Earlier this year, when President Obama went around Congress and used his executive power to recess appoint labor radical Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), we were watching and like many in the small business community, took note and voiced opposition.
Big Labor’s agenda of enacting the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) wasn’t seeing much traction in Congress and union bosses were finding other ways to push their plans through, like getting the former American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lawyer recess appointed.
All the while, the small business community expressed deep reservations about Becker due to his writings and public comments stating a fervent belief that employers should have no say, no rights whatsoever in the unionization process. He even expressed support for federal policies that disregarded the rights of workers and small business owners, only acknowledging those of union bosses.
And now that Becker has been on the NLRB for a few months, we are seeing the first step from the agency in enacting the forced unionization policies its newest member advocated on behalf of.
Big Labor has turned its sights onto creating “electronic voting services” in union representation elections. A request for information was just issued by the NLRB concerning these voting systems, which would remove paper ballot voting monitored at a worksite and replace it with electronic voting taking place at some other location.
It seems obvious that trading NLRB-supervised elections using physical ballots at a worksite with electronic voting, which could take place offsite, would open workers to coercion and intimidation at the hands of union bosses and organizers.
What is plainly clear is that this introduction of electronic voting is the first glimmer that Big Labor is using Becker and the NLRB to enact portions of EFCA just as they intended.
Before Obama appointed Becker, labor bosses wrote, “It [sic] we aren’t able to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, we will work with President Obama and Vice President Biden and their appointees to the National Labor Relations Board to change the rules governing forming a union through administrative action…”
It appears Becker’s NLRB has commenced with doing just that. Electronic voting exposes workers to individual “attention,” which clearly translates into bullying.
You don’t have to look far to see how the purple shirts of the SEIU continue to use intimidation and harassing tactics to get their way – and this would only increase with electronic voting.
After all, Big Labor named EFCA as their top priority for this Congress. Anything that helps them get new members is part of the agenda, irrespective of what it would mean for employees and employers.
By removing the rights of workers in the unionization process through a forced public vote, EFCA would make union boss intimidation and coercion simpler and commonplace. Additionally, EFCA would expose small businesses to government regulation on a very direct level. Appointing a government arbitrator to interfere with contract negotiations, EFCA would give sole authority of wages and benefit decisions to this government bureaucrat who would set the terms for two years with no appeals process. Called binding arbitration, this aspect of the bill could put such unreasonable terms onto a small business that it could be forced to shut down or move overseas.
So, with little progress on getting EFCA to see any action on the floor of the U.S. House or Senate, Big Labor has set its sights on the NLRB.
So why does Big Labor want to threaten workers, bankrupt small businesses and manhandle our system of government? Simple: power and money.
As union bosses have squandered the wealth that members’ dues provided them, numerous national unions are suddenly finding that their pension plans have been so mismanaged and grossly under-funded, that they are in serious trouble. In response, they are turning to the Obama Administration for bailouts – both financially and politically. By coercing workers to join unions through systems such as electronic voting, labor bosses will be able to rake in more dues and replenish their members’ pension funds, which they have squandered.
Let’s hope that the NLRB doesn’t continue down this wayward path, which is sure to lead to increased economic instability and job loss. Once again, we will be watching and objecting.
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