NEW JERSEY CONGRESSMAN PROVIDES PRIME EXAMPLE OF PRO-UNION INTERFERENCE WITH EMPLOYEE CHOICE

According to proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, unions and their supporters rarely commit fraud, coercion or misrepresentation in their efforts to organize employees – only employers do so. Anyone with any common sense – let alone anyone who has actually been through a union organizing effort – knows that’s absurd, no matter how many times the pro-E.F.C.A. gang repeats it.

Well, now we can thank one of the bill’s chief advocates, House Committee on Education and Labor member, Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) for providing a prime example of the very type of pro-union interference the secret-ballot is designed to prevent. Thanks to EmployerReport.com for pointing out this poorly written report at NBC-40’s website:

ATLANTIC CITY- Representative Robert Andrews lead a bipartisan 'card check' authorization for Trump Plaza Casino Dealers.

The results of the "card check" showed certification of majority status for forming a Union at Trump Plaza.

This comes on the heels of last weeks similar election at Caesar's Casino, when more than 80 percent voted in favor of forming their own union as part of the u-a-w union.

"It means people are going to speak for themselves instead of being told what to do.

It's a very American right to bind together with their neighbors and speak up for yourself. And theirs some very courageous dealers at trump that are doing that and I support them."

State senator sonny McCullough, assemblyman Jim Whelan and Reverend Reginald Floyd joined Representative Andrews to sign the "card count" to confirm verification that the dealers want to join the U-A-W Union.

The actual vote will be held this Saturday.

How good of the reporter to indicate that the “actual vote” had not yet occurred. Hopefully, the employees whose futures are at stake realize that the Congressman is not authorized to “certify” anything – other than his obvious penchant for self-serving publicity stunts at the expense of individual constituents’ rights.

The National Labor Relations Board is the federal agency authorized to certify a union as an exclusive bargaining representative for a unit of employees – not the Congressman and his union-funded friends. That certification will come if a majority of the employees who vote in a secret-ballot election this weekend vote for the union. One hopes that those employees are not intimidated into casting a vote for the union because now they fear retaliation by their possible exclusive union representative if they do not support it. By suggesting that the union’s win is a foregone conclusion – as an elected official of the federal government, no less, and in pseudo-official language – the Congressman has perhaps helped to frighten potential voters into taking a position in the “actual vote” that they might not have taken prior to his PR stunt.

Thankfully, the Congressman has not yet succeeded in his efforts to take the protection of the secret-ballot away from these people as well. So this weekend they still have a fighting chance to express their true free choice in private, without additional fear of union retaliation.