Bob doesn’t understand how union elections work. When the NLRB conducts and election, everyone has to appear publicly to cast a ballot. EVERYONE then knows who participated. With method proposed in the new law (Employee Free Choice Act - EFCA) employees get to choose if, when, and where they will decide to sign a union authorization card. As I said in my letter, privacy is guaranteed.

I have “been there - done that” when it comes to union elections. Employers use every threat in the book. When I worked as a volunteer organizer, I made only ONE PROMISE to the workers. I promised to NOT make any other promises.

Hey Bob - Did you notice how I made my point without demeaning you or your opinion?

Bob, that was a shameful letter and the the PD should be ashamed for not covering the Employee Free Choice Act which doesn’t allow letting people vote in private on whether to unionize or not. Shame on the Post-Dispatch.

A CENTRIST

From what I have heard about the Employee Free Choice Act, your rights to a secret ballot will disapear. If that is true, people will lose their job, if not voting the way the union tells them to. It will also mean that people will be forced to join the union, thus more union money, going to the democratic party. No wonder San Fran Nan is trying to push it so hard. More corruption.

Do you have paid holidays at your job? Do you work a 40 hour week? Have lights, ac/heat, fire exits at your place of employment? Those kind of things were brought about by unions. Most Americans benefit from Unions even if they don’t belong to one. Unions have been steadily declining for the past 20 years and surprise surprise pensions, benefits, the 40 hour week are disappearing with them.

“From what I have heard about the Employee Free Choice Act, your rights to a secret ballot will disapear. If that is true, people will lose their job, if not voting the way the union tells them to”

Please tell me how the Union is going to fire anyone. The Union doesn’t employ the worker. Furthermore, if they are holding such a vote, then as far as they are concerned the union doesn’t exist yet. JD, why don’t you actually look deeply into something instead of relying on what you hear.

JimmyRussell

Why don’t you look deeply into something, jerk.

http://www.heritage.org/research/Labor/bg2027.cfm

It is appalling that a farce such as the Employee Free Choice Act (what a perfectly Orwellian name) could even be seriously debated. No matter how much double talk union sympathizers use in supporting the measure, it is pure and simple the elimination of a secret ballet in unionization votes. Even the ultra liberal George McGovern is embarrassed by the act.

From the 1930’s forward, coercion and violence have played a big part in the unionization effort. An enormous number of union officials have been convicted of mafia racketeering. If employees are denied a secret ballet, the level of coercion would drastically increase.

I support the right of people to organize in any fashion they wish. However, unions have consistently used the power of government to stack the deck in their favor. It is profoundly Un-American for 51% of a workforce to be able to force the rest of the workforce to join a union or pay dues to an organization which they may disagree. There is also no logical reason for unions to be exempt from the same anti-trust laws to which all business are subject too. Union members need to realize that they have the right to compete. No one has the right to win.

If union members are worth the high wage, it will come from a free market. The United States economy is highly competitive economy. If wages do not match up with productivity another employee will snatch up the underpaid employee. Why are unions so afraid to compete on a level playing field?

The current labor laws is a government enforced monopoly. Unions have severely harmed the country’s competitiveness. Many union members do not have a basic education in economics (see Jimmy Russell’s many inane posts). I feel that the least educated of the union supporters actually believe the false propaganda put out by the unions (for example - unions raise the wages of all workers). However, most politicians do not have ignorance to use as an excuse. They are merely using the ignorant to gain political advantage.

Funniest line: “If union members are worth a high wage, it will come from the free market”. Labor unions are outlawed in China….Seems to work well there….Ask any 12 year old Asian girl working 16 hour days for 23 cents an hour….(when she’s not chained tied to a sewing machine).

Also, it’s not fair that 51% of the workers can force the other 49% to join something they don’t want to join….That 51% rule seems to be effective with the CEO’s in the corporate board room of Anheuser Busch. That kind of majority rule is fair, but just for corporate fat-cats.

Labor is a commodity in a free market just like beer. If you don’t like InBev, sell your stock…If you don’t want to join a union, go work at Wal-Mart.
Nobody forces you to work anywhere. Unions helped outlaw industrial servitude in 1888.

JD has established he doesn’t have a clue about unions. He gets his infomation from the Heritage Foundation, right-wing corporate union busters, and Rush Limbaugh.

Mrs. Garrison

The truth is the truth, no matter where you get it from, and it sure ain’t left wing web sites you go to.

Garrison- I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut that he never read it-just posted the link. I’ll bet another buck he never read the text of the EFCA itself.