Alabama Unions Vs. Privacy: Organized Labor’s War On The Secret Ballot

By Matt Patterson and Crissy Brown

Tomorrow, Alabamans will have the opportunity to enshrine the secret ballot into their state constitution. A proposal before voters called Amendment 7 would “provide that the right of individuals to vote for public office, public votes on referenda, or voters on employee representation by secret ballot is fundamental.”

Union leaders are not happy. As Al Henley, president of the Alabama AFL-CIO says the measure, “is strictly to prevent unions [from] organizing.”

It doesn’t make it any harder for unions to organize. What it does is ensure union officials don’t know whether any individual worker prefers to unionize or not. Unions prefer so-called “card check” for union elections, whereby new unions can be formed with signatures from only a majority of a company’s employees on a card which union officials kindly bring right to your door.

It’s not hard to see this facilitates manipulation. Former UNITE-HERE union organizer Jen Jason testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions about how she and other union leaders went to workers’ homes to pressure them to accept union representation:....To Read More.....