As the euphoria surrounding Barack Obama's election continues to build, those skeptics among us pry a little closer into his agenda to discern what he actually plans to do, pageantry be damned: A well-dressed disaster is still a disaster, after all.
American unions have been taking it on the chin for nearly thirty years now. Membership has plunged to 8.2 % of the total workforce from its zenith in the 1950's. Twenty-two states have enacted right-to-work laws that have eroded union strength. President Reagan, himself the former president of the Screen Actors Guild, fired every striking air traffic controller and dissolved the PATCO union during the strike of 1981, delivering a body blow to aggressive union tactics, and of course, every attempt to organize the employees of Wal-Mart has failed. So it comes as no surprise that the AFL-CIO and its sister organizations would spend $360 million to elect Democrat candidates this cycle and what they expect in return for their money is nothing less than a complete overhaul of labor regulations in this country, courtesy of the United States Government.
One hand washes the other. Labor unions are a core constituency of the Democrat Party. If they are weak, the party is weak. Next January, the Democrats will have strong majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate and a majority of governorships and state legislatures, and with this power, the most radical pro-union Democrat ever to assume the Presidency intends to change the game permanently in their favor by eliminating the most basic of constitutional freedoms: The secret ballot. You see, when union representatives campaign for organizing the workforce of a given company, an employee knows that they can promise to support the union when approached in public but cast their ballot in perfect anonymity in the actual election. Although the results reflect the employee's true opinion, the scenario frustrates union designs, wastes their resources and represents another defeat, especially where Wal-Mart is concerned. Thus the Employee Fair Choice Act - a misnomer if there ever was one - seeks to replace the secret ballot with a "check card" system in which an employee voting for organization would have to check "Yes" or "No" on a card in public and under the gaze of union thugs, a system designed to intimidate reluctant workers and guarantee union victory.
What about union complaints about employer interference and manipulation? Is a change to something besides the secret ballot justified? Not objectively, no. Figures from the National Labor Relations Board indicate that unions win an average of 61% of elections and that 95% of all complaints involving employer misconduct are resolved within six months. So why opt for such drastic measures? Why eliminate a fundamental right of our democracy? Because the unions and the Democrats realize that without such action, their slide toward total irrelevance will be complete. Arresting their decline can only be accomplished by attacking individual choice. It is, of course, patently undemocratic and hypocritical (given that Barack Obama and his Party were the beneficiaries of the secret ballot twelve days ago), but this is about power and the American Left will stop at nothing to get it. Taken together with their threats to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine to throttle conservative talk radio, passage of the Employee Fair Choice Act would be the Democrats' most aggressive effort ever to choke the opposition and establish a permanent socialist state. And after that, what's next? What other facets of democracy do they find objectionable? The Big Three American automakers are slipping toward bankruptcy, in large part because the high cost of union labor makes their products less attractive than their Japanese counterparts. Detroit invested heavily in big SUV's, pickup trucks and minivans when gasoline cost half as much as it does today and are furiously laying off worker and closing plants to stop the bleeding. They've asked for, and Congress wil likely approve, a $50 billion bailout package. What if, as part of that bailout, Congress mandates "target sales" for those gas guzzlers to protect union jobs? What if a customer at a car dealership is informed that the cute little economical hybrid they wanted is "unavailable" but they can have a Ford Expedition instead? What if the same scheme were applied to cell phones and refrigerators and furniture and everything else?
If this sounds too crazy to be believed, consider what we're discussing now and think again. Someone who doesn't like democracy will try to get rid of it, which applies to Barack Obama and his gang of socialist true believers, and my guess is that this is not the kind of change that his millions of hypnotized supporters voted for.
Source: http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm
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