Deroy Murdock: Big Labor Ignores Democracy

Deroy Murdock hits another grand slam for workers with his latest column, pointing out that:

While union bosses disdain secret ballots at America’s workplaces, they typically require them for internal elections.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ 2006 constitution invokes secret ballots 29 times. “All voting shall be by secret ballot,” it mandates for picking top officers including General President, Hoffa’s title.

In choosing convention delegates, the Service Employees International Union’s 2008 constitution says, “arrangements may be made at the option of the Local Executive Board for nomination and secret ballot election.”

“The election of Local Union Executive Officers shall take place by secret ballot during May and June,” states the United Auto Workers’ 2006 constitution.

Big Labor’s hostility to secret ballots violates planetary benchmarks. The Geneva-based, U.N.-affiliated International Labor Office sets global labor standards. Its 2006 guidebook, “Freedom of Association,” states: “The existence of legislation which is designed to promote democratic principles within trade union organizations is acceptable. Secret and direct voting is certainly a democratic process and cannot be criticized as such.”
Regarding strike votes, ILO also praises conditions “with the workers enjoying the safeguard of a secret ballot.”

While American labor pushes workers’ rights below U.N.-guidelines — as F. Vincent Vernuccio recently noted in the Washington Times — Mexico’s Supreme Court in 2008 unanimously endorsed secret ballots in union-representation elections. Mexico’s National Association of Democratic Lawyers calls secret ballots “an essential element for respecting workers’ rights and for the democratization of unions and the country itself.”