While the majority’s decision in yesterday’s Dana/Metaldyne National Labor Relations Board case was a meaningful step forward [1] for employees who have been forced into a union through the abusive “card check” process, the two-member dissent by Democrat NLRB members Liebman and Walsh should terrify anyone who thinks that the choice to unionize should be one solely made by employees.

In their dissent they write [2]: “An employer has little incentive to recognize a union voluntarily if it knows that its decision is subject to second-guessing through a decertification petition.”

That single sentence reveals at least three biases against employee free choice held by Liebman, Walsh and the union officials who support them:

• First, it implies that employers should have an “incentive” to push employees into unions through card check.

• Second, it implies that employers (cooperating with union organizers) should be able to make a “decision” on when and how employees join a union.

• And third, it assumes that once an employer and union decide that workers should be unionized, the very employees whose rights are at stake should not even be able to weigh in on that “decision” through a secret-ballot decertification election. (Liebman and Walsh call this “second-guessing” but since many employees sign cards because they are misled [3] or pressured [4] by union organizers, really this is often the first chance employees have to freely express their view on unionization.)