Recently, Jeff Merkley was approached on the campaign trail and asked about the Employee Free Choice Act and the elimination of the private ballot for workers in deciding whether to unionize.
In true Jeff Merkley characteristic fashion, he tried to deflect the question and make it about whether workers should be allowed to unionize. At one point in the video below, he accuses the questioner of having a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the issue.
It appears that Mr. Merkley is the one who has a fundamental misunderstanding as he fails to recognize that it is not the workers who will have a choice under the grossly mis-named Employee Free Choice Act, but rather the union organizers and big labor bosses who will decide whether to use a private ballot or card check.
Union bosses and their organizers prefer card check because it means they know exactly how people are going to vote. For anyone who doesn’t agree with joining the union, they are more open to threats, intimidation and undue pressure by other co-workers, union organizers and even their supervisors. Workers can even be visited in their homes by union organizers so that the organizers can “persuade” workers that a union is the right thing to do in their workplace.
Jeff Merkley dodged the question of eliminating the private ballot because he knows that his position is indefensible. Once it became clear that the questioner wouldn’t settle for his answer (which had nothing to do with the question), Mr. Merkley decided to extract himself from the situation and get in his car to leave.
Oregonians are left to wonder: Why won’t Jeff Merkley answer the question? Why does Jeff Merkley believe that it’s okay to disenfranchise workers in America and Oregon by taking away their right to a private ballot in the workplace when deciding to unionize? Finally, if Mr. Merkley believes that taking away the private ballot for workers is okay; does he also believe that the right to a private ballot should be taken away from Oregonians in other elections as well?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpiOtoPtSYs[/youtube]
