Media Criticism

Labor unions are dying in the United States. While I don’t like labor unions because of their abuses of power and corruption, I grudgingly recognize them to be a necessary evil to counterbalance the equally offensive abuses of power and corruption on the part of big business. There is a theory making the rounds on some of the blogs which says that by legalizing millions of very low level people unions could come in and unionize them, thus swelling their coffers. At first I sort of put this theory aside as another tinfoil hat one until I read on a bit further. It seems there is a bill sneaking its way through congress at the moment that would remove the requirement for a secret ballot when conducting union elections. Otherwise known as the Card Check bill: HR 800. This bill would allow unions to declare they won when they had “convinced” a majority of workers to sign a union card.

Previously securing a majority of signatures on cards would have called for an election in which the secret ballot ensured that anyone who felt they had been pressured into signing the union card could vote their conscience. Unions are convinced this secret ballot is why they have lost so many close unionization elections and have persuaded congress to overturn what is to me a basic American right. It passed the house relatively unnoticed on May 1 and is now making its way through the senate.

I checked my usual news sites and this apparently has slipped through the cracks. I haven’t been able to find a single story on it other than on some of the blogs. The press apparently is not interested in this at all despite the questionable nature of removing secret ballots.

It makes me pretty cynical about the labor unions who are literally selling out their own rank and file with regard to jobs by supporting this bill that will bring millions of people into this country who are more than willing to undercut American worker salaries to get their jobs. Again, power corrupts and the ability to line one’s pockets is more important than principles. I think we need to have a good hard look by the media on this issue.

The full text of the bill can be found here:

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h800ih.txt.pdf

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce weighs in:

http://www.uschamber.com/issues/letters/2007/070213cardcheck.htm

The AFofL take on this bill:

http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/efca/

And one from the industry:

http://blog.nam.org/archives/2007/03/hr_800_passes_h.php

labor, unions, illegals, immigrants, illegal immigrants, union elections, congress, bill, ballots, current affairs, politics, press, media, news, thoughts