Push afoot to keep union secret ballot
BY SETH BLOMELEY
Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2008
A national group announced Tuesday that it's including Arkansas in a push to guarantee that workers have the right to a secret ballot when voting on whether to unionize.
Save Our Secret Ballot of Las Vegas was organized as a reaction to legislation pending in Congress.
The legislation would allow workers to sign a card supporting unionization of a workplace instead of requiring a secret-ballot election, as is current law. Both sides agree that the card-sign option would make it easier for unions. Business interests say union leaders would pressure workers to sign the cards. Unions say the current system allows businesses to delay union votes and intimidate workers who want to join a union.
Wal-Mart and many other businesses oppose the proposed act. Union leaders have said it is the top priority in the next Congress. President-elect Barack Obama was one of the bill's 47 Senate co-sponsors.
Save Our Secret Ballot's Arkansas coordinators are veteran political consultant Bill Vickery and state Sen. Gilbert Baker, RConway.
The aim is to gather enough signatures to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the Arkansas ballot in 2010 that would pre-empt the federal legislation that guarantees a secret ballot on union votes in the state.
"Even though we're a ways out from 2010, we'd like to demonstrate to both of the [Arkansas congressional] senators that there is significant support in Arkansas for keeping the sacred issue of the secret ballot in place," Vickery said.
Neither U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., nor U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., have said how they will vote on the legislation in Congress.
Alan Hughes, director of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, said he sees a link to labor's support for Baker's re-election foe this year, Democrat Joe White, in state Senate District 30 as being behind the move.
"We opposed Gilbert in his election," Hughes said. "I'm sure he's coming after us."
Baker said it had nothing to do with White's unsuccessful challenge against him.
"Hey, I've got a great relationship with Alan Hughes," Baker said. "We've worked together on the Workforce Investment Board. This transcends labor. We're talking about the right to a secret ballot."
Hughes said the legislation in Congress makes nonsecret votes for unionizing an option but doesn't mandate it. He said the legislation would cut down delays by management on unionization votes.
Vickery said the Arkansas movement will continue even if the federal legislation fails. He said supporters haven't yet started raising money for the effort.
It will take 77,468 signatures from registered Arkansas voters for a proposed constitutional amendment to get on the ballot in Arkansas for 2010.
Baker said Arkansas was chosen as a state in which to push the measure because of the relatively low threshold for getting it on the ballot and the independent-mindedness of its voters.
Arkansas has about 62,000 union members, about 5.4 percent of the state's work force, according to the AFL-CIO.
Vickery called having a secret ballot a "sacred right" worth fighting for in the constitution regardless of the relatively small union membership in Arkansas.
Audrey Mullen, a spokesman for the national group, declined to say who was funding the effort.
"The people funding this effort are individuals and small businesses," she said. "Because they have reason to fear union retaliation, they don't want to raise their profiles by giving interviews."
According to the group's Web site, the proposed constitutional language will read: "The right of individuals to vote by secret ballot is fundamental. Where state or federal law requires elections for public office or public votes on initiatives or referenda, or designations or authorizations of employee representation, the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot shall be guaranteed."
Attorney Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute wrote the language. The Save Our Secret Ballot group described him as a constitutional scholar.
The group maintains that a state constitutional amendment can supersede a federal law because states can expand - but not lessen - rights provided by the federal government.
The Goldwater Institute, based in Phoenix, describes itself as believing that "unrestrained government has proved to be a chief instrument in history for thwarting individual liberty."