Fear of the Secret Ballot

by Brad Peck

America's voters have a secret ballot and they're not afraid to use it.  And oh boy, you know that card check -- or the "employee free choice act" if you are trying to confuse-- is an anathema to voters when progressive writers start trying to minimize its importance, as David Sirota does today in a San Francisco Chronicle column.

Sirota writes that card check makes "makes joining a union a tiny bit easier" and is an "almost embarrassingly modest proposal."  Since the Chamber is hardly neutral on eliminating secret ballot private elections for workers, I will let the bill's supporters refute this statement:

"This law likely would change Americans' lives more than any legislation since the New Deal brought us Social Security." (Mark Weisbrot, Center for Economic and Policy Research)

"The Employee Free Choice Act is the number 1 priority for the American Labor Movement…This is cornerstone piece of legislation for the labor movement" (Stewart Acuff, AFL-CIO)

"one of the most important pieces of legislation in the congress is the Employee Free Choice Act…Employee Free Choice Act the law will be key in creating a stronger labor movement" (John Sweeney, AFL-CIO President)

"When we pass this act--and we will pass this law, we will unleash a torrent of organizing activity like my father saw. The labor movement will be not only in the ascendancy but on rockets" (David Bonior, American Rights at Work)

And of course David Sirota himself:

"the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) - the most important labor law reform in decades."

What got Sirota started down the path of denial today was a quote about the card check fight from the U.S. Chamber’s Steven Law: "This is a David-and-Goliath confrontation, but we believe we'll have enough stones in the sling to knock this out."  Law had business in the David role, which does not fit the progressive frame of big spending corporations versus the little guy.

"According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, corporate executives at Goliath Inc. spent $17 billion lobbying Congress in the last decade. Labor leaders at David's union hall mustered $333 million. In the 2008 election, business interests have outspent unions 18-to-1 on campaign contributions."

I believe Sirota is taking this chart and adding up the columns for the non-labor industry sectors and then comparing it to the labor sector line.  This is of course an absurd comparison, in politics a universal, constant us-versus-them does not exists.

1. Industry sectors did not spend $17 billion opposing the labor sector.
2. "Business" is not a homogeneous group with uniform needs and opinions.
3. Labor groups frequently partner with business groups and lobbying money spent by business is often on issues which labor supports.

Regarding the campaign contribution bit, first let me stress again point 2 above, second remember point 2 above while processing the Center for Responsive Politics contribution charts for this cycle and the last twenty years.  As a taste, here are the Top 20 for the 2008 cycle.  If you are having trouble identifying the unions, just look for the two and three donkeys on the right (excluding the trial lawyers).