At The Daily Caller, the anonymous Anchorman -- "a well-known news anchor from a top-10, big-city news station" -- brings up an interesting point about his colleagues' political coverage. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union "represents" most television network news correspondents and anchors.  That "representation" includes political advocacy, including as the anchorman points out, lobbying efforts on the health care / forced unionization legislation currently pending in Congress.

If that bothers you, you should also know that your “objective” network correspondent, roaming the halls of Congress right now trying to ferret out the “truth,” probably pays hundreds, or even thousands of dollars in union dues to AFTRA every year. He or she, in all likelihood, depends on AFTRA for one of those “Cadillac” health insurance plans that is the subject of so much debate. He or she also will receive a nice little AFTRA pension come retirement time, and perhaps most importantly, will depend on AFTRA to help defend, protect or advise them in any serious conflicts, demotions, firings, or legal issues with management at their TV station or network.

Might this conflict of interest also impact the media's coverage of the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill?  We'd be surprised if it didn't affect some reporters' objectivity  In fact, here's the kind of analysis of that bill you won't see on the nightly news.

In a surprising display of honesty about their true agenda, union bosses and Far Left activists participated on a panel at the Netroots Nation conference called "The Secret Plan to Destroy the American Right."

What's their "secret plan" to expand the power and size of government and raise taxes on hard-working Americans? It's passage of the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, more accurately called the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill.

Union bosses apparently see the billions of forced dues dollars that the bill would funnel into pushing Organized Labor's radical political agenda as THE major selling point for the bill.

Unfortunately for the panelists and the Big Labor hierarchy, but fortunately for the American people, there's nothing secret about the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill and how it would obliterate the rights of American workers.  Right here on Freedom@Work, we've kept concerned citizens informed about this union boss power grab:

• Expert legal analysis explaining how the Card Check Bill would destroy the secret ballot in union certification elections
• Workers in Albion, Indiana tell Fox News about the real life intimidation they felt during a card check organizing drive by the militant United Auto Workers (UAW) union
• A former union president testifies before Congress about the dangers of card check organizing
• Worker explains to Senate labor committee how union goons lied to him to get him to sign a card
• National Right to Work president Mark Mix discusses card check and union intimidation on a nationally syndicated radio program
• At the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference, Mix demonstrates why union bosses love card check
• Far Left icon George McGovern writes in the Wall Street Journal about another disturbing feature of the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill: mandatory binding arbitration

Check out our full archive on card check.

Here at Freedom@Work, we've covered the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (more accurately called the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill). The job-killing bill would effectively eliminate the secret ballot in union certification elections and open up workers to intimidation and dirty tricks by union organizers in coercive card check organizing drives.  Moreover, the bill's mandatory binding arbitration provision would allow federal bureaucrats to impose terms and conditions of employment on workers and employers -- which even Far Left icon George McGovern opposes.

Shikha Dalmia, senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, wrote in the Wall Street Journal this weekend -- echoing what National Right to Work has been documenting for years -- that mandatory binding arbitration has been occurring in government employment in numerous forced unionism states with atrocious results.

In 1969, the Wolverine State embraced a form of compulsory arbitration nearly identical to the one proposed in EFCA to resolve disputes with its police and firefighters. Years later, Detroit mayor Coleman Young -- who had authored the original law as state senator -- rued what he had done. "We now know that compulsory arbitration has been a failure," he lamented to the National Journal in 1981. "Slowly, inexorably, compulsory interest arbitration has destroyed sensible fiscal management and has caused more damage to the public service than the strikes it was designed to prevent."

...

A 2006 task force convened by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who supports compulsory arbitration, found that local government costs in arbitration states are 3%-5% higher compared to nonarbitration states. "While small in percentage terms, the impact in dollar terms is huge," the task force concluded. Given that local governments in Michigan alone spend over $23 billion annually, this works out to over a billion in extra spending for them.

Michigan's experience is hardly unique. Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis also tried to limit public-sector compulsory arbitration during his first term. In 1977, Mr. Dukakis argued that compulsory arbitration "has removed legitimate management prerogatives in the area of staff assignments, (and) transfers from the control of municipal officials at a time when they are under severe pressure to improve their management and make savings." Mr. Dukakis failed to stop compulsory arbitration, but two years later Massachusetts voters approved a ballot initiative that effectively scrapped it.

...

Businesses are not the only losers in compulsory arbitration. Currently, any contract negotiated by union officials has to be ratified through a vote of rank-and-file members. Under compulsory arbitration, workers do not get this vote. In other words, EFCA will take away the right of workers to vote to form a union, and then binding arbitration will take away their right to vote on a contract.

The only clear winners under this law would be the union bosses, who will obtain new powers without any new accountability. If Michigan's experience suggests anything, it's that rank-and-file workers, businesses, and the American economy will suffer. Sen. Lincoln and her colleagues should bear this in mind before they make their final decisions.

