Big Business's Threat to America: Bust Unions or We'll Go Overseas

If dirty tricks and threats can work to stop unionizing in the workplace, why can't they be used on the American public?

This week, business leaders and their GOP henchmen launched a new attack line: stop union organizing or we'll leave the country. On top of that, their allies in the ideological right are preparing a series of state constitutional amendments designed to thwart the Employee Free Choice Act, and based on the lie that the legislation stops workers from casting a secret ballot.

The Heritage Foundation reports:

Ernest Istook, Chairman of the National Advisory Board for Save Our Secret Ballot, described at the Conservative Bloggers' Briefing yesterday a grassroots, state-level strategy to nullify the effects of the Employee Free Choice Act should it be passed by Congress.

SOSBallot.org, a 501 c(4) organization, is currently pushing for constitutional amendments to be placed on the ballots of Arizona, Arkansas, Montana, Nevada and Utah. "Save Our Secret Ballot exists to give the citizens in the various states the opportunity to create state level protections for secret ballots that would include union representation elections," Istook said.

Istook, who is also a former Congressman from Oklahoma and a Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, is determined to stop the EFCA, which he says will enable unions to strong-arm otherwise unwilling workers into endorsing the formation of a union by eliminating the privacy of their vote. Instead, a far more public system of simply signing an authorization form will replace the secret ballot.

Of course, such bogus measures would also bar the voluntary use of majority sign-up procedures that have been allowed under the National Labor Relations Act for decades, and have been used by such companies as Kaiser Permanente, ATT and Harley-Davidson.

This lie about the secret ballot is built on another myth: that there's widespread intimidation by "union bosses" to join a union. But as Mary Beth Maxwell, director of American Rights at Work noted in a recent interview on C-SPAN (via the AFL-CIO blog):

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act falsely claim the bill would do away with secret ballots or open the door to coercion by unions. Neither of these claims has merit. The Employee Free Choice Act will allow workers (rather than bosses) to choose whether to form unions, either through majority sign-up or the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process.

And claims of union intimidation are far from credible. According to AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Nancy Schiffer, a study of NLRB decisions found only 42 cases of union fraud or coercion over more than six decades since the NLRB was established. Compared with the nearly 27,000 instances of company violations of workers' rights in 2006 alone [as determined by George Bush's National Labor Relations Board] , it's clear that corporate anti-union scaremongering is a ploy to disguise the anti-worker agenda.

Maxwell dissected the corporate disinformation campaign and outlined the intimidation, harassment and delay that are pervasive in our company-dominated system. The anti-worker campaign, Maxwell says, is fundamentally about trying to keep workers from being able to exercise the freedom to bargain for a better life.

Their opposition to this isn't about them trying to protect anyone's ballot. They want to make it more difficult for folks to form unions. We think it's your American right to form a union if you want to, and it should be more straightforward. It should be fairer for workers...

.

Will unionbusting tricks, threats and lies work as well on the American public as it has with workers in often low-wage workplaces seeking to organize?

Here's how it works:

One of the most common threats in any unionizing campaign is the threat by employers to shut down the plant, and, often, go overseas. As The American Prospect's Ezra Klein noted in an astute column on unionbusting as portayed on "The Office": "About 49 percent of employers openly threaten to close down a worksite when faced with a unionization drive. Untold more tell individual workers, in captive meetings, that jobs will be lost. 30 percent make good on the threat in real time, firing workers who engage in union activities." (The research backing up these sordid facts can be found here.)

Now, corporations are applying those same tactics to the American public and Congress in the hard-fought battle over the Employee Free Choice Act, which aims to level the playing field for union organizing. But the proposed legislation has been smeared with the lie that it takes away the secret ballot. In recent public statements by conservative business and political leaders, including former governor Mitt Romney in testimony this week, they're forecasting the exodus of major businesses unless we turn into an even lower-wage country.

