Freedom, Growth and Organized Labor

Conn Carroll / January 21, 2009

Last week both the AFL-CIO and the Center for American Progress claimed that seven out of the top ten countries on our 2009 Index of Economic Freedom do not require secret ballot elections for union organizing elections. Of course, being strong supporters of card check, CAP and big labor don’t call it that. They both called it “majority sign up as an option for workers trying to form a union” (See, it’s just a harmless sign up, like joining a kickball league!).

CAP and Big Labor both go on to argue that the high ranking for these card check countries shows “the hollowness of [Heritage] attacks on the Employee Free Choice Act.” The only thing hollow hear are CAPs facts and their analysis:

• The Index of Economic Freedom covers ten specific factors, of which labor is only one. And card check is only one small aspect of labor law which can be rendered next to harmless when part of a very different labor law regime.

• So for example, Canada handles card-check on the provincial level and 62% of Canadians still have the secret ballot to protect them. The United Kingdom has card check but unions do not have exclusive bargaining power. New Zealand has card check but unions do not have exclusive representation powers. These are huge differences which have a tremendous impact on how much of a dead weight unions are on economic growth

• Speaking of economic growth, academic papers that make cross country comparisons find that unions reduce both overall employment and economic output.