Do Secret Ballots and the NLRB Deliver for Workers? The AFL-CIO Says Yes!

by Glenn Spencer

Well, perhaps not so directly, but read on. Yesterday, the AFL-CIO posted on their blog a story about the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordering a casino in New Jersey to bargain with workers who had formed a union.

Two things jump out from this story.  First off, the workers in this case VOTED for a union, and did not organize through Card Check. So much for the unions’ claim that the secret ballot process doesn’t work.  We’ve long said that unions’ real reason for prefering Card Check is not that they can’t win elections, but that they simply don’t want to take the time and expense of making their case to workers. Card Check would provide an official license for union organizers to essentially force people into unions without the need to explain what benefits a worker would get from their mandatory union dues.

Second, it seems that the NLRB is not "broken" as unions often claim. It may not deliver instant gratification (what legal proceding does?), but as the AFL-CIO wrote in its blog, the NLRB has "vindicated" the rights of workers by ordering the employer back to the bargaining table. What the unions don’t like about the NLRB is not that it doesn’t deliver results, but that the Board takes time to ensure that both sides in a dispute get a fair hearing. That’s another reason why unions want Card Check legislation -- it puts an end to the NLRB’s deliberative judicial process and quickly moves to mandatory binding arbitration if contract negotiations hit an impasse.

Never mind that binding arbitration would take away workers’ ability to vote on the terms and conditions of their employment. And it’s of no concern that binding arbitration could result in a contract that would bankrupt a business. Requiring the government to intervene in collective bargaining and impose a contract gets dues money flowing quickly. One has to wonder if that, in fact, is what Card Check is really all about.