Card-Check

[Don Corleone]

So for those of us reading behind the scenes yesterday, from a political power standpoint, one big winner last night was the AFL-CIO. They put considerable effort and money they had into an effort at getting certain key congressmen elected. Their big issue: the euphemistically named Employee Free Choice Act

For those of you unfamiliar with this piece of legislation, it alters the process by which the National Labor Relations Board recognizes an organized shop. Right now, a sufficient number of employees complete cards and submit them to the NLRB, and when a sufficient quantity have been received (~50%), they conduct a secret ballot election to determine the will of the majority of the employees.

This piece of legislation would instead convert the electoral process to a shop-wide card-check procedure, under which the organizing union is granted the right to view how people voted as well as personal details such as their home address, home phone number and social security number. In other words, vote against the union and Rocco and Johnny-No-Nose will be dispatched as deputized shop stewards to discuss the benefits of union membership at your house at 2AM.

I'd like to hear somebody try to defend this piece of legislation. Why are secret ballots okay for our elections, but unions require the need to know how people vote during organization efforts? Why do they need people's personal details?