LA Times: SEIU Wants It Both Ways On Workers’ Rights

Johnathan Lott / June 30, 2009

Critics of the Employee Free Choice Act have called it a misnomer – a law that would, in fact, restrict workers’ free choice. EFCA would effectively eliminate secret ballots in union elections and replace them with “card check,” in which workers publicly sign petitions to join unions. Analysts warn that depriving workers of the privacy of the voting booth would lead to widespread intimidation and that card-check does not reflect workers’ true desires.

Leading unions, such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), dismiss these fears and argue that publicly-signed petitions are the best way for workers to express their views about belonging to a union.

Or, at least, that is what the SEIU said before tens of thousands of its dues-paying members signed petitions, asking to be represented by a different union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The Los Angeles Times reports that: (more…)