Comments on: Fields: Unions Wrong To Fight Against Secret Elections http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/ Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:55:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Sam Fields http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-2003 Sam Fields Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:56:30 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-2003 I can also imagine the employer holding meetings threatening employees who signed the cards. This is why you have to have secret ballots I can also imagine the employer holding meetings threatening employees who signed the cards.

This is why you have to have secret ballots

]]> By: unionthuggery http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-1989 unionthuggery Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:13:35 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-1989 Sam, you are right on point. If I understand card-check, a worker's yes or no vote is common knowledge. Can you imagine the late night knock on the front door by pro union people wanting to "discuss" one's anticipated support? Card check is an imvitation to thuggery. Sam, what is the position of the pro card check lobby? Is the current secret ballot system broken? If it isn't why fix it? Sam, you are right on point.
If I understand card-check, a worker’s yes or no vote is common knowledge. Can you imagine the late night knock on the front door by pro union people wanting to “discuss” one’s anticipated support?
Card check is an imvitation to thuggery.
Sam, what is the position of the pro card check lobby?
Is the current secret ballot system broken? If it isn’t why fix it?

]]> By: Sam Fields http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-1987 Sam Fields Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:17:41 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-1987 I don't support right to work which I believe most Floridians do support. It is law and not the constitution that requires unions to protect non members. I believe most of us think that is unfair. I don’t support right to work which I believe most Floridians do support.

It is law and not the constitution that requires unions to protect non members. I believe most of us think that is unfair.

]]> By: jimmy hoffa http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-1986 jimmy hoffa Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:22:38 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-1986 We represented everybody in the Teamsters. They paid their dues or else. Having to represent non-dues payers is a problem with the anti-worker politics of Florida, as you wrote. The anti-worker sentiment is so strong that they are embodied in the state Constitution: "SECTION 6. Right to work.--The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization. The right of employees, by and through a labor organization, to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Public employees shall not have the right to strike." Sounds down right American, until you realize that it is designed to weaken any efforts towards collective bargaining. Why do you think Florida has low wages and so many employers offer no benefits? We represented everybody in the Teamsters. They paid their dues or else.
Having to represent non-dues payers is a problem with the anti-worker politics of Florida, as you wrote.
The anti-worker sentiment is so strong that they are embodied in the state Constitution:
“SECTION 6. Right to work.–The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization. The right of employees, by and through a labor organization, to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Public employees shall not have the right to strike.”
Sounds down right American, until you realize that it is designed to weaken any efforts towards collective bargaining.
Why do you think Florida has low wages and so many employers offer no benefits?

]]> By: Sam Fields http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-1985 Sam Fields Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:09:13 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-1985 Dear Jimmy Your problem is not with secret ballots but with the NLRB. Wouldn’t an employer also be able to challenge the check off system in court by alleging phony signatures, intimidation, etc? If you produced 500 cards I guarantee I could challenge a number of them and tie you up in court. It would a piece of cake to get affidavits from numerous card signers claiming that union organizers threatened them into signing. If secret ballots are bad in union elections then they are bad in all elections because all of the corruption that exists. If I could get 51% of the electors to sign my petition for city counsel should we just skip the election? The recent DEC election is not a secret ballot. Who knows how the voters really felt?. Maybe fear caused them to support the person they believed would be the winner and not the person they wanted. Only jurors and government officials fulfilling their official capacity should be required to openly vote. Sam P.S. Since they are knocking down the Meadowlands where are going to move to? P.P.S. Why are you not as pissed off about laws that require the union to represent non members? Dear Jimmy
Your problem is not with secret ballots but with the NLRB. Wouldn’t an employer also be able to challenge the check off system in court by alleging phony signatures, intimidation, etc?

If you produced 500 cards I guarantee I could challenge a number of them and tie you up in court. It would a piece of cake to get affidavits from numerous card signers claiming that union organizers threatened them into signing.

If secret ballots are bad in union elections then they are bad in all elections because all of the corruption that exists.

If I could get 51% of the electors to sign my petition for city counsel should we just skip the election?

The recent DEC election is not a secret ballot. Who knows how the voters really felt?. Maybe fear caused them to support the person they believed would be the winner and not the person they wanted.

Only jurors and government officials fulfilling their official capacity should be required to openly vote.

Sam

P.S. Since they are knocking down the Meadowlands where are going to move to?

P.P.S. Why are you not as pissed off about laws that require the union to represent non members?

]]> By: jimmy hoffa http://www.browardbeat.com/fields-unions-wrong-to-fight-against-secret-elections/comment-page-1/#comment-1982 jimmy hoffa Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:42:07 +0000 http://www.browardbeat.com/?p=306#comment-1982 Check Offs are necessary because employers intimidate workers in the time it takes to hold an election. They have been known to fire union organizers, tie the elections up in court and threaten anyone suspected of having union sympathies. The only way to fight this one sided system we have now is through the card check off. Here is the kind of justice workers get with a "fair secret election" at the SmithfieldFoods slaughterhouse in North Carolina, which took more than 10 years to organize: "In 1994 and 1997, Smithfield workers voted in two union representation elections, both lost by the UFCW. In 1997 the head of plant security, Danny Priest, told local sheriffs he expected violence on election day. Police in riot gear then lined the walkway into the slaughterhouse, and workers had to file past them to cast their ballots. At the end of the vote count union activist Ray Shawn was beaten up inside the plant. Three years later Priest, while still head of plant security, became an auxiliary deputy sheriff, and plant security officers were given the power to arrest and detain people at work. The company maintained a holding area for detainees in a trailer on the property, which workers called the company jail." I would agree with Mr. Fields if these were fair elections. They are not!!!! Check Offs are necessary because employers intimidate workers in the time it takes to hold an election. They have been known to fire union organizers, tie the elections up in court and threaten anyone suspected of having union sympathies. The only way to fight this one sided system we have now is through the card check off.

Here is the kind of justice workers get with a “fair secret election” at the SmithfieldFoods slaughterhouse in North Carolina, which took more than 10 years to organize:
“In 1994 and 1997, Smithfield workers voted in two union representation elections, both lost by the UFCW. In 1997 the head of plant security, Danny Priest, told local sheriffs he expected violence on election day. Police in riot gear then lined the walkway into the slaughterhouse, and workers had to file past them to cast their ballots. At the end of the vote count union activist Ray Shawn was beaten up inside the plant. Three years later Priest, while still head of plant security, became an auxiliary deputy sheriff, and plant security officers were given the power to arrest and detain people at work. The company maintained a holding area for detainees in a trailer on the property, which workers called the company jail.”

I would agree with Mr. Fields if these were fair elections. They are not!!!!

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