Should Congress Pass a Card-Check Law?
The last issue we want to take a look at in this chapter is the possibility of a card-check law. The current laws covering union organizing generally require a secret ballot election process that is supervised by the NLRB. Unions and other labor organizations have been pushing for a revision to the law that would allow union representation on completion of a "card check." What this means is that if the union organizers can get more than 50% of the employees to sign cards saying that they want to be represented by the union, there would be no requirement for an election. The problem that employers have with this process is the issue of peer pressure. If indi-vidual employees who want a union could pressure others to sign cards and as a result get signatures from more than 50% of employees, the union would be authorized to represent the workers in the organization. However, there's a significant chance that some of those individuals who signed cards because of peer pressure might vote against the union if a secret ballot election were held. There are even concerns that holdouts within the workforce might be harassed or intimidated by others if they refused to sign an authorization card. Employers that oppose the card-check law feel that the only way to get a fair vote on the question of unionization is by allowing all those involved in the election to vote yes or no in a private setting. The last version of the legislation that went through Congress would also boost pen-alties for retaliation against workers who support unions, and it would require binding arbitration within three months if management and the union can't agree on a contract. Businesses are also concerned about the binding arbitration component of the legislation. If the contract agreement is not reached within 90 days of the union being ratified as a rep-resentative of the employees, NLRB arbitrators could step in and force a contract on both parties. Business owners have legitimate concerns that the arbitrators will not be well versed