The American Spectator

The Public Policy

(Page 2 of 2)

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A "card check" campaign begins with union organizers going to the homes of workers over a weekend, a tactic called "house calling," with the sole intent of having those workers sign authorization cards...

In most cases, the workers have no idea that there is a union campaign underway. Organizers are taught to play upon this element of surprise to get "into the door."...The goal of the organizer is to quickly establish a trust relationship with the worker, move from talking about what their job entails to what they would like to change about their job, agitate them by insisting that management won't fix their workplace problems without a union and finally convincing the worker to sign a card....

Typically, if a worker signed a card, it had nothing to do with whether a worker was satisfied with the job or felt they were treated fairly by his or her boss. I found that most often it was the skill of the organizer to create issues from information the organizer had extracted from the worker during the "probe" stage of the house call...

I began to realize that the number of cards that were signed had less to do with support for the union and more to do with the effectiveness of the organizer speaking to the workers.

This appears to be consistent with results of secret ballot elections that are conducted in which workers are able to vote and make their final decision free from manipulation, intimidation or pressure tactics from either side.

From my experience, the number of cards signed appear to have little relationship to the ultimate vote count...The time allocated for the election to go forward allows the worker a chance to think through his or her own issues without undue influence -- thus avoiding an immediate, impulsive decision based on little or no fact.

br> Now Big Labor and their politician allies are trying to push a similar snake-oil sales tactic on the American public -- rushing the EFCA through Congress before, to paraphrase Jason, most Americans realize there's a union power grab under way.

topics:
Education, Environment, Law, Oil, Unions