[Emphasis added]

Read the whole thing here.

Click here to watch an urgent video message from Senator Jim DeMint, Steve Forbes, and National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. 

In the latest of a litany of Big Labor political paybacks, President Barack Obama nominated union lawyer George H. Cohen to Director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). 

According to the Peggy Browning Fund’s biography of Cohen, "he joined the National Labor Relations Board in 1960 as an Attorney Advisor for Board Member [Gerald] Brown where he helped shape the progressive, union [boss]... friendly agenda of the 'Kennedy Board'…  In 1966, George left the Board to begin his 40 year stint as a union-side labor lawyer."

Cohen’s past efforts on behalf of union chiefs clearly indicates that he brings years of forced unionism bias to what is a very coveted position for Big Labor.

Under the mandatory binding arbitration provision in the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill, the FMCS bureaucrats would take over employer/union boss contract negotiations 90 days after a card check forced organizing campaign.  The forced arbitration provision that is triggered at 120 days not only snatches the power of contract negotiations away from the people it actually affects; but it also, as the Wall Street Journal notes, emboldens union bosses "to run out the 120-day clock and let an arbitrator impose a contract that is bound to include much of what unions demand."  The federally-imposed contract would be binding for two years.

If Big Labor's Card Check Forced Unionism Bill passes, the Cohen-led FMCS would become a defacto rubber stamp for union boss coercion, doing Big Labor's dirty work during negotiations and empowering them to browbeat employers into forcing more workers into forced-dues-paying union membership.

Obama's nomination of yet another union hired gun, this time for the vital post of FMCS Director, is just another example in a long list of union stooges who clearly do not have the best interests of independent-minded workers at heart.

In this new special National Right to Work Committee video report, Dana Corporation employees in Albion, Indiana, share their stories of harassment and intimidation by UAW union operatives during a militant card check organizing drive. The workers discuss how union organizers specifically targeted and ramped up their coercive tactics against female employees.

As one worker explains in the video, “People in the UAW will call you their sister or their brother. I never treated any of my brothers and sisters that way.”

UAW union organizers were able to collect a majority of signatures after weeks of pressure on the employees. Thanks to a precedent won by attorneys with the National Right to Work Foundation, the employees eventually forced an election and defeated the UAW union hierarchy.

Workers will not have this secret ballot option if the union-label Congress repays its billion-dollar campaign debt to Big Labor by passing the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill.

The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.

The Foundation must rely on the voluntary support of individual Americans who believe in our cause and wish to advance our strategic litigation program. To make a fully tax-deductible donation in whatever amount, please click here.

To regular readers of Freedom@Work, it's certainly no secret that Big Labor's union bosses, in the face of greater difficulty in winning workers over voluntarily, are always working to come up with new schemes to force workers into full-dues-paying union membership.

Of course, one major way union bosses get around this inconvenient truth is to use workers' forced dues for politics, essentially buying political power to steer our already intrusive Federal government toward coercive policy to force more workers into union ranks.

On Tuesday, Big Labor's upper echelon announced the formation of a committee dedicated to an alliance of our nation's 12 largest unions.   The unification committee is to be led by Big Labor front group "American Rights at Work" President David Bonior.  Their goal?  You guessed it:  wielding the power of the Federal government to coerce more workers into forced unionism.

Union bosses are prone to freely and constantly shift their associations with each other.  But every day they hypocritically infringe on workers' own freedom of association.

Recently, former West Wing actors Martin Sheen and Bradley Whitford lobbied in favor of the woefully misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (better known as the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill) at a press conference with so-called American Rights at Work, the same militant lobbying group which Labor Secretary Hilda Solis played a formal role while a member of Congress.

CNS News asked the actors why they support a bill which would effectively eliminate the secret ballot in workplace unionization drives.  Whitford responded (emphasis mine),

The notion that the labor movement is out to abolish their own members’ rights to a secret ballot just doesn’t pass the laugh test. And people who are propagating the rumor that it does, their sudden compassion for worker’s rights is just not believable.

There are so many problems with that one, incredibly misinformed sentence.  As I explained last week, the card check bill makes the secret ballot a virtual dead letter.  But Whitford's comment shows he is willing to believe whatever union bosses tell him.  Union bosses routinely work to undermine employee freedom -- it's nothing new, except to hardcore union partisans.

But Whitford also made another error.  In a sense, he's right that the labor movement is not "out to abolish their own members' rights to a secret ballot" -- but only because the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill doesn't have anything to do with unions' "own members."  The bill would eliminate the secret ballot for prospective members as well as independent-minded workers who do not want the union's "representation."  Union bosses want to destroy the secret ballot in unionization campaigns so that they can intimidate and trick employees into signing cards.

