The Web site of the AFL-CIO thanks the six North Carolina Democrats who co-sponsored the co-called Employee Free Choice Act of 2007. The act, which would require workers to fill out a card if they support a union in their workplace, thus identifying by process of elimination all those against a union, is billed by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as “the most important labor law reform legislation of this generation.” In her remarks to the House prior to the vote Pelosi never mentioned that the secret ballot on union votes would be eliminated if this bill ever becomes law. The secret ballot is the core of our form of democracy, but, as Pelosi sees it, eliminating that secrecy actually restores democracy to the workplace:
The Employee Free Choice Act puts democracy back in the workplace, so that the decision to form a union can be made by the employees that the union would represent. This is a standard we rightly demand for workers around the world because it illustrates not only a respect for labor, but a commitment to democracy: we should accept no lesser standard here in America.
I wonder if N.C. Democrats David Price, Mike McIntyre, Mel Watt, Brad Miller, Heath Shuler, H.K. Butterfield and Bob Etheridge, all of whom supported H.R. 800 yesterday, agree that eliminating ballot secrecy enhances democracy.