As Think Progress points out:

Romney used some time during his opening statement to take a swipe at the Employee Free Choice Act:

"And there is one very bad idea that is being promoted by a special interest group. It is an idea that would have devastating impact on the economy--short term and long term. It would lead investors to send their funds elsewhere, businesses to expand elsewhere and jobs to relocate elsewhere. It is the plan to virtually impose unions on all small, medium and large businesses by removing the right of workers to vote by secret ballot. Card check is a very bad idea under any circumstances. In these circumstances, it would be calamitous."

As Michael Whitney laid out at the SEIU blog, "Business leaders and CEOs are developing a new strategy to combat the Employee Free Choice Act: threaten to take jobs overseas and divest from America." Romney's comment certainly falls into that category.

Fearmongering rhetoric aside, the Employee Free Choice Act would actually make the economy work for everyone, instead of only those at the top. According to estimates by the Economic Policy Institute, if 5 million service workers join unions:

- 5 million workers would get a 22 percent raise on average, or an additional $7,000 a year.

- $34 billion in total new wages would flow into the economy.

- 900,000 jobs would be lifted above the poverty wage for a family of four.

- Between 1.8 million and 3 million dependent children would share in these benefits.

But there are plenty of other examples of such conservative fear-mongering designed to cow voters and legislators into backing away from the legislation, which 78% of the public supports. As the SEIU blog observes, Romney's views were echoed earlier:

Gary Shapiro, the President of the Consumer Electronics Association, said basically the same thing earlier in the week:

"A fast-moving, successful tech company with differential compensation and incentive compensation and the need to adapt quickly is inconsistent with the straitjacket of a union environment. The tech industry executives I represent simply can't believe Congress would enact a card-check law that could force jobs overseas."

The Employee Free Choice Act is a strong economic solution that will help millions of working Americans get better wages and benefits. This kind of attack against the Employee Free Choice Act is the equivalent of CEOs taking their ball and going home.

Here's hoping that the American public -- and Congress -- can stand up to these fear-mongering tactics.

Comments

[runswithscissors]

Why not counter with a nation wide boycott? If they don't want to treat their workers fairly, then good riddance. We'll stop buying their products, and so will the rest of the world because the quality will suffer.

[JohnBryansFontaine]

Isn't it a major irony that "card check" and the secret ballot are suddenly being defended by virulently anti-Union forces?? And that these same interests also claim that they care about Worker's Rights?

What a load of Orwellian doublethink BS.

http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org

[JohnBryansFontaine]

1. Employers that illegally fire at least one worker for union activity during
organizing campaigns: 25%

2. Chance that an active union supporter will be illegally fired for union
activity during an organizing campaign: 1 in 5

3. Employers that hire union-busters to help them fight union
organizing drives: 75%

4. Employers that force employees to attend one-on-one meetings against the
union with their own supervisors: 78%

5. Employers that force employees to attend mandatory closed-door meetings
against the union: 92%

6. Employers that threaten to call U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
during organizing drives that include undocumented employees: 52%

7. Companies that threaten to close the plant if the union wins the election: 51%

8. Companies that actually close their plants after a successful union election: 1%

9. Workers in FY 2006 who received back pay in cases alleging employer
violations of workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act: 26,824

10. Percentage of cases in which employers do not agree to a contract after
workers form a union under the NLRB process: 44%

11. Portion of public that says strong laws protecting workers’ freedom to
form unions—without employer interference—are important: 77%

12. Portion of public that disapproves of employer anti-union campaigns
when workers try to form unions: 67%

13. Nonunion workers who say they want to have a union in their workplace: 60 million

14. Number and percentage of U.S. workers that belong to unions: 15.7 million
or 12.1%

[EFCANOW]

Another day, another shady front group trying to confuse and mislead workers. This time, a new group calling itself “SOS Ballot” is waging an under-the-radar state-level campaign to lock in corporate domination and prevent workers from exercising the freedom to bargain for a better life.

http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/


“SOS Ballot” is yet another misleadingly named corporate front group, with a secret funding base, aimed at keeping a firm corporate lock on workers and their ability to form unions and bargain.

