Wow. It looks like the big retailers are pulling out all stops to stop the Obama steamroller with captive audience meetings with their employees to engage in none-too-subtle office politicking (which JH has written about before).
From the Wall Street Journal:
Retailers are meeting with store managers to warn how a strong showing for Democrats in the Nov. 4 election could cause what they fear would be more economic pain for their companies, in particular by potentially making it easier for unions to organize stores.
The companies are worried about presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s stated support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would do away with secret balloting and allow unions to form if a majority of employees sign cards favoring unionization. The legislation, retailers fear, would have improved chances of becoming law under a Democratic administration . . . .
Home Depot Inc. in recent weeks has held meetings between its employee-relations managers and all the company’s salaried employees, including district managers and store managers, on how the Free Choice legislation would change the union-organizing process.
“We think the most basic element of any democracy is the vote by secret ballot, and this bill effectively eliminates that right,” said Home Depot spokesman Ron DeFeo. He said individual candidates’ stances on the bill weren’t discussed at the meetings.
This summer, several labor unions filed a complaint, which is still pending, with the Federal Election Commission, alleging Wal-Mart Stores Inc. essentially encouraged its managers and salaried supervisors to vote against Sen. Obama and other Democratic candidates because of their support for the Free Choice legislation. Wal-Mart said the purpose of the meetings was to educate workers about the bill and the downside of a unionized workplace.
While the Wal-Mart human-resources managers running the meetings didn’t specifically tell attendees how to vote, they made it clear that voting for Sen. Obama would be tantamount to inviting in unions.
I and my co-authors, Melissa Hart and Marcia McCormick, made really clear how we feel about this office politicking in a column in The Legal Times. This is just the addition of more employer intimidation in the workplace.
But the other things that struck me about this “balanced” piece from the WSJ is that unionism is equated with economic pain in the first paragraph.
If economic pain means less executive compensation for company executives and more pay for the average job in better conditions, then I think they got it right.
I’m curious to see how you would respond to these questions / thoughts:
1. The initial paragraph seems to indicate that “they” fear that such an occurrence will happen. Why does “their” (meaning clearly retailers, etc.) equating unions with pain mean that the WSJ piece is less than balanced?
2. If unions donate heavily Democrat, when it is clear that all of their members are not Democrat, why is this not equally problematic, and why don’t you mention it?
See, for instance:
http://www.opensecrets.org/usearch/searchresults_detailed.php?srch_term=AFL-CIO&type=O&cnt=165&filter=tm
Or: http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/toprecips.php?id=D000000070
3. Are there good reasons for opposing this bill?
I agree that many “big company” executive’s salaries and golden parachutes are no doubt unwarranted and reprehensible. But are more unions really the answer? Maybe in the short-term, but I fail to see how in the long run legislation like the “Employee Free Choice Act” doesn’t create unintended consequences such as the actual loss of jobs. As far as the so called “Employee Free Choice Act,” I cannot imagine any scenario where the termination of secret balloting doesn’t lead to the intimidation of employees who sign or abstain from signing the cards.
At the age of 16 I got my first job sacking groceries. During orientation we were all led into a room and took our seats at a table where a stack of papers sat before us. The woman leading orientation began to tell us about the union and how wonderful it was. No mention that Texas was a right to work state and that we didn’t have to join, so I signed the papers and became a member.
The monthly dues taken out of my check was irritating but I didn’t mind too much. Then I started getting the official union literature. Most significantly I got the union magazine which in the fall of 1994 was entirely dedicated to telling us how vitally important it was that Newt Gingrich and the GOP were stopped from taking over the House and Senate. I was thrilled to see that my money was being used to campaign against the party I supported. Needless to say, I got out of that union as soon as possible and have had little respect for unions ever since.
And now they want to do away with secret ballots? Sorry if I don’t get a lump in my throat if some employees are made a little uncomfortable by a speech from management.