Proving his mettle once more, Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, last month vetoed a resolution (SF 543) passed by the Minnesota State Legislature that called upon Congress to enact the “Employee Free Choice Act” (HR 800) that would remove workers’ rights to secret ballot elections when a vote of whether to organize a union or not comes up.
Instead, as ALG News has previously reported, union organizers would be able to use a card check system to get workers to sign up. Once a majority of the workers have signed the cards, the union would be organized without any debate.
The bill passed the State House 84-10 and the Senate 41-23.
As reported by Workday Minnesota:
“Pawlenty’s May 8 veto message… characterized the Employee Free Choice Act as ‘highly controversial.’
“Pawlenty’s message read: “The Employee Free Choice Act is fundamentally flawed and I will not play a role in urging its passage.”
“The Employee Free Choice Act establishes union recognition when a majority of workers at a worksite sign union authorization cards. That’s an option currently available to workers and employers. Under current law, however, the employer can reject the cards and insist on an election governed by the National Labor Relations Board.”
The Minnesota vote, as meaningless as it was since it was a non-binding resolution, is still a sell-out by the majority Democrat legislature to Big Labor. Unions prefer the coercion that would be endemic with a card-check system because then they could organize unions more “efficiently.”
As in every legislature, the number of members who will stand on principle is always bit less than the number of Republican members who sit in that body.
This resolution calling for Congress to abolish secret ballot union-organization elections was passed in the State House with the support of eight Republicans. Just for everyone’s edification, here are those sniveling RINO’s who backed the union bosses when they should have voted to protect a worker’s right to a secret ballot:
ALG CTA: ALG News calls upon journalists nationwide to urge their audiences to contact these Quislings and let them know that workers’ rights to secret ballots when unions are organized protect them from intimidation and coercion by union organizers and employers – a secret ballot is true worker empowerment. The vote by the legislature in favor of HR 800 was irresponsible, and Governor Pawlenty was correct to state that the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act”—which is better labeled the “Employee Intimidation Act”—is fundamentally flawed. He is rapidly becoming one of ALG News’ favorite governors in the nation for standing up for limited government principles.
