Down with card check
One promise that Obama seems determined to make good on is card check.
Card check was one of the most pernicious policies he advocated during his campaign. I wrote about it back then, here.
Card check is so bad that even that hoary liberal George McGovern was incensed enough to speak out against it:
So I’m pleased to note that some Democrats in Congress are joining their Republican colleagues in bucking this particularly loathsome tide of union suckup that threatens to end the secret ballot and open the door to increasing union intimidation of employees.
If enough of members of Congress join this group, card check will not pass. In fact, if it’s clear beforehand that it is doomed to defeat, the leadership may even decide not to bring it up for a vote.
That’s a good news, bad news situation. The good news, of course, would be if card check were to die a decisive death. But the bad news is that the proposal and the fight against it has slipped beneath the awareness of most Americans.
Ask most of your friends if they’ve ever heard of card check and know what it is. My guess is that most will say “no.” And now, if the bill is defeated—and especially if it never comes to a vote—most people will never learn how close the Democratic Party and that wonderful guy, President Obama, came to signing away one of the most basic protections American employees have against union arm-twisting.
Thanks for this reminder, NEO. I’m off to write my Congress critters about this issue. Might not help as they are all very liberal dems. Can’t hurt though.
This card check is about the most unamerican thing i’ve ever heard of. I find it incredible its even being discussed, much less having a chance of actually becoming law.
This is truly the perfect example of “special interest” benefit Vs protecting citizens rights. The sad politicians that support the bill are obviously guilty of following the money, and/or they are believers that the end justifies the means. Shameful.
Actually, when I was discussing it with an Obama supporting family member, her response was “Why would I care, I don’t belong to a union”.
It’s such a good system I think the next president of the US should be chosen by card check. I can just see it now – ACORN showing up on the steps of the Capitol with millions upon millions of cards signed by voters who’ve chosen the next president. The fact that there are more cards than voters and that Mickey Mouse has filled out 1200 ballots wouldn’t be a deterrent. Little inconsistencies like that wouldn’t negate the obvious will of the people displayed by those cards. What could go wrong?
As SteveH says, the whole concept is so blatantly and patently un-American that it’s simply mind-boggling that anyone is seriously considering it. And Little Miss “I don’t belong to a union” needs to pull her head out of the sand and start taking a look at the bigger picture of life. Or stop voting if she is currently in the habit of doing so. Honestly, I don’t know much about legal technicalities, but I would hope that if anything remotely resembling card check passed that the Supreme Court would throw it out so fast that the heads of the idea’s supporters and promoters would spin right off their necks.
My response to Guy’s family member would be: “Ah, but if this bill passes you soon will be whether you like it or not.”
George McGovern is a very interesting guy. Very left but with high integrity. About 5-8 years ago he opened some kind of business. I think it was a small hotel or restaurant. Soon afterward he began to write some very interesting stories on business, particularly labor in the WSJ.
The experience of managing a labor intensive business, with some union/nanny state rules has opened his eyes. He still has the progressives overemphasis on “fairness”, but he can see that the labor movement in the US is not about fairness