By eliminating secret-ballot union elections, the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or card check, would fundamentally violate the freedom of workers.
If enacted, the new law would force employers to recognize a union once a majority of employees at a workplace sign cards in favor of unionization.In other words, rather than allow workers to make such a consequential decision in private just as all citizens get to do in every political election the card check system would enable union organizers to know exactly who is on their side and who needs to be influenced or coerced.
Unlike my opponents in this U.S. Senate race, I wholeheartedly oppose EFCA.In addition to the card check provision that would eliminate secret ballot elections, I oppose its other equally sinister provision that would grant government regulators the power to settle unionization contract disputes if management and union bosses cant come to an agreement within only 120 days following a unions certification.This arbitrary timeline would empower government at the expense of private enterprise and workers rights by allowing for the imposition of a unionization contract without a final say by the company or its employees.
The majority of Americans who oppose union power grabs like card check are commonly vilified by the powerful political wings of the big unions as anti-worker. This is nonsense, and most Americans, including union workers, see right through it.
With companies like International Paper near Pensacola, we see how unions and management can work as partners toward mutually beneficial goals. However, if the Employee Free Choice Act were to become law, it would needlessly pit unions against companies, hurt the collaborative approach at companies, and would harm the very workers its proponents claim to support.
Unions play an important role in America.As he wrote in his seminal book, The Conscience of a Conservative, former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz. wrote that unionism, kept within its proper and natural bounds, accomplishes a positive good for the country.Unions can be an instrument for achieving economic justice of the working man. Most important of all, they are an expression of freedom.Trade unions properly conceived, are an expression of mans inalienable right to associate with other men for the achievement of legitimate objectives.
However, the role unions play should not come at the expense of the individual liberties of the American worker. Unionization under duress not only threatens fundamental and inalienable rights, it also endangers Americas long-term economic recovery by further burdening job creators.
Marco Rubio, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.
