To the Left of McGovern

Via Ed Morrissey, USA Today has an editorial against Card Check--a provision in the Employee Free Choice Act that would deny workers the right to a secret ballot in elections to establish unions:

This misguided measure passed the House shortly after Democrats took the majority in 2007. But it needs several more votes in the Senate and a president who will sign it. Barack Obama supports it; John McCain does not. It's no surprise, then, that the AFL-CIO plans to spend an eye-popping $200 million this election cycle to support Obama and Democratic candidates for Congress. A win for Obama and big gains for Senate Democrats could remove the remaining obstacles to the euphemistically named "Employee Free Choice Act."

Cajoled choice is more like it. The proposed change would give unions and pro-union employees more incentive to use peer pressure, or worse, to persuade reluctant workers to sign their cards. And without elections, workers who weren't contacted by union organizers would have no say in the final outcome.

Labor leaders, such as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in the space below, argue that the proposed law wouldn't prohibit private balloting. This is accurate but misleading. Union organizers would have no reason to seek an election if they had union cards signed by more than 50% of workers. And if they had less than a majority, they'd be unlikely to call for a vote they'd probably lose.

John McCain has an unlikely ally in his opposition to this bill: George McGovern. The former Democratic presidential candidate has cut an ad and appeared on TV news programs to sound the alarm about this anti-democratic legislation that would almost certainly be enacted under an Obama administration:

Focusing attention on the EFCA might help McCain make the case for divided government and highlight Obama's extremism. On the other hand, a GOP congressional campaign manager tells me that this issue won't move votes, saying that "no one understands it" and "when you only have limited ammunition you pick your spots. Taxes and spending are the best hits we have" in an environment where the economy is voters' top concern. If that's the case, McCain could do worse than continue to hammer Obama's professed desire to tax and "spread the wealth."