The Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as "card-check," was officially introduced into Congress last week. The bill would allow workplaces to unionize once a majority of employees sign a card supporting unionization. Secret-ballot union elections would fall to the wayside.
Card check will likely pass the House. That means the real legislative fight will be in the Senate. The Republicans have named South Dakota senator John Thune as their point man on the issue. Thune will have to keep Republicans from supporting the bill. Tough job, but somebody has to do it. Card-check is already affecting Arlen Specter's political future.
There is an economic argument against card-check, which the Wall Street Journal's editorial page made ably the other day. Some highlights:
In the last session of Congress, Democrats tried to: Raise the notice period required for certain layoffs at private companies to 90 days, extend health benefits for laid-off workers for up to a decade, and increase penalties for noncompliance (the expanded WARN Act); reclassify certain managers as employees who can be unionized, forcibly in non-right-to-work states (the Respect Act); facilitate class action suits for alleged gender-based pay discrimination (Paycheck Fairness Act); and much more. None passed, but now they might.
In the Obama revolution, unions are the vanguard force. Contrary to promises of moderation, the Administration has so far sided firmly with the union left. On the day after the Inauguration, the Department of Labor stopped the implementation of new union financial disclosure rules that provide greater transparency about union finances. A fortnight on the job, President Obama issued four executive orders, on federal contracting and political spending, demanded by Big Labor. Mr. Obama this month endorsed card check and vowed that it "will pass."
In Euro-terms, a "social market economy" offers state-provided health care, generous unemployment benefits, long holidays, various job protections and a prominent role for unions. Sounds good, you might say. But consider that the Europeans have spent the past two decades struggling to wean themselves off entitlements that are a huge drain on the overall economy. These welfare states leech off the productive parts of the economy through onerous taxes, debt and regulations.
Everyone ends up paying. Consider just one measure: the tax wedge, the share of labor costs that never reaches an employee's wallet but goes straight to state coffers. In Belgium, Germany and France, the tax wedge is around 50%; in America, it was 30% in 2007. (See the nearby table.) Not coincidentally, salaries and job opportunities are better here, especially for the least-skilled. The Obama budget, universal health care and now the union-revival effort known as the Employee Free Choice Act would steer America toward the Continent. That's good for the unions, but not for the public good.
Persuades me! But that's probably not enough. In the current economic climate, people are more likely to favor approaches that emphasize labor over management. And since so few workers have any actual experience with unions (only 7.8 percent of private-sector workers are unionized), they are unfamiliar with the economic and political downsides to organized labor. It's therefore unsurprising that 53 percent of respondents would tell Gallup that they favor a law that "would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers."
Ask respondents whether or not they want to join a union, however, and the answer is different. Just 9 percent of non-union workers say they want to join, and 61 percent say the secret ballot is a fair method of union organizing. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than 70 percent of respondents prefer the secret ballot to signing a card.
Economic arguments are great for enterprising folks who worry about over-burdened entrepreneurs, a calcified labor market, and higher prices. But a lot of other folks, because they aren't troubled by economics, are inclined to look the other way. It's the civic argument, the defense of the secret ballot, that will motivate such people to oppose card-check.
I mean, it even convinced George McGovern.
