Card Check Bill: Unions Are Using Harassment & Intimidation To Recruit!

A bill is "snaking" its way through the Congressional "pit" aimed at changing the way employees create unions and join them...if they would like...supposedly. This piece of "bad legislation" is not even sanctioned yet and already workers are facing Union members using harassment tactics to recruit "fresh meat". Well, I hate to say I told you so, but...I TOLD YOU SO! Why any worker would want to agree to anything tied to bullying tactics is unfathomable and this should be a tip-off to Congress that it is a bad idea. Let's break it down. The bill is called the Employee Free Choice Act (AKA the "Card Check" bill) and it is suppose to create an easier process for workers who wish to join or form a Union. Employees can obtain blank cards (from existing unions) for their co-workers to sign if they express any interest in membership. When a threshold of 30 percent have signed, companies can then hold a secret-ballot election to see if the climate is right, in that workplace, for unionization. Doesn't that sound so sweet and simple? If it is, then why are individuals at an Indiana Plant so upset? Could it be that these are tough economic times and plant workers, who are already worrying about their jobs, are having to add the Union's "fear factor" to their stress level? Workers in an Albion, Indiana plant (Dana Corporation Auto Parts) are angry because the card check process has all but ripped the 50-person plant apart after a henchman from the United Auto Workers forced them to a vote via secret-ballot. It all started with a union organizer coming to the small plant two years ago and asking them to join because the company had signed a neutrality agreement...with the union. Larry Guest (plant worker) said that the meeting was less than successful. "He was using real rough language -- cursing. It didn't go over well with the women at all. There were a couple that just got up and left," he told FOX News. The UAW representative would approach them in every nook and cranny of the plant...even following them to their cars! "He was just like an itch that you couldn't scratch. He just wouldn't go away," said Rita Murphy (plant worker). It got worse. The Union representative followed Jamie Oliver home! CAN ANYONE SAY RESTRAINING ORDER? "We're here in a little town and we're a plant of 50 some people -- you know the last thing you need is to have the union coming to your door saying I want your name," Oliver said.The union's relentless approach, she said, eventually wore her down. I wish I could say there was a happy ending...but it is more like a bittersweet one. Although the UAW collected the signatures they needed, plant employees appealed to the National Labor Relations Board and it ruled that the employees could hold a secret election. After the close election results were posted...there was no more union! However, the forced issue has turned friends into enemies, at the Hoosier plant, and caused some to be threatened by those who wanted the union."I have my reasons for the way that I voted. That's nobody else's business, and had it not been for the card check, nobody would know if I was for or against," Beverly Musolf said. Congress should take a hard look at the current activity taking place on the fringes of the CARD CHECK vote. If Congressional leaders vote "for" this bill they are voting for the precursor to a government gestapo!

Note: Congressional legislation shouldn't create a delegation of thugs.

May God bless America...and may America deserve it!

Zanne Booker 3-30-09