One has to wonder why the card check proposal is so important to Democrats. Less than 20% of the workforce is unionized and union membership has dramatically fallen over the years. Businesses have relocated to right to work states and the most successful and growing businesses are typically non union.

The largest steel company in the country, Nucor, is non union, in an industry that used to boast strong union participation. The strongly unionized auto industry is on financial life support.

The card check bill would eliminate the secret ballot allowing the unions to intimidate their potential members into signing cards to allow a union without a free election and without hearing counter arguments from their employers. The secret ballot was in place because the unions used to accuse the employers of harassment; now they want the freedom to intimidate.

I have dealt with unions and they did not hesitate to lie and intimidate potential members to get into their pocket books.

Yet the elimination of free elections was not the worst part of this bill. Before the two parties were on their own to negotiate a contract after the union won an election. The union could call a strike if they wanted to force the employer to comply.

Under this bill the two parties would have 60 days to negotiate a contract. If they did not reach an agreement the employer would have been subject to binding arbitration from a federal mediator. This means an independent business man would have had a federal bureaucrat dictate wages and benefits.

Most small employers barely earn their cost of capital in a good year, much less in the deep recession we are in. But if you knew anything about independent business people you would know that few would have stood for this kind of interference in their business; many would simply shut down. I have had several conversations with business owners with this response when they heard what this bill contained.

This bill is the biggest job killer to yet come from the new administration. It was destructive to even propose this fiasco; just the possibility that we live in a country that would even consider such intrusion will make a prospective new business stop and reconsider.

To bring this job killer to a vote during the worst business climate in decades with unemployment rapidly growing shows how out of touch this administration and Congress is. Arlen Specter should have been ashamed to have ever considered this Orwellian bill, yet he should be praised for finally withdrawing support.

Anyone who thinks that forcing unionization down our throats is conducive to an economic recovery should be voted out of office, with a secret ballot.

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