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‘Card check’ bill means well but doesn’t deliver
By The Garden Island
The argument should not center on the virtues of organized labor, and it should not seek to measure unions’ negative economic impacts.
People on both sides of the boardroom wall, employers and employees, pro-union folks and anti-union folks, should be able to agree on one thing: The private ballot election process is the most fair way to determine the collective will of a group of people.
House Bill 952 would not, if enacted, completely eliminate the secret ballot process that has stood as the way unions are formed since the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, but it would undermine it to near-inconsequentiality by creating an easier-to-achieve alternative.
Hawai‘i’s HB 952 and its national counterpart, the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, set out with the admirable goal of making it easier for those who want to create a union to do so, but so-called “card check” and “majority sign-up” laws like these overshoot that aim by overcompensating for the issue of “free choice.”
Proponents of the bills argue that employers systematically quash unionization attempts by discouraging discussions about organizing, slowing down the process by refusing to negotiate in good faith, or even threatening or firing union advocates.
These behaviors, some of which are already against the law if not effectively enforced, can be addressed on their own, in other legislation or with stronger implementation techniques, without changing the fundamental way we as a country have done business for the better part of a century.
For all the things left out of the NLRA, there is something very right: the critical right to privacy. There is no need to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.
Yes, National Labor Review Board elections are not equivalent to and should not be compared to primary and general elections run by our government. But some of the same principles apply, specifically the right of every man and woman to cast a vote for the side they feel is best for them without fear of reprisal.
In a world where HB 952 or the EFCA is law, employees will be able to approach a colleague in the break room, or the parking lot, or the bar down the street, and bring pressure to bear. “I thought you were a team player, I thought you were one of the guys, I thought we were friends,” they’ll say. “Why won’t you help us?” It is specifically this type of peer pressure, and not overt threats of violence, that fail to constitute a truly “free choice.”
Our issue with the bill centers on this small-d democratic ideal, though if you look at the stalled congressional attempt to pass EFCA, you’ll see the issue has largely been split down party lines, with big-D Democrats trying to form a 60-vote supermajority to override an expected Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate. The federal government’s inability to pass the legislation leaves the burden on individual states to make the call for themselves.
Local businesses have renewed old assertions that unions drive up the cost of doing business, and have noted that the current economic climate makes right now the wrong time to add fuel to the fire, but those concerns are based in industry’s long-standing discomfort with all things unionized.
The National Labor Review Act is three quarters of a century old, and it may have its problems. It may be time for another look at the way we deal with labor in this country and in this state.
In our opinion, House Bill 952 is not the answer. The Hawai‘i Senate should vote it down Tuesday, and the Legislature should not attempt to override Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto should it come to that.
People on both sides of the boardroom wall, employers and employees, pro-union folks and anti-union folks, should be able to agree on one thing: The private ballot election process is the most fair way to determine the collective will of a group of people.
House Bill 952 would not, if enacted, completely eliminate the secret ballot process that has stood as the way unions are formed since the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, but it would undermine it to near-inconsequentiality by creating an easier-to-achieve alternative.
Hawai‘i’s HB 952 and its national counterpart, the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, set out with the admirable goal of making it easier for those who want to create a union to do so, but so-called “card check” and “majority sign-up” laws like these overshoot that aim by overcompensating for the issue of “free choice.”
Proponents of the bills argue that employers systematically quash unionization attempts by discouraging discussions about organizing, slowing down the process by refusing to negotiate in good faith, or even threatening or firing union advocates.
These behaviors, some of which are already against the law if not effectively enforced, can be addressed on their own, in other legislation or with stronger implementation techniques, without changing the fundamental way we as a country have done business for the better part of a century.
For all the things left out of the NLRA, there is something very right: the critical right to privacy. There is no need to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.
Yes, National Labor Review Board elections are not equivalent to and should not be compared to primary and general elections run by our government. But some of the same principles apply, specifically the right of every man and woman to cast a vote for the side they feel is best for them without fear of reprisal.
In a world where HB 952 or the EFCA is law, employees will be able to approach a colleague in the break room, or the parking lot, or the bar down the street, and bring pressure to bear. “I thought you were a team player, I thought you were one of the guys, I thought we were friends,” they’ll say. “Why won’t you help us?” It is specifically this type of peer pressure, and not overt threats of violence, that fail to constitute a truly “free choice.”
Our issue with the bill centers on this small-d democratic ideal, though if you look at the stalled congressional attempt to pass EFCA, you’ll see the issue has largely been split down party lines, with big-D Democrats trying to form a 60-vote supermajority to override an expected Republican filibuster in the U.S. Senate. The federal government’s inability to pass the legislation leaves the burden on individual states to make the call for themselves.
Local businesses have renewed old assertions that unions drive up the cost of doing business, and have noted that the current economic climate makes right now the wrong time to add fuel to the fire, but those concerns are based in industry’s long-standing discomfort with all things unionized.
The National Labor Review Act is three quarters of a century old, and it may have its problems. It may be time for another look at the way we deal with labor in this country and in this state.
In our opinion, House Bill 952 is not the answer. The Hawai‘i Senate should vote it down Tuesday, and the Legislature should not attempt to override Gov. Linda Lingle’s veto should it come to that.
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docSmith wrote on Apr 12, 2009 9:00 PM:
An example of the union problem is shown by the auto industry. None of the owners/CEO'S could fight the unions as they would just go on strike until the industry had to acquiesce.
What should have been done years ago was for the Unions and Management to sit down to work out a plane where the Union Members would get their pay raise and other benefits, but the Unions would agree to insisting that their members would REALL give a fair days work for a fair days pay. And the Union should promises that they would train the workers to work smarter if not harde. And if a member was not pulling his own weight then the Union would force him out of the union. Everybody would win. "