California Conservative

According to this article, not all union workers are thrilled with EFCA. In fact, it isn’t understatement to say that Neal Catlett stepping forward and challenging union leaders represents a profile in courage, especially after this statement:

Catlett, now retired from Whirlpool, opposes card check. He told The City Wire that he has seen plenty of “nonsense” among Whirlpool leaders and union leaders to know that anything other than a secret ballot will lead to intimidation, coercion and corruption on all sides.

“I strongly support secret ballots. Period. It doesn’t matter at what level, whether it is voting for a union or the president or your congressman,” Catlett said. “Your ideas should be personal as to if you want a union or don’t want a union.”

Despite the fact that everyone understands that EFCA allows unions to ask people face-to-face to sign the card, union liars are trying to spin the situation. Here’s one feeble attempt:

Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, said corporations are seeking to scare Americans by focusing on the secret ballot issue. Hughes contends the decision by workers to vote for or against a union will remain private under the bill filed by Harkin. Hughes said the law merely removes the intimidation and “anti-union” practices that come from businesses fighting a unionization attempt.

“I challenge anybody to show me in the bill where it takes away the secret ballot,” Hughes said. “Companies are fighting this because they know that organizing gets easier and they lose control of the process they’ve controlled for years.”

Let’s remind Mr. Hughes what former Sen. McGovern said about EFCA:

The key provision of EFCA is a change in the mechanism by which unions are formed and recognized. Instead of a private election with a secret ballot overseen by an impartial federal board, union organizers would simply need to gather signatures from more than 50% of the employees in a workplace or bargaining unit, a system known as “card-check.” There are many documented cases where workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards that have led to mandatory payment of dues.

Under EFCA, workers could lose the freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear of reprisal.

Sen. McGovern certainly knows how to read legislation. He’s certainly as pro-union as Mr. Hughes. The difference between. Mr. Hughes and Sen. McGovern is that certain principles, such as secret ballots, are more important than unionization.

What’s most insulting, though, is Hughes’s accusation that businesses fighting against unionization are using “intimidation and “anti-union” practices.” If businesses use such threats and intimidation, the NLRB will be all over them like white on rice. Mr. Hughes doesn’t mention that information because that information destroys his argument and his credibility.

Mr. Catlett won’t get added to the unions’ Christmas card list for this statement:

“Doing away with the secret ballot is not good for the unions. It’s not good for any business…Open voting creates an atmosphere of intimidation. It creates an atmosphere where people will use your opinion against you. I’ve seen the threats and I’ve actually seen the physical conflict, if you know what I mean, come from the business side and from the union side,” Catlett said. “I just don’t see how any process that is not private will protect the worker.”

I applaud Mr. Catlett for having the courage and the honesty to admit what people already know: that union members have been known to use strongarm tactics to get what they want from time to time. Mr. Catlett is a profile in courage and integrity in my opinion for speaking the truth.

Conversely, Mr. Hughes isn’t a profile in courage or integrity, though he is a portrait of a man who’ll say anything to get his way. Mr. Hughes’s deceptive statements serve as his personal lack of character witnesses.

Technorati Tags: Unions, AFL-CIO, Alan Hughes, Tom Harkin, EFCA, George McGovern, Neal Catlett, Secret Ballot, Profiles In Courage, NLRB