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Organized labor's top legislative priority fails in Senate

Senate Democrats have failed to garner the 60 votes needed to proceed with a bill that would allow unions to organize workplaces without a private ballot election.

Republicans in the Senate have blocked The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1041), also known as "Card Check," which would require employers to recognize unions after being presented union cards signed by a majority of eligible workers on their payrolls. Under current labor law, a company can demand a private ballot election supervised by the federal government after being presented the union cards.

The AFL-CIO claims the bill would "level the playing field" for workers and employers. And Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) says it offers employees the "real fair chance" to garner the protections and benefits of unions. But Senator Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) says the bill would strip workers of the right to make a private vote on whether to join a union.

"This card check bill -- or 'Workers Intimidation Act,' as I like to call it -- is big labor's top legislative priority," Bunning notes. "The union bosses have funneled millions of dollars in political campaigns and now they want their payback. This legislation would overturn 60 years of labor law."

As the Kentucky lawmaker points out, Americans already enjoy the right to join a union. "But the decision to join a union should be freely made in private and without intimidation," he stresses. "That is the only way to ensure that the choice is truly free and not forced." According to Bunning, "taking away private ballot elections and subjecting workers to undo pressure goes against the basic principles on which this country was founded."

The level of corruption and deception incorporated into that bill is absolutely appalling.  I read sections that were unbelievable.