The news story:
A majority of both Republican and Democratic voters oppose The Employee Free Choice Act, according to a new poll by Public Opinion Strategies of 800 general election voters.
Better known as the “card check bill,” the proposed act would give workers the right to unionize if a majority of employees publicly sign cards in favor of forming a union. Because it does away with the secret ballot, employers fear that such a law would allow unions to identify and coerce workers who otherwise would not vote to unionize.
“Across the ideological spectrum and across battleground states, significant majorities of Americans from every walk of life oppose this legislation,” said Katie Packer of the Workforce Fairness Institute.
When presented with neutral language describing the key provisions of the bill, voters surveyed opposed both facets. They strongly oppose a card check system and instead support the secret ballot process and they oppose changing the bargaining process. The poll found that 59 percent of all voters oppose the elimination of the secret ballot in union organizing elections and 53 percent oppose binding arbitration in contract negotiations.
In fact, when asked their preference if a union tried to organize in their workplace: 81 percent preferred a secret ballot, with only 14 percent preferring the card-check process.
The problem for Obama and his Democrats is that they promised this in return for the Union bosses donating massive amounts of money to their election efforts. But with 41 or 42 GOP Senators and a high level of unpopularity, it will be hard to get this un-American proposal through Congress.
I expect Obama and his Democrats will still try to push it – the Union bosses won’t let them off the hook, and that will work out to an excellent campaign issue for the GOP.
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