The National Labor Relations Board just destroyed thousands of ballots.
I wish this was unexpected, but with the out-of-control Obama Labor Board, it's exactly as we've feared and predicted.
As you know, the NLRB is bulldozing its way through workers' rights and the Board's own precedents to hand Big Labor as many new special privileges as it can before the 2012 elections.
-- Plotting to eliminate thousands of Boeing jobs in Right to Work South Carolina.
-- Proposing a scheme to ambush workers with union certification elections.
-- Forcing its way into every workplace in the country with biased notices that serve as a road map to coerced unionization.
The Obama Labor Board is on a war path against worker freedom. And the hits just keep on coming.Last week, three former union lawyers on the National Labor Relations Board voted to overturn the Board's pivotal 2007 ruling in Dana Corp.
The Foundation-won Dana case was one of the most important victories for workers' rights at the Board in recent years, securing for employees the right to challenge union card check organizing campaigns with a secret ballot vote.
Workers often sign so-called "union authorization cards" due to union organizers' intimidating tactics or even outright lies about what signing a card means.
In fact, many workers across the country -- like the Dana Corp. workers from Albion, Indiana in this video -- have used Dana elections to kick out unwanted unions, demonstrating the unreliability of card check instant organizing.
But now thousands of workers who cast secret ballots in similar elections won't even have their votes counted. The NLRB is actually destroying the votes!
Big Labor's Card Check Forced Unionism Bill stalled in Congress due to widespread opposition from the American public to eliminating the secret ballot -- and incumbents who supported card check faced the wrath of the voters in the 2010 midterm elections.
So instead the union bosses turned to the NLRB -- where Barack Obama conveniently installed former union lawyers.
Most notably, Obama installed former SEIU and AFL-CIO union lawyer Craig Becker as a recess appointee to the Board.
Becker infamously called the secret ballot "profoundly undemocratic" and in his time on the Board has repeatedly demonstrated his blatant pro-forced unionism bias and disregard for ethics.
In fact, Becker refused to recuse himself from the decision to overturn Dana even though he co-authored a brief for the AFL-CIO in the original case!
Overturning Dana on its own would be bad enough, but what makes it even more troubling is how it goes hand-in-hand with the Board's other recent power grabs.
Take the proposed ambush elections rules, for instance.
If the rules are implemented, union operatives will be able to ambush workers with quick-snap elections just days after union organizers turn in "union authorization cards" from a mere 30 percent of the workforce.
And to make it even easier for union operatives to steamroll their way into workplaces, the Board would also force companies to hand over to union organizers the name, address, phone number, email address, and shift schedule of each employee, exposing workers to "home visits" and other intimidation tactics.
But if union bosses get wind of the possibility that they could lose the election by secret ballot, the new rules would allow them to withdraw their petition but save the personal contact information of each worker for a full-scale card check campaign at a later date.
By overturning Dana, the Obama Labor Board just eliminated the one protection remaining for workers against abusive card check campaigns.
In fact, the NLRB is making card check an even more powerful weapon against workers and job providers alike.
That's why the National Right to Work Foundation will continue fighting back.
We've already blasted the decision to overturn Dana in the press, and Foundation attorneys are working on new legal challenges to card check forced unionism.
Your generous tax-deductible contributions make our legal aid and media outreach programs possible.
Card check isn't dead yet. And the Obama Labor Board's all-out assault on individual workers isn't over either.
That's why we must remain vigilant.
Sincerely,
Mark Mix
P.S. The Foundation relies completely on voluntary contributions from its supporters to provide free legal aid.
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