has a stated purpose of amending the National Labor Relations Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts. Sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), what this bill does is remove secret ballots from the union forming process.

Under current federal laws a union which wishes to represent workers must first gather signatures from 30% of employees on what are known as “A” cards. Once they do they go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and petition to have a secret ballot election among the employees. If the union receives a majority of “yes” votes, they win and a union is formed for that company. Seem like a fair process to you? Me too!

Rep. George Miller however feels employees will be best served by doing away with the elections and allowing unions to form simply by collecting “A” cards from a majority of employees. Apparently Rep. Miller feels it would be a more efficient system if union representatives were allowed to visit the employees face to face and ‘convince’ them a union is in their best interests. On a completely unrelated subject, in his 2006 campaign, 64% of Rep. Miller’s campaign contributions came from labor, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Ironically back in 2001, Rep George Miller told Mexican officials secret ballots are “absolutely necessary in order to ensure workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they may otherwise not choose.” I would certainly agree with that statement, as do a majority of Americans. According to a February survey of 1,000 likely voters by McLaughlin Associates, 79% of Americans oppose this bill.

Opinion Journal is reporting today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to hold a vote this Wednesday, regardless of the overwhelming public opposition. As Minority Leader Mitch McConnell points out “We went to the secret ballot in the early 1800s in this country for a darn good reason: If somebody’s looking over your shoulder, your ballot doesn’t mean much”.

The Employee Free Choice Act of 2007 is a thumb on the scale of Democracy, tipping the scales in the unions favor. Without benefit of a secret ballot employees may feel too intimidated to vote their conscience. Our Country recognized this in the late 1800’s by holding our general elections via a secret ballot. Rep George Miller realized this in 2001 when he warned Mexican officials of possible intimidation if workers were not given a secret ballot. In 2007 however, Democrats intend to sell out the American worker for union contributions.

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Congress, Election 2008, Politics