Fortunately, Sheen and Whitford just play politicians on TV.

In the debate over the grossly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (more accurately called the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill), union bosses have gone out of their way to convince the media that the bill does not eliminate the secret ballot in workplace unionization drives.

But legal experts here at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation have examined the bill and the state of the current law and come to the following conclusion:

Under the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill, the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that refer to the secret ballot election would be rendered a dead letter, even though they are not technically stricken from federal law.

Big Labor spin artists can claim all they want that the workers can still "choose" to have a secret ballot election, but there simply is no way by which workers can force union bosses to file for a secret ballot election -- and it is union bosses, not workers, who are in possession of the cards.  Reporters who repeat this union boss talking point owe their readers a correction.

The simple fact is that professional union organizers hold tremendous power in a unionization drive. If this forced unionism power grab becomes law, workers will only be privy to the information union bosses disseminate.

The text of the bill clearly states that once union bosses collect a simple majority of signed cards, "the [National Labor Relations] Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative" or monopoly bargaining agent of all employees in the unit.

As former NLRB member John Raudabaugh told U.S. Senators last year,

Were the union to come up short of 50+ percent signed cards, would it really proceed to file a petition for an election? No, the secret ballot would not remain an option under the EFCA proposal.

If union bosses can't get a majority through card check -- a process during which many workers sign cards not due to actual support for the union but due to lies and intimidation by union organizers -- they obviously won't be able to win through the more fair and private secret ballot process.  As James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation and Paul Kersey of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy note,

An election would occur only when union organizers submit cards signed by a minority of workers; but union organizers do not call for an election without signed cards from a majority of workers. They know that unions usually lose these elections. The AFL-CIO's internal studies show that unions win only 8 percent of elections that are called after less than 40 percent of workers have signed cards.

Less obvious, however, is that union bosses don't think they can win secret ballot elections even if they collect a simple majority of cards.  Sherk and Kersey explain (emphasis mine):

Consequently union guidelines call for organizers to collect cards from 60 to 70 percent of workers in a company before going to the polls. Unions openly state that they do not go to an election without a supermajority of cards:

1. International Brotherhood of Teamsters: "The general policy of the Airline Division is to file for a representation election only after receiving a 65 percent card return from the eligible voters in a group."

2. New England Nurses Association: "Have 70-75 percent of members sign cards; if unable to reach this goal, review plan."

3. Service Employees International Union (SEIU): "[T]he rule of thumb in the SEIU is that it's unwise to file for an election when fewer than 70 percent of the workforce has signed interest cards."

The secret ballot is much better than the alternative in workplace unionization drives because of what monopoly unionization actually means in practice under the law. Once a union is in place, it is virtually impossible to remove it. More importantly, independent-minded workers who would prefer to represent themselves, or even workers who would prefer a different union's representation, are forced to accept the certified union as their monopoly bargaining agent. And unless those workers live in one of 22 states with Right to Work protections, they will be forced to pay dues to an unwanted union.

In other words, an individual worker's desire to belong to a particular union -- or indeed the collective desire of a simple majority of workers in a unit -- is different from an individual's desire to belong to any other private organization. The decision forces one's coworkers -- current and future -- to also accept the "representation" of this particular union. A secret ballot can't overcome this fundamental violation of individual rights, but at the very least, the secret ballot provides workers with a degree of protection against intimidation. And that protection will be lost under EFCA.

National Right to Work President Mark Mix sits down with nationally syndicated talk radio host Janet Parshall to discuss card check, union intimidation, and the larger problems of compulsory unionism. Click here to listen or use the embeddable player below:

You can also listen to the Foundation's podcast via iTunes or manually subscribe to the feed. 

Yesterday, Fox News followed up on its earlier story about a real-life case demonstrating how dangerous Card Check Instant Organizing drives are – and a clear example of the kind of intimidation and harassment that will occur at substantially more American workplaces if the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill passes.

In the new video report, seen below, Dana Corp. employees in Albion, Indiana, tell Fox News how United Auto Workers union organizers created an ugly and coercive environment. Many workers signed cards just to stop the constant pressure of union organizers harassing them at work, in the parking lot, and even at home.

Fortunately, an important precedent established by staff attorneys at the National Right to Work Foundation allowed these very employees to obtain, and ultimately win, a decertification secret ballot election.

But millions of American workers won't be so lucky if the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill becomes law since passage of the bill would wipe out the ability of employees to challenge a card check and force a secret ballot.

For more Right to Work video reports, check out our YouTube channel.

The National Right to Work Foundation provides free legal aid to employees so they can fight back against union coercion and abuse.

The Foundation must rely on the voluntary support of individual Americans who believe in our cause and wish to advance our strategic litigation program. To make a fully tax-deductible donation in whatever amount, please click here.