As if raising taxes across the board, negotiating with rogue states, enacting national health care, having questionable past associations, and limiting free speech through the “fairness doctrine” weren’t enough to keep Barack Obama from becoming our next president, there’s this: he wants to make it much easier to unionize.
Have you heard about this?
This is one of those quiet bills in Congress that most of us don’t pay attention to as slowly but surely our freedom and liberty gets whittled away.
I didn’t hear about it until a couple days ago at the McCain rally in Virginia Beach when he said:
“Senator Obama is measuring the drapes (in the White House), and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections.”
Short of laughing at the “drapes” quip, I wondered, what the heck is McCain talking about?
Apparently, what McCain is referring to is the “Employee Free-Choice Act”
Here’s what CNN’s “Political Ticker” has to say about this particular exchange:
McCain is referring to a plan supported by labor union leaders. Currently, workers must get a majority of their colleagues to sign an authorization form to ask for union representation – then hold a secret-ballot vote to finalize it. The change Obama supports would let a union be recognized by the National Labor Relations Board immediately after a majority of workers sign the authorization.
Supporters of the change, including the AFL-CIO and other unions, say it would cut down on the ability of employers to pressure their workers to vote against a union. Business groups, meanwhile, say the opposite – that the secret ballot allows workers who don’t want to unionize to publicly sign off on the plan, pleasing union leaders, then privately vote against it.
So, if you’re a worker, you can’t just sign the petition to “go along” with the crowd in public, but privately vote against unionizing. Your vote will suddenly become very public amongst your co-workers…a potentially uncomfortable position.
CNN continues:
The bill passed the House last year by a vote of 241-185. It was also supported in the Senate, 51-48 – but that didn’t reach the 60 votes that would have been needed to survive a filibuster on a final vote. That’s also not enough to override a veto by President Bush, who is against it. Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden voted on June 26, 2007, to move the bill forward, while McCain voted against it.
So, this isn’t just important for the presidential race, but without a filibuster in the Senate, the bill passes with ease. Gilmore has publicly opposed this bill, stating that it also jeopardizes Virginia’s tradition as a “right to work” state.