Who’s behind it? A glimpse at their priorities: The group is chaired, according to its website, by former U.S. Rep. Ernie Istook (R-Okla.). Istook had a consistently anti-worker voting record in Congress, voting to block collective bargaining rights, eliminate overtime and block the enforcement of workplace safety and mine safety rules. The big-money donors behind this effort are hoping that hiding behind a clever name will convince us that this time, they only have workers’ best interests at heart.


Don’t be fooled: These are the same big-money corporate shills that oppose every effort to improve the pay, benefits, safety and dignity of workers.


Former Congressman Ernest Istook, Chairman National Advisory Board
Save Our Secret Ballots Says it Best on His Website "WITHOUT SECRET BALLOTS WE WOULD LOSE FREEDOM OF INTIMIDATION"

For More Information on EFCA please visit our website and blog

http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org

http://efcanow.blogspot.com/

[ArtLevine]

You've got an interesting blog, worth reading --but where's your contact information and what organization sponsors you? Or are you a solo blogger who won't identify himself on the blog site -- or did I miss something? I didn't see any "about," "contact" or "email" information on it.....

[FLGuardsman]

In my humble opinion the "card check" vote would be a blow to the individual worker. The secret ballot for organizing needs to remain the standard. Studies may show that voters aren't intimidated into voting for a union. But, as with our national/l­ocal/state elections, that is a personal decision and should be left that way. For the record, I am pro-Union (in most cases). They are a bulwark against incompetent management. However, if management were to ever get smart, the necessity of a Union would go away.
As for the threat of shipping jobs overseas, this is where Congress can really have an impact. In the levying of taxes. Taxes should be implemented to encourage or discourage a certain behavior. Companies want to go overseas, tax their profits based on the percentage of employees overseas. Give tax breaks for hiring American workers. But, the secret ballot needs to remain. To do away with it would just be Un-American, in my humble opinion.

[Montanus]

No need to move if you continue the trend of turning this place into "overseas.­"

Henry Ford understood that his company needed customers.­..

Given all the contemporary evidence, it has to be obvious that an ebbing tide lowers all boats. If that continues or accelerates, exactly who is going to repay government borrowing? Without prospect of repayment, why would the workers of other countries lend "our" government money? Romney's policies and the arguments propping them up are as sound as American Motors.

[GrainOSand]

The appropriate rejoinder from the public should be if you go over seas -- we, the consuming public, will cease doing business with you, the foul blackmailer. The names of the companies who make the threat along with the names and salaries of the executives should be published. Boycott any business that makes such threats. The times are serious enough where such an effort might prove very effective at making corporations fall in line. How many can afford to lose massive chunks of their customer base? The worker (the consumer) is already hurting and if that worker stops spending money with whatever company in large enough numbers, the company will change its tune.

There is nothing wrong with organizations that advocate for the worker...h­owever, unions must transform to eliminate all waste and corruption within their organizational structure. Other than that, let's hear it for the unions. I have never had a union job but I have appreciation for the concept and empathy for the blue-collar worker and/or service industry employees who are unionized.

[mamacita]

Employers have been using the threat of sending jobs overseas for years in companies that already have a union in place. It is a useful tool in contract negotations, and has been used quite successfully to threaten workers negotiating a new contract to keep wages and benefits increases at a minimum, or eliminate them entirely. Employee meetings at my work place have showcased the wonderful new facilities in China and Mexico to show us where our jobs could be going.

I am shaking my head in disbelief that big business threatening to send jobs overseas to intimidate workers is new news. Obviously, there is a disconnect between the Punditocracy and the workers in the factories.

[DaveMathws]

Why don't they just put in the bill the right for the employee to have a secret ballot when deciding if they want to form a union? I just read the bill and this aspect is not specifically disclosed. Seems like it would save a lot of money if you just added an amendment. Personally, I am pretty good at negotiating my own fees. I am a consultant, so it doesn't apply to me.

[ArtLevine]

The secret ballot provision exists in current law -- this new Employee Free Choice ACT ADDS an amendment allowing the workers to choose the majority sign-up method which is currently under the direction of the employer, not the worker.

[DaveMathws]

Thanks Art, I wasn't aware of that. Good to know. Appreciate you responding!