According to McGovern there are many documented cases in which workers have been pressured, harassed, tricked and intimidated into signing cards which have led to mandatory payment of dues. McGovern suggested that workers could lose their freedom to express their will in private, the right to make a decision without anyone peering over their shoulder, free from fear or reprisal.
Secretary Chao could not have said it better. McGovern pleads with his party not to support card check. Said the former Senator from South Dakota, "We cannot be a party that strips workers of the right to a secret ballot election. We are the party that always defended the rights of the working class. To fail to ensure the right to vote free of intimidation and coercion from all sides would be a betrayal of what we have always championed." McGovern pointed out that key Democrats in Congress have insisted upon a secret ballot for unions in Mexico and elsewhere yet they support the opposite in this country.
He said sometimes it is necessary to tell friends "no" when a provision would weaken labor "and disrupt a tried and trusted method for conducting an honest election." I don't recall ever being on the same side as the Senator on a matter of major national debate. But on this issue I could not agree with him more. I belonged to a union (AFTRA) many years ago. I was pleased to be associated with my fellow broadcasters precisely because we had the privacy of the vote.
It may be asking too much since union bosses intend to put hundreds of millions of dollars into the fall campaign to elect more Democrats but it would behoove the Party elders to consider what McGovern has said. What might be a temporary gain could end up destroying the unions in the long run. It is always difficult for leaders to accept the long-range view as opposed to the temptation to act for immediate gain. For the good of the nation let us hope there at least some Democrats willing to take the long view.