Preserve the secret ballot in union certification elections

Preserve the secret ballot in union certification elections

EDITOR:

I am the president of Ellwood Engineered Castings in Hubbard. I am proud of EEC’s productive nonunion employees, who produce large castings for industrial equipment and steel ingot producers located all around the world. We have world-class people making world-class parts for world-class customers.

I am writing about the so-called Employee “Free Choice” Act, a piece of federal legislation now being proposed by labor unions in Congress. The proposed bill would:

- Take away employees’ right to a “secret ballot election” as to whether they are represented or not by a labor union.

- Give unions the right to be certified as the exclusive bargaining representatives of a company on the basis of the union’s collecting authorization cards signed by a claimed majority of company employees. (Who will authenticate signatures?)

- Empower a federal mediator to impose a labor contract on company management and employees in the event a new union and the company cannot agree on the terms of a first labor contract.

It is simply not right to take away employees’ right to a secret ballot. If we elect our city, state and federal officials by secret ballot, why is it suddenly not a good method to allow an employee the right and security of a secret ballot while voting for or against union representation?

Union organizers could make any type of promise about what they can win just to get an employee to sign an authorization card. Employees could be harassed or even threatened by union organizers to sign cards without having the ability to change their mind during the security of a secret ballot.

Federal arbitrators will determine pay and benefit levels in companies about which they know nothing. How can someone from Washington run a business here in eastern Ohio?

Why are the unions pushing this bill so strongly? Because they cannot consistently win a high percentage of secret ballot elections when good employees hear both sides on the issues and can vote in the security of a secret ballot.

I fear and predict that passage of this bill will result in massive disinvestment in new plants and equipment across the United States.

Why is it that the only significant new jobs added in our community in the last 25 years come from nonunion companies? Why would we want to shut down or drive away these employers?

I would ask my fellow citizens in eastern Ohio to contact our U.S. senators and representatives to oppose this poorly conceived law that could lead to coercion of employees and the loss of their right to the security of a secret ballot.

DAN RHOADS

Hubbard

Look for ‘made in USA’ tag

EDITOR:

The powers that be, with the malignant help of the American citizenry, have gotten us into another war. This war is not of the military but of the economy.

Excluding the members of the military, we were never asked to sacrifice for the two wars in the Middle East, but we will be asked to do so in this one. How? Well, any item that is to be purchased, unless the purchase is absolutely necessary, should have a “made in USA” tag attached to it.

I know, you say, “I can’t find anything made here anymore.” That’s where the sacrifice comes into play. If one would just take the item chosen to the counter and before paying the sales clerk, check the tag. If it is imported, tell the clerk, “Oh! It’s not made in the U.S.A. I think I’ll pass on this.”

This war can be won if we all stick together. Otherwise, unemployment will continue to rise and federal, state, and local tax revenues along with our Social Security income will continue to fall.

DANIEL F. McCALLISTER

Cheswick, Pa.