The American Spectator

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Political Hay

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FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS, the White House is likely to pose an obstacle to Card Check, since President George W. Bush is expected to veto any card check bill. But then, nothing is guaranteed with an administration that has expanded government power in so many ways.

Moreover, President Bush's Iraq failure makes the election of a Republican as successor problematic. And organized labor will work as hard if not harder to win in 2008 than 2006. Opines the AFL-CIO's Stew Acuff: "If we have to elect a president to sign it, we will."

Thus, the upcoming Senate vote is a critical round in a battle that will grow even more fierce if the Democrats win control of the presidency along with Congress. Then only a filibuster will stop card check. National Right to Work reports that 36 senators have promised to uphold a veto, but 41 votes are necessary to sustain a filibuster, which will require overwhelming Republican unity, since few Democrats will break ranks. Yet Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) co-sponsored the legislation in the past; other Northeastern senators may also hesitate to cross organized labor. Breaking the 41 mark this time is necessary to create an impassable Senate barrier in the future.

Organized labor might think elections are unnecessary for union recognition, but workers disagree. A Zogby poll found that 84 percent of union members believed employees should be able to vote about joining unions (only 11 percent were opposed).

Ironically, even Rep. George Miller (D-Ca.), the chief House sponsor of card check, believes in union recognition elections. For other nations.

In 2001 he joined with 15 colleagues to affirm their deep concern "with international labor standards and the role of labor rights in international trade agreements." Thus, they urged Mexico "to use the secret ballot in all union recognition elections." In their view, "increased use of the secret ballot in union recognition elections will help bring real democracy to the Mexican workplace."

But apparently not in America.

Incidentally, there's no obvious reason why even a majority employee vote should force workers to join unions, as is often required, or even force companies to recognize only this one union, as the law demands. But if recognition is to be mandated by law, it should only follow victory in a secret ballot election. As the AFL-CIO has admitted: the "representation election system provides the surest means of avoiding decisions which are the result of group pressures and not individual decision."

topics:
Trade, Nancy Pelosi, Environment, Law, Iraq, NATO, Unions