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1/26/2009
Union members oppose big labor's card check
Interesting. Very interesting. Press Release, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace:
Voters, Union Households Believe Employee Free Choice Act Will Cost Jobs, End Privacy
A new national survey of voters released today by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) shows opposition coming from an unlikely source – union households. A special polling oversample of 400 union households shows both union members and all voters strongly opposing The Employee Free Choice Act, often called the “card check” bill.
The findings indicate widespread concern among both voters and union households about this legislation that threatens secret ballots, worker privacy and job growth. Both voters and union members tell pollsters that Congress should focus on other more important issues and put Big Labor’s agenda aside.
“The strong opposition from current union members to the Employee Free Choice Act should send a clear signal to President Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress that the EFCA lacks popular support, both among a key Democratic constituency and voters as a whole,” said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. “The only support card check has is among the leaders of Big Labor.”
The poll was conducted by nationally respected polling firm of McLaughlin & Associates. It surveyed 1000 likely voters with a sub-sample of 400 union households. The poll was conducted from January 7 to 11, 2009.
Key findings of the poll include:
Three out of four voters (74%) oppose the "The Employee Free Choice Act”. Union households also strongly oppose the Employee Free Choice Act, 74% oppose to only 20% support.
When given a more detailed description of the Employee Free Choice Act, nearly 9 out of 10 voters, 86%, feel the process should remain private and only 8% feel it should be public information. Again, even union workers feel strongly that the process should be kept private, as 88% said private and only 8% said public.
Four out of five voters, or 82%, favor having a federally supervised election as a means to “protect the individual rights of workers”. The voters clearly see this as a basic right, especially given that only 11% of voters feel the card check would be the best way to protect the individual rights of workers. Support increases to 85% among union households.
The majority (52% to 26%) of American voters believe that the Employee Free Choice Act is not good for job creation. Even among union households, the plurality (48%) believes that the Employee Free Choice Act will cost America jobs.
In the current economic climate, 52% of voters are particularly opposed to any measure that would risk jobs or job growth.
Further exemplifying the electorates’ distaste for the Employee Free Choice Act, 71% agreed that this legislation would be “unwise” and “risky”. In today’s economic climate, the electorate has little confidence in the federal government’s ability to make such major business decisions.
Despite opposition from their own rank and file workers, labor bosses have made support for the EFCA, or “card check” bill, a top priority this year and are pressuring Congress to act quickly to pass it. Unfortunately for Big Labor, 79% of union workers and voters want Congress to focus on other issues like jobs and healthcare.
“Workers aren’t fooled by Big Labor’s attempt to increase their power at the expense of worker privacy,” said Worth.
More information about the poll and CDW’s efforts to protect secret ballots and worker privacy can be found at www.MyPrivateBallot.com.
Methodology: This poll of 1,000 likely general election voters in the United States was conducted from January 7th – 11th, 2009 by McLaughlin & Associates. An oversample of 193 union households was conducted, which brings the combined total of union households to 400. All interviews were conducted via telephone by professional interviewers. Interview selection was random within predetermined election units – in this case, the fifty states. These units were structured to correlate with actual voter turnout in a general election. This poll of 1,000 likely general election voters has an accuracy of +/- 3.1% at a 95% confidence interval. The 400 sample of union households has an accuracy of +/- 4.9% at a 95% confidence interval.
About the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace is made up of more than 500 associations and organizations from every state across the nation that have joined together to protect a worker’s right to a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. For more information and a listing of our membership, please visit www.MyPrivateBallot.com.
COMMENTS
FYI, there is some significant debate over this poll; see more on that here. And it's worth noting that the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace isn't what it sounds like.

Seth Zlotocha (Mon Jan 26 16:10:23 2009)
The poll question looks pretty accurate to me. The "choice" allowed by the bill seems to be one of the Hobsen's variety, though would have to read the complete bill to understand it. Would like to better understand the arbitration requirement as well, which current union members may not know much about. Now, as long as we're talking names Seth, What does "Employee Free choice Act" sound like to you?
On another subject... how are your classes going? Are you enjoying what you're doing?

