Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

REALITY CHECK: Anti-union ad is no joke

By Raj Chohan, CBS4

Published June 27, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

Text size  
This "campaign committee" will gather and read no-longer-secret ballots, according to the ad, which is tongue-in-cheek.

Photo by Unionfacts.Com

This "campaign committee" will gather and read no-longer-secret ballots, according to the ad, which is tongue-in-cheek.

More Elections

More stories »

You may have seen the provocative anti-union ad making claims about union bosses and coerced union elections. The ad is tongue-in-cheek, but the point it makes is no joke. It comes from an out-of-state 501(c)(4) group called the Center for Union Facts. The group refused to release its donor list, although a like-minded sister organization in Colorado called Coloradans for Employee Freedom lists Colorado conservatives Sean Tonner, Jon Caldara, Mark Hillman, Cory Gardner and Frank McNulty among the local group's board members.

Ad: (Set in an elementary school classroom)

Narrator: What if labor bosses controlled class elections?

Girl running for school office: Thanks for your vote. I want to assure you that a vote for me is best for you.

Boy candidate: Ms. Hudgens has just agreed that there isn't gonna be any secret vote. Sign these cards showing us who you like the best, and my campaign committee will collect and count 'em.

Here's the spin. The ad attacks legislation in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act. If approved, it would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make it easier for unions to organize.

How would it work? If a simple majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, EFCA would essentially require the National Labor Relations Board to certify the union, assuming there was no illegal coercion involved in gathering the signatures. Under these circumstances employers would be barred from demanding a secret vote.

While the Center for Union Facts commercial implies EFCA would end secret ballots, that implication isn't technically accurate.

The pro-union group American Rights at Work correctly points out that employers could still call for secret votes when unions gather cards of more than 30 percent, but less then a simple majority of the work force.

The Center for Union Facts counters that unions are unlikely to move for secret elections with less than 50 percent of the cards in hand because such elections would likely fail.

Instead, under the proposed EFCA, union organizers could bypass the election process by simply obtaining signed cards from more than 50 percent of the work force.

Ad: (narration) Labor bosses have a new scheme to do away with the secret ballot.

It's not the whole story.

Those who support the measure say it would protect union organizers in the workplace by making them less vulnerable to being intimidated or fired for trying to unionize. It would speed up the process and remove potential stalling tactics.

This is because the text of the measure calls for specific remedies including multiple back pay penalties for job retaliation and binding mediation in cases where contract negotiations go beyond 90 days.

However, those who reject this approach say it also would force employees to reveal their preference to union organizers rather than voting by secret ballot. They complain that people who don't want to form a union might be identified, harassed and pressured by co-workers.

In fact, EFCA does have a provision requiring the NLRB to look into whether illegal coercion was used to pressure employees into signing the cards.

However, it's not clear how the government would do that.

Bottom line, unions have a done a lot of good for American workers but have also been the target of valid criticism.

However you feel about unions, their membership has fallen dramatically in the past 20 years. The Employee Free Choice Act would certainly make it easier to form union shops.

But if it becomes law, workers opposed to unions would likely lose their ability to remain anonymous.

While this ad has no direct connection to the union vs. business initiatives we'll see on the Colorado ballot this fall, the commercial is no doubt intended to influence the way Coloradans perceive unions generally.

Tim Miller of the Center for Union facts explained that the ads are targeted in states where unions are actively making a move.

Read Raj Chohan's full Reality Check and see its sourcing at cbs4denver.com/realitycheck.

Comments

  • June 27, 2008

    7:49 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Retread writes:

    This outfit unionfacts.com is run and paid for by big buisness, plain and simple. They would love to see all Unions in the dumpster. It reminds me of what corporations do in every contract renewal period, make the Unions look as if they are run by Union bosses. In fact they are run by their members, if you belong to a Union, GET INVOLVED..If you have a good job, good wages, good benefits, THANK A UNION...

  • June 27, 2008

    2:48 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    I.love.my.kids writes:

    Retread, you go ahead and thank a union. I will pass, as will most of the remaining citizens of Detroit and their flagging big-union automobile industry and economy in general. I don' think we need that on a national level, and EFCA will make it so easy to unionize, there will be a rapid and dramatic expansion of union numbers. This bill will eliminate every worker's democratic right to a private ballot to make their own choice whether they want to spend the rest of their days paying union dues. You also leave them open to intimidation and coersion on the union side because organizers and bosses will know exactly how every worker will vote with the card check method.

    I'm not ignorant enough to believe that there aren't abuses by business. Some union organizers take some grief from business interests, but 99% of your average-joe workers don't deal with this, and probably wouldn't know about it if their stewards didn't come around and tell them all about it.

    We must vote against Boulder Liberal Mark Udall and the rest of his democratic cronies whose money bags are full of crooked union money!