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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Free Choice

Via Taylor Marsh, this is great stuff from John Edwards on the Employee Free Choice Act, and it shows the bias from the national media on this issue.

MATTHEWS: Are you for the card check?
J. EDWARDS: I am for the card check.

MATTHEWS: You think that's fair to be able to have four people from a labor union, big people come up to a little person and say you're going to vote for the union, aren't you? You're going to vote for the union, aren't you?

Today the law says you have to have a big meeting and everybody has to be there to vote for the union. You're saying--the card check says all you need is 51 percent of the people to be individually talked into signing a card and you think that's OK.

J. EDWARDS: I think it's democracy. I do.

MATTHEWS: But not having an election?

J. EDWARDS: It's democracy because what happens is the way the system has been loaded up is the employers bring in these union busters who are exerts at busting the union. They sometimes violate the law. The way the enforcement works is almost nonexistent. Three or four years down the road there's a slap on the wrist.

All I want is I want to see a level playing field. If employees want to join a union, democratically they ought to be able to do that. If they don't, they can choose not to.

MATTHEWS: OK, the average person is working at the mill, they're working on the job and they're on the machine, and four guys come up to them, big guys, they go up and say sign this card, we want to start a union here. And that little person goes I'd rather not. You'd rather not? Isn't that kind of intimidating for a person?

J. EDWARDS: But why would you assume it's the fellow employees who are going to intimidate...

MATTHEWS: Because it's the outside labor organizations.

J. EDWARDS: ... them instead of the guy who's writing their check?

MATTHEWS: Because if they international union guys come in. I'm asking you a question. Do you think that shows independence our your part, or the fact that you're in bed with labor.

J. EDWARDS: I think it shows that I am a complete believer in workers having a voice and being able to collectively bargain. I don't think we have a problem in America with big, multinational corporations being able to have their voice heard. Their voice is heard loud and clear.


Media shills like Chris Matthews automatically assume that the big bad union guys are the ones who would use scare tactics. It's been documented that the EMPLOYERS use these tactics over and over again, and game the secret ballot system by delaying the vote until they can intimidate all of the workers in the facility. In the final analysis, the ones writing and signing the checks are more likely to have leverage in such intimidation.

There's so much to be done that this card-check legislation might get lost in the shuffle. It shouldn't because it's vital to furthering worker rights.

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