Jo (Mon Jan 26 16:24:15)
The "debate" Seth mentions is nipped in the bud here by Jennifer Rubin:
This is nonsense out of the AFL-CIO playbook on the Employee Free Choice Act: “In effect, EFCA switches the choice to the workers; they can choose whether to hold a card check election or whether they want a regular secret ballot election. Effectively, EFCA would increase the frequency of card check elections, which are easier for unions to win.” First, the language of the bill states that if more than 50% of the workers sign cards the union shall be recognized(“the [NLRB] shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual organization as the labor representative.”). No “option” for a secret ballot vote. Second, the union not the “employees” make the election if the union gets between 30% and 50% of the authorization cards signed. If Big Labor has to resort to this sort of misinformation, you can imagine what its polling must show when people actually understand the bill.

Jo (Tue jan 27 05:34:57)
My point wasn't to take a side on the debate, just to point out that there was a debate, and one that's at least legitimate enough to call into question how much the CDW poll truly reflects union member opinion. If the AFL-CIO number is 75% support, and the CDW number is 74% opposed, something isn't quite right.
I ultimately agree with Marc Ambinder's take: The AFL-CIO's definition of the legislation leaves out some details -- namely, that workers participating in card check events won't be able to keep their choices a secret.
The CDW definition includes loaded language implying that their co-workers and bosses could intimidate them into signing the card. Privacy is the killer for unions; when Americans are read descriptions of the bill that make it plain that their votes won't be kept secret (that's the point of card check, in a way), their support plummets.
Again, I don't know which poll is closer to the reality of how union members feel, but I have a pretty strong feeling that neither is the reality (and it very well may be different for different union types...white collar vs. blue collar).
As for the names, it's true legislation often carries a misleading title, and it's worth pointing that out, too. I certainly wouldn't expect you (or anyone else) to post about ERCA w/o explaining what it is and who's behind it; all I'm saying is the same should be true for the CDW.
All is going well for me, thanks for asking. I'm not in classes at the moment. I did take one last spring, and it went well, but it was a little much with full-time work, a 4 year old, and a wife in the middle of a MSN program. I may take another next fall, we'll see. Hope all is well with you, too.

Seth Zlotocha (Tue Jan 27 18:49:02 2009)
I have the exact wording of the CDW poll questions Seth. Can't find on the web, so will e-mail .pdf to you. You be the judge. Very straight forward, accurate questions. Yes, AFL-CIO polling, as it's been told to me, does indeed "leave out details." Union members are asked if they support trying to make organizing easier. Yes, they do. But when asked if that organizing should be made easier at the expense of secret ballots, the answer is no, I can't support that. I don't know that I want to wade through the language. Again, it's my understanding that a secret ballot would be very difficult given the language of the bill.
Also, rank and file union members don't like arbitration - some government entity doing the negotiating for them. That in itself will kill the bill when union members learn of it.

Jo (Tue Jan 27 19:17:49 2009)
Here's the CDW question (in my first link above): "There is a bill in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act which would effectively replace a federally supervised secret ballot election with a process that requires a majority of workers to simply sign a card to authorize organizing a union and the workers' signatures would be made public to their employer, the union organizers and their co-workers. Do you support or oppose Congress passing this legislation?"
It's not inaccurate, but, as Ambinder points out, it's definitely loaded. Take the use of "federally supervised" to describe the current process vs. "simply sign a card" to describe the card check process. And the part about signatures being public suggests they will be sent to employers, union organizers, and co-workers as a matter of legislatively-mandated procedure, which isn't the case.
After all, there is already a card check procedure that precedes the secret election, so employees are already signing cards that are accessible to their employers, union organizers, and their co-workers as part of union drives; the question isn't card check vs. no card check, it's whether that initial card check should be enough to result in the formation of a union or whether the second step of an election should always be retained.
Again, I'm not saying the AFL poll is any more accurate, I'm just saying it's a stretch to think the CDW poll truly reflects union member opinion on card check.

Seth Zlotocha (Tue Jan 27 19:37:40 2009)
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