We can tell from President-elect Obama’s choice of Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis of California, that he will push the latest union campaign to eliminate secret-ballot elections for workers who are voting on union membership. This is a totalitarian move. What will happen when these votes are known? Obviously, those workers who oppose unionization will be subject to intimidation, harassment and even potential violence from union organizers. This will scare workers who will worry about retribution from the most thuggish union members, and we know from history that unions have often resorted to violence to keep members on board.
This statement came over the transom:
Solis Supports Secret Ballots For Herself, But Not For Working Americans
Research Firm Highlights History of Hypocrisy for Obama’s Labor Choice
December 18, 2008 — Today, Bret Jacobson of Maverick Strategies, a free-market research and communications firm, noted that President-elect Barack Obama’s reported choice for Labor Secretary has a hypocritical history of demanding secret ballots for herself, while supporting an agenda to deny the same to working Americans.
Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA) co-sponsored the misnamed and controversial Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would effectively kill the right to a secret ballot election for employees deciding whether to join a union. Solis sang a very different tune when her own right to a secret ballot was at stake. On January 5, 2007, Rep. Solis co-signed a letter criticizing the absence of secret ballot elections to choose the leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for the 110th Congress.
The letter explained: “… votes by secret ballot were in order but never taken. We therefore believe that we need to follow proper rules of procedure and hold a vote by secret ballot.” The letter continued, “it is important that the integrity of the CHC be unquestioned and above reproach.”
Moreover, Rep. Solis was happy to accept the secret ballot votes of her constituents each time she was elected to Congress.
Secret ballot elections are a cornerstone to local, state, and federal elections and have been the preferred method of ensuring that working Americans remain free from union or employer coercion during workplace organizing drives. The passage of EFCA would deny this right to an estimated 100 million employees.
“Why Rep. Solis supports ending secret ballots for working Americans is a troubling but important question that she should face,” said Bret Jacobson. “This isn’t the normal sort of low-level hypocrisy that Americans are used to from their politicians. If EFCA passes, it will be no solace that Solis is just another politician. It is just wrong to deny the same rights to workers that Solis expects for herself.”
I don’t despise private unions as much as I do public unions. I can choose not to pay a thin dime to any organization with a private employee’s union and help put them out of business, which I practice BTW. So I have some control over Disney’s union. Now I understand that Disney management is an innocent bystander but sometimes they must suffer too in the name of society’s greater good. And I feel obligated to help them bust the unions. Boycotting their business is a way to do that. Public unions comprise the lowest form of a union simply because government has a monopoly over us. I do not have the option to take my business and earnings elsewhere. The public unions force their membership’s inflated salaries and bloated, outdated pensions upon me whether I like it or not! So now we must just wait until the economy, like mother nature, takes it’s natural course and obliterates the public unions. You have to look real hard, but with earthquakes, hurricanes and economic meltdowns there are always silver linings.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Why should government impose its will on a private organization?
Isn’t the OC Register opposed to such interference?
Doesn’t the membership have the ability to mandate that type of procedure from their membership?
It is one of the many reasons why the paycheck protection measures continually fail. It is an outside group trying to impose their beliefs on a private organization.