We forgive anyone for thinking that labor unions favors democratic organizing principles. Yet an AP article which hit the wire this afternoon is case in point of the fundamental misunderstanding many have about the modern labor movement.

The Associated Press is reporting that the president of the North Carolina Council of the NAACP and the UFCW union held a press conference today to call for a “plant election” at a Smithfield meat packing plant. The AP writes:

The North Carolina NAACP joined union members [from the UFCW] today in calling for a union election at the huge Smithfield Foods slaughterhouse in Bladen County.

In fact, the UFCW refuses to allow workers at the plant to hold an election. Instead, UFCW labor bosses favor the anti-democratic “card check” which is fraught with intimidation and corruption.

The only people calling for a “plant election” is Smithfield, which has said numerous times that it welcomes the opportunity to give its employees an opportunity to case a private, secret ballot vote on whether they’d like to join union.