thetruthaboutefca.com | The Truth About The Employee Free Choice Act & Card Check

Yesterday, SEIU attorney Craig Becker went before a Senate hearing aimed at investigating his radical anti-employer, anti-employee-rights views. (Here’s his prepared statement; informed observers may chuckle at his description of the hallowed National Labor Relations Board since his employer spent years attacking it and continues to skirt it religiously.)

The concerns of many are captured by the Wall Street Journal:

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.) expressed concern that Becker’s writings “have indicated a belief that the NLRB has the power to make some of the dramatic changes in the card-check bill.” The so-called card-check legislation, supported by Obama and Democrats in Congress, would allow unions to bypass secret-ballot elections and instead organize in workplaces by collecting signed cards from workers.

Sen. John McCain has been leading the fight against letting Becker scoot into the NLRB seat without a hearing on his troubling views. McCain asked Becker about whether he would recuse himself from all cases before the board involving SEIU. The recap from The Hill:

Becker replied, “I will abide, Senator McCain, with the terms of that pledge scrupulously, and as I indicated, if any other matters come up outside of the scope of that pledge where any party might think that I might not be impartial, I will consider the matter…. and if necessary recuse myself from those cases.”

McCain told Becker, “That’s not good enough.”

No, Sen. McCain is correct, it’s not good enough. And here’s the real problem: Becker and SEIU envision a world in which the Board doesn’t really participate in the elections process because they don’t want an elections process at all — they simply want card check, with all its attendant threats to workplace democracy (and jobs). Becker acknowledged during one answer that SEIU is rarely a participant in a case before the Board, and the reason is the union avoids it like the plague.

Becker’s boosters are hoping to characterize the fight as “unusual” and want to focus on his pledge to recuse himself from a couple unimportant cases. The real threat is that he has shown a disregard for employer speech in critical areas and would most likely act from within the NLRB toward that end. Those who care about workplace democracy, a healthy free enterprise system, and jobs need to continue to oppose Becker based on his stated beliefs.

Tags: Craig Becker, National Labor Relations Board, NLRB, SEIU