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Dems Plot Spin Campaign to Deny Secret Ballots for American Workers
Boehner: "This Is, I Think, an Affront to the American People, and We Will Do Everything We Can to Stop It"

Democrats in Congress and some of the narrow special interest groups that helped put them in power are reportedly huddling on Capitol Hill today, plotting a spin campaign that they hope will ultimately lead to the end of secret ballot union elections in the workplace. At issue is legislation to replace the decades-old workplace secret ballot election with a “card check” process that union organizers and bosses could use to pressure workers to form a union. Big Labor allies of the Democratic Majority have indicated that the card check bill is their top legislative priority for the new Congress – a not-so-veiled payback for Big Labor’s substantial financial and political support of Democratic candidates.

Today’s White House Bulletin has the details of the Democrats’ secret spin session:

“Congressional Democrats, ready to make the pro-labor Employee Free Choice Act a top agenda item next month, are spending pre-Christmas days working up an effective message campaign to beat back GOP claims it would end secret union balloting. ‘It’s our Number One agenda item,’ a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide told the Bulletin…”

“As an example of that effort, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a messaging meeting today with key congressional aides… A Senate aide said other messaging sessions on the Hill are planned.”

Supporters of ending the secret ballots have their work cut out for them – and likely many more spin sessions will be required during the weeks and months ahead. After all, ending secret ballots and allowing union bosses to use card checks notoriously leave workers vulnerable to coercion, pressure, and outright intimidation and threats – from either the management or the union side of the election, and many Americans realize it. That’s why nearly 80 percent of Americans opposed this bill when Democrats brought the undemocratic bill to the floor last year.

With Democrats controlling both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue – and with President-elect Obama promising that he would sign the legislation if it is sent to his desk – Big Labor is making a strong push to bring this bill to the floor of the House and Senate soon after the start of the new Congress. Considering that President-elect Obama and each and every one of his Democratic colleagues were elected by secret ballot, should they really deny the time-honored right to privacy in the workplace to millions of workers across the country? House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) doesn’t think so – and recently explained to viewers of Fox News Sunday that Republicans will do everything they can to protect this right, saying, “This is, I think, an affront to the American people, and we will do everything we can to stop it.”

Boehner has urged President-elect Obama not to press forward with “card check” legislation and other special-interest initiatives, warning it could poison the waters and make bipartisan cooperation more difficult on critical issues such as middle-class tax relief and energy reform. As the House GOP Leader wrote in a recent op-ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer:

“There are areas in which I believe significant potential exists for cooperation among Republicans and Democrats. . .At the same time, there is a danger that the potential for cooperation could be poisoned by divisive actions by Democrats - such as depriving workers of their right to secret ballots for unionizing, or censoring conservative dissent through reinstatement of the so-called ‘fairness doctrine,’ or reviving the destructive ban on domestic oil and gas drilling, or nullifying state laws that protect the sanctity of unborn human life - that would be viewed as attempts by the president-elect's party to consolidate power by rewarding its political benefactors, rather than focusing on the priorities of a clear majority of Americans.”

The bottom line: Workers and their families across the country are hurting during this time of economic crisis, and Democratic leaders are plotting to strip one of their most basic rights to benefit powerful special-interests who helped put them in power. No amount of strategizing and spin campaigns can change that.