The Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC) called on Senate Democrats to replace today’s secret ballot vote over Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s (D-CT) committee chairman status with the public open vote method they would like to implement in union organizing elections.

Democrats are slated to cast a secret ballot vote today to decide whether Lieberman will maintain the chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. That stands in stark contrast with their support for the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) which will effectively eliminate the secret ballot vote in union organizing elections. EFCA is expected to be one of the first items on the legislative agenda in 2009.

One of the benefits offered by a secret ballot vote is that Democratic Senators who support their colleague won’t have to fear retribution from left wing activists and bloggers who strongly dislike Lieberman. Similarly colleagues who oppose Lieberman won’t have to fear retribution from the Senator if he maintains his Chairmanship. That same protection from retribution will be denied American workers who will be forced to make a decision on the union in public.

“If cowardly Senate Democrats are worried about what Daily Kos diarists will say about their Lieberman vote, imagine how they’d deal with a couple of Teamsters coming to their door with a union authorization card,” said J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Employee Freedom Action Committee. “If these democratic Senators are sincere in their support for the undemocratic Employee Free Choice Act, Lieberman’s fate should be decided by card-check, just like the fate of millions of American employees would be.”