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This Speakout has not been edited

By Mark M. Latimer, President/CEO Rocky Mountain Chapter, Assoc. Builders & Contractors

First the Democrats in Colorado, backed by organized labor, tried to dismantle the Labor Peace Act with HB 1072. Would you believe that the Democrats in Congress are now actually pushing a bill called H.R. 800 that would take away a worker's right to a private ballot election when deciding whether or not to join a union? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to hold a vote this Wednesday on perhaps the most egregious element of the Democrat's agenda. Under this Orwellian named "Employee Free Choice Act", a company would no longer have the right to demand a secret-ballot election to certify a union, thus stripping 140 million American workers of the right to decide in private whether to organize.

A February survey of 1,000 likely voters by McLaughlin Associates found that 79% of respondents oppose the bill, with only 14% in favor. This isn't a partisan issue; even Democrats opposed the idea, 78% to 16%.

So you have to ask yourself why Sen. Reid is taking the risk of putting this unpopular bill on the floor, since President Bush has vowed to veto the legislation.

Simply put, the card check bill is the top priority of union lobbyists. Union membership is down and they are desperately looking for a way to increase their membership. In the 1950s, 35% of private-sector workers belonged to unions; only about 7% do so today.

Union officials of course blame others for their decline. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has been quoted as saying "In the past few decades, labor law has been so twisted by corporations and their union-busting hired guns that it is now virtually impossible to form a union against an employer's wishes." Despite his rhetoric, unions currently win over half of the elections called over union representation.

Card-check procedures for making a union the sole bargaining representative for employees are already part of labor law. If 30% of workers sign a card asking for a union, an employer is obligated to certify the union or call an election. What the card-check bill would do is force certification without a secret-ballot election as soon as a majority of workers at a company have signed pro-union cards. Can you imagine what tactics union organizers will use to get the cards signed if there is no required secret election? Furthermore, the bill contains an unprecedented requirement imposing contract terms on private, unionized employers through a process of compulsory, binding arbitration. This provision departs from seven decades of precedent and law under the National Labor Relations Act. Imposing contract terms through compulsory arbitration is an unconstitutional infringement on the right of private employers to freedom of contract.

Compulsory arbitration is also a threat to a free market and enterprise system, through the government determination of wages.

The secret ballot has served our nation well for hundreds of years. Now Democrats, and their big labor allies, want to replace it with a system where you have to vote in public and everyone, including your boss and the union organizers, would know how you voted. I don't think anyone's boss, or a union organizer, should be able to know how each person votes. That's a recipe for massive intimidation and reprisal.

Shame on the Democrats for caving in to big labor interest at the expense of a worker's right to privacy.

READER COMMENTS

Come on Mr. Latimer. You had your turn to speakout. Now is your turn to answer questions.

Come out from under your desk you coward!

Mr. Latimer,
What I find egregious is the secret money that is spent on lobbying,political contributions to rotten candidates,so called " expenses of union reps, etc...
When is the union going to make public to the members where their hard earned money is going?I think the members should get an accounting of where their dues where spent each quarter.
I think spending dues like drunken sailors and keeping it secret ,is egregious.
The union has afforded my family a good living with decent benefits for over 25 years.With membership shrinking I think it's important to come out in the open ,at least to the members and show us where the money is going and how much.

You want a secret ballot,we want an open accounting of where my husbands hard earned dues are going.

The era of backroom deals and buying politicians should be over. It didn't work for the unions with the Kennedy's in the 60's and it doesn't work now.

Come out of the shadows and be honest with the members who have supported unions with their dues and have been proud to be union members. You owe them that.

If the unions representatives that have control of the money would come clean and let the members know where and how much their dues are being spent and where,would you be afraid of members quitting?

My husband is vested in 2 unions and has 25 years of service so he would not quit.If you want to get more members and make the union stronger you need to stop spending members dues without no accounting of where it is going and giving the union members a " secret ballot vote "on whether their money should be spent on politicians and " expenses" for union reps.

You want secret ballots in work place votes?Well we want the union to stop the secret ways they spend dues.

How can you cry foul after pouring money into candidates coffers thinking they are going to do something for the unions. Are union Presidents and representatives still that stupid to fall for that trick everytime there is an election coming up?

If you keep falling for the oldest campaign trick in the book then I think you and all the representatives need to resign ,so we can get in some smart people to represent the members.

You want the unions to be a strong again stop handing out dues to politicians like candy. They are prostitutes. They promise you something and you end up with something else.

In case you haven't got what I'm trying to say , I will make it a little more clear.

