Dean Baker: The Employee Free Choice Act and the Right to a Secret Ballot (corrects W Post)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=12&year=2008&base_name=the_employee_free_choice_act_a

The Employee Free Choice Act and the Right to a Secret Ballot


Workers do not currently have the right to a secret ballot in elections deciding whether or not they will have a union. The employer has the option to recognize a union based on card check (a majority of workers sign a card indicating their desire to join a union) or to demand an election certified by the National Labor Relations Board. The Employee Free Choice Act that will be considered by Congress in the next session gives this choice to workers.

Under the legislation, workers could organize by card check, but they can also petition to have an election overseen by the NLRB. Therefore it is incorrect for the Post to assert that the bill's "intent to eliminate secret ballots in union elections."


--Dean Baker


Posted by Dean Baker on December 9, 2008 11:28 PM | Permalink



Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. He is a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Marketplace, CNN, CNBC and other news programs. He is the author of several books, including The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer and The United States Since 1980. He received his Ph.D in economics from the University of Michigan.

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