Kinder takes own tour of Missouri for secret ballot push
Kinder
Taking a break from trying to save his embattled bike race, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder will tour the state in favor of an initiative that would preserve the current process of forming worker unions.
For the moment, the only way employees can form a union — without a potential employer override — is through voting with a secret ballot. However, a bill pending in Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act, would strengthen the “card check” option — allowing workers to organize if the majority signs up for the union.
President Barack Obama has indicated support for the act.
Enter former State Sen. John Loudon, a Republican from Chesterfield, who is leading a “Save Our Secret Ballot” initiative. If placed on the ballot and approved by voters, the proposal “would amend the Missouri Bill of Rights to solidify the right to vote by secret ballot.”
Kinder will begin barnstorming for the effort today in Sunset Hills, where he’ll be meeting with citizens and business owners, according to a release from Loudon’s group. Later in the summer, Kinder has stops planned in Springfield, Joplin, Cape Girardeau and Kansas City.
Supporters of the measure have nine more months to gather the 150,000 signatures for ballot placement in 2010.
The conservatives and/or corporations are distorting this issue by heavily focusing on the secret ballot facet (i.e., Save Our Secret Ballot). The real reason they want to maintain secret ballot elections is because the elections have to be planned and scheduled. This gives a company time to browbeat its employees and put out propaganda, such as by making threats that the company will pack up and move somewhere else. With secret ballots safeguarded, people are more likely NOT to want to take a chance in joining a union. No, this issue isn’t about ensuring the anonymity of those voting; it’s about protecting the companies’ coffers. Kinder is just serving as a shill for the corporations. They’ve got him in their pocket.
Richard. You are an angry lad and have mistated the law. Clearly you are not a jurist although you speak with such authority as if you are one. Pity. What do you suppose federalism means? If federal law always superceded state laws then why have states? A Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing a civil protection in the ballot box is the privelege of the voters in that state to pass. Any lawyer worth his salt knows election laws are the purview of the states. Labor law is often but not always controlled by Congress. Please avoid putting your foot in your mouth Richard. It is not pretty.
Lets clarify a couple of things. Its not the WORKERS who decided whether to call for a secret ballot election, its the UNION. Nowhere in the card-check bill does it give the WORKERS the right to ask for a secret ballot, only the UNION. Secondly, the UNION only asks for the secret ballot election AFTER they have already been certified with 50%+ cards signed. So how many times, after they have already won, are they going to call for an election to see if the can win? ZERO. Imagine if this rule were in sports. On the final drive of the 4th quarter, if you come from behind and score the winning touchdown and win the game as time expires, you can then walk over to the official and tell them you want to replay the 4th quarter…..AFTER YOU HAVE ALREADY WON? Number of times you’ll do that? You guessed it: ZERO
Its very simple really. The question is why there is a ballot, in this case a card, with only one way to vote on it? Imagine if you went in to vote for President and only one of the two candidates was on it? Imagine if you went to vote for a ballot initiative in your state, and there was only a YES option. These ‘cards’ in the card check scenario need to have a YES and NO. The worker checks the one they want, signs it and its done. Dont bother my any more.
Theres been some very good journalism recently on one of the many reasons behind this union power grab, and it boils down to one primary factor: Pensions. One article I read said over 80% of the 100 largest unions in the country are ’substantially underfunded’ in their pensions, in large part due to the stock market collapse but also the unsustainable benefits they give retirees. They need millions of new members to provide dues to keep these pension funds going. Many of them are listed as ‘critical’, meaning they have less than 60% of what they need. This to me sounds like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Get new workers paying dues to then transfer over to their previous members. Dont fall for it.
While we’re all focusing on the loss of secret ballots and the intimidation sure to follow, the binding arbitration aspect of this bill is the one that I believe will truly kill millions of jobs. Imagine you own a small business, cafe or diner perhaps, and you barely clear a few thousand dollars a month in this tough economy. Now these are entry level jobs as you might imagine, $7-9 per hour. The union asks for $20 per hour, full health care and 3 weeks paid vacation a year, and you obviously, as a small business owner, refuse. If you dont sign on to this ridiculous contract after 4 months, an arbitrator can come and and impose it on you. Imagine that, in the country, having somebody come in and force a contract on a private business against the owners will. Even if the arbitrator splits the difference, you cant stay profitable with the new contract. So you have no choice but to close your doors before it bankrupts you. In this country? I cannot for the life of me believe that anyone, no matter how pro-union, would want this. I go to church, love it, but imagine if I tried to force people into my church and force them to pay 10% of their salary to the tithe. I would be against it. Everyone who is pro-union, this isnt the way to go about increasing union memmbership. No secret bellots and forced contracts, this isnt acceptable in any country, least of all ours.
There’s so many lies in some of these posts I’d never have time to unravel them all.
Let me ask you anti Employee Free Choice people something about intimidation? What if the employer schedules an election and sets the ballot box right in front of the bosses office? Every person that has to go vote has to do so under the watchful eye of the boss. Would that not be intimidation? What if the boss schedules the election on a Sat Morn to keep the voter turn out low? Is it ok for the company to fire anyone that is seen talking to a union leader?
“Theres been some very good journalism recently on one of the many reasons behind this union power grab, and it boils down to one primary factor: Pensions.” One article I read said over 80% of the 100 largest unions in the country are ’substantially underfunded’ in their pensions, in large part due to the stock market collapse but also the unsustainable benefits they give retirees. They need millions of new members to provide dues to keep these pension funds going. Many of them are listed as ‘critical’, meaning they have less than 60% of what they need. This to me sounds like a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Get new workers paying dues to then transfer over to their previous members. Dont fall for it.
— Mike L
So Mike L your saying that union dues are used to fund pensions? Would you mind to post the link to the article you read?
BigTallDude, your a liar Autoworkers make no where near $80 per hour. Tell me how you feel about the $10 mil retirement package that Waggoner (fired CEO of GM) got and what effect that has on the “bottom line”? What about the $212 Mil. golden parachute that Nardelli (CEO of Chrysler) got when he left Home Depot? I guess it’s ok to rape and pillage a company if your a CEO but earn 30 bucks an hour and it’s your fault.
By the way, whats the excuse for Circuit City’s bankrupcty? They were not union. Who do you blame there? What about all the banks that went bankrupt not one of them were union.
I dont see any lies in these posts. The binding arbitrations posts are correct, the secret ballot elimination listings are correct. The only thing misleading at all the ridiculous name of this piece of legislation.