POLITICIANS ARE THE BIGGEST LIARS ON THE PLANET!!!!! YOU ARE STUPID IF YOU BELIEVE ANYTHING THEY TELL YOU THEY WILL DO FOR THE UNION!!! IF YOU HAVEN"T LEARNED THIS BY NOW , YOU NEED TO GET ANOTHER JOB AND STOP THROWING UNION MEMBERS HARD EARNED MONEY TO LIARS!!!!

The union needs to publish an accounting of how much of the members dues are going for this bullcrap!

Shame on the union for giving union members money to Democrats at the expense of union members!

I was a member of a union that had a union shop. They actually, at first represented the members and kept the dues reasonable and the union officers worked hard for the members. A few years later the dues were still reasonable and the union leaders worked hard but there was a difference. Our health insurance was the best available with very high premiums. The officers got theirs paid for by the members and most of themembers couldn't afford it. When we asked for a cheaper plan they refused. The union also made n unwritten list of trouble makers who disliked being forced into a union and they were denied representation or given lip service.
The members got upset and eventually got rid of the union but it took three votes because the union got the authority in charge of union elections to set aside the first two.
This bill is just another naked power grab for greedy unions because people are getting wise to the utter uselessness of unions. If I want to spend money on an election I will choose the candidate I want to support. As a union member the union decides who to support and any member who tries to exercise their right to opt out of political contributions will face problems.
Our union had a real hate for some drivers who were very verbal about the greedy, useless union. The union went to the company and one person who was friendly to the union, cab driver, who had six preventable accidents in six months was given a minor penalty and allowed to return to work. Another driver who was involved in a multi car accident in the mountains where the police report clearly stated that the accidents were caused by the failure of the county to deal with the ice on the road or inform the state patrol. (The county told the state patrol that the road was sanded but it wasn't.) The driver took that report, pictures of the accident and six witness reports that said the driver hit no one else until another vehicle hit the cab. The union told the driver to forget about representation but the driver insisted so the rep went in the room and said the driver had been an unsafe driver and should not be retained. The driver then produced a tape recorder and informed the union rep that if he was fired the entire matter would go to the news outlets, a consumer reporter and the district attorney. Union rep went back in the room and the driver kept his job. Tje union rep glared at the driver and whispered, "Next time." By the next time the union was gone along with the pension fund.
Unions served a purpose before OSHA, civil rights legislation and modern job circumstances. WE don't need them and they are frantic to replace the warm bodies who shovel in the money.
If this crud pases the Senate let the house members know that union reps only have one vote. Angry workers who were railroaded into a union have long memories and they vote.

Hooey.

Corporations have arrogated the legal opportunity to purchase the best service that government can provide.

This includes (but is certainly not limited to) reliable court interpretation of labor law in ways that are inimicable to the interests of workers.

Unions, and bone fide religious organizations, are the only cultural institutions standing between working citizens of the United States and unbridled facism at the behest of unfettered corporate greed.

If the UBC ain't doing its work on behalf of your husband, you might suggest that he consider a union that will.

It's still a free country.

Carpenter's Wife, you said it all, Thank you. Union members wonder why there is declining membership in the private sector and it directly correlates to the conduct and behavior of it's leadership.
It is no secret that Union Leaders are as dirty and crooked as the Politicians they lobby. I know, I once worked in a union lobbyists office in Washington D.C. If most union members knew some of the things they do with their hard earned membership dollars, the vast majority of union members would walk away from the union.

As a wife of a Union Carpenter who has been in the Union and paid dues for over 25 years,I have this to say to Mr.Latimer.

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXPECT!!!

Unions have been pouring my husbands hard earned dues into Democratic coffers for years.Millions of dollars that could have went to better benefits.

All the notices we recieve in the mail telling us who to vote for. Of course they are all Democrats.

When is the Union going to wise up and realize you can't buy your way into politics.
Around election time the politicians run to the unions all over this country sucking hard earned dues from members who actually work for a living with their hands out and big promises.When the elections are over they don't know you.

To the Union Representatives, I say this.

GET OFF YOUR LAZY ASSES AND GET OUT AND DO YOUR JOBS! IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO GET NEW MEMBERS!THAT IS WHAT YOU GET PAID TO DO!

Stop sitting at your desk having power lunches with politicians on my husband and other union members dues.

Instead of cutting benefits stop giving union dues away to politicians who promise you whatever you want then don't do crap for the unions.

Unions have been around for a long time. My husband is proud to be a union member.We are fortunate to have benefits.

Haven't Unions learned anything from the giving money and support to politicians. They are con artists.Didn't the Unions learn anything about politicians,going way back to the Kennedy Family?

Stop using union dues to pay politicians for nothing and let the union members decide who they will vote for.

Get the Union Reps of their rear ends and work for a living.

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