http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi- ... 3512.story
I expect better from the progressive party of positive thinking and focus on the future.At the end of the 19th Century, unsuspecting workers were "shanghaied"—a practice originated in that Chinese city—to work on British ships, which desperately needed the labor. All manner of tricks were used to hoodwink the poor souls into service at sea. According to one legend, press gangs, or "crimps," would put a coin—"the king's shilling"—in a man's drink. If the mark drank the ale only to see the coin at the bottom of an empty glass, it was too late and he was a member of the Royal Navy.
The proposed Employee Free Choice Act, colloquially known as "card check," might be better named "The Democrats' Shilling Act." It would radically revise the National Labor Relations Act, primarily by diluting the practice of requiring workers to vote for unionization via an election with a secret ballot and by changing the rules by which a government official can force labor rules on employers—making the choice to unionize less free. Basically, under card check, labor can unionize a company's employees if 50 percent of workers sign a card saying they want to unionize. The cards can be signed in the presence of others, including union organizers.
Indeed, the press gangs prefer it that way.
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Organized labor is not dead in America, nor should it be. But it's simply not as important as it once was because the government has an alphabet soup of agencies dedicated to protecting the rights of workers. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Family and Medical Leave Act make the need for unions far less acute.
This is good news for workers, especially liberals, but it's bad news for unions because they need grievances to grow (and the Democrats need unions). In a recent Rasmussen poll, only 9 percent of non-union workers who responded wanted to belong to a union. That's quite a referendum.
The response from labor and the Democrats? If they won't join, shanghai them.
