Posted by
Always To The Right on Friday, November 21, 2008 4:25:34 PM
“It’s a secret ballot, thank the Lord,” Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), about keeping her vote on the Dingell-Waxman caucus election secret.
John Boehner highlighted this quote
as one reason the House Republican Caucus will vociferously oppose the
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), better known as Card Check. He
challenged the Democrats’ hypocrisy in closing the ballots on
politically tough votes within their caucuses while leaving employees
open to harassment and intimidation in the workplace on organizing votes
Democrats went to the secret ballot for obvious reasons in both the Waxman/Dingell chairmanship election and the resolution of Joe Lieberman’s chair
on Homeland Security in the Senate. They didn’t want to be held
personally and individually responsible for their positions, more so in
the latter case than the former.
Nancy Pelosi says that EFCA won’t take away the secret ballot, but
only the right of the employer to demand one. Gee, that will make
anti-union employees feel somuch better. Under the EFCA,
they will have to request a secret ballot, rather than having it occur
naturally through the competing interests of management and labor.
Just the act of demanding a secret ballot will identify which employees
to intimidate into acquiescence. After all, if they wanted to vote for
the union, they’d just sign the cards — right?
You can thank the Lord for the secret ballot when you’re a
Democratic Congresswoman, but if you’re a worker, you’ll have to blame
Congress for its absence when the union’s “community organizers” insist
you sign their card.