Our Economy Does Not Need Creative Coercion

Ryan O'Donnell / February 25, 2009

Imagine the following scenario: After work you and a couple of your co-workers gather at the local pizza joint for a few slices and a beer. They are buying! When you arrive, one of your co-workers puts a “sign in” sheet (see below) under your nose while you are choosing what pizza you want to order. Congratulations! Under the rules of the dishonestly named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), you’ve just voted to unionize your workplace.

During Monday’s “Consequences of the Employee Free Choice Act” panel discussion at The Heritage Foundation, Rian Wathen, a former organizing director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700, described how, under EFCA, the above scenario, as well as other methods of “creative organizing,” will be used to pressure or deceive employees into joining a union once they no longer have the protection of a secret ballot.

Employers routinely refuse to recognize unions on a card-check–only basis because publicly signed cards do not reflect employees’ preferences. Instead, employers overwhelmingly prefer the issue of representation to be decided by secret ballot election. Such an election allows employees to consider both sides of the issue and, consequently, discourages the union from lying or engaging in “creative organizing” just to get a card signed because the worker can later vote “no” once they have had time to reflect on what they signed. (more…)