Joe Biden Endorses Unionization Via ‘Fraud’!

State Law Backed by President Gives Big Labor ‘License to Cheat’

Roughly 15 years ago, then-Vice President Joe Biden personally twisted arms as the Obama Administration strove to secure the 60 Senate votes it needed to break an inevitable pro-Right to Work filibuster and pass into law S.560, sponsored by Democrats Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). 

This special-interest legislation would have cemented Big Labor’s power to corral workers into unions solely by collecting so-called “authorization” cards workers typically sign while union organizers are watching them. 

But even though union-label Democrat politicians controlled a seemingly filibuster-proof, 60-40 Senate majority for six months during President Obama’s first term in office, S.560 never became law. 

Biden Labor Policy Favors ‘Cards-Only’ Unionization Over Secret-Ballot Votes 

Effectively prohibiting employers from granting employees the opportunity to vote in a secret-ballot election before being forced to accept a union as their monopoly-bargaining agent on matters concerning their pay, benefits, and work rules was just too radical, insisted several key, “swing state” senators. 

But mandatory unionization via card collection alone has never been too radical for now-President Joe Biden. 

Brushing aside the wisdom of labor law experts like Gary Chaison of Clark University, who in 2017 noted that many workers “sign union cards to get union organizers off their backs so they can eventually vote against the union in an election,” the Biden Administration has dramatically shifted federal labor policy. 

For the first time in history, it now favors cards-only unionization over secret votes. 

And in September 2022, Mr. Biden sent out a clear indication of his anti-worker vision for the future when he publicly pressured fellow Democrat and California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign A.B.2183, a cards-only unionization scheme targeting farmworkers. 

“A.B.2183 is so radical that, according to a labor official cited in the Los Angeles Times, it does not permit government investigations of alleged misconduct by union organizers before a union is given monopoly-bargaining privileges,” said National Right to Work Committee Vice President Greg Mourad. 

“But according to Joe Biden, giving union operatives a license to cheat constitutes ‘an easier path to make a free and fair choice’ to unionize!” 

What does Mr. Biden’s endorsement of A.B.2183, which Mr. Newsom evidently signed into law against his better judgment as a consequence of the President’s public intervention, mean in practice? 

Charges of UFW Criminality Are ‘Serious in Nature,’ But That May Not Matter 

Charges filed with the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) on April 18 by Claudia Chavez and Maria Gutierrez, two employees of Wasco, Calif.-based Wonderful Nurseries, a food-and-drink company, furnish a foreshadowing of the abuses this law will usher in over the next few years. 

In sworn declarations filed with the assistance of National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation attorneys, Ms. Chavez and Ms. Gutierrez charge United Farm Workers (UFW) union operatives resorted to “artifice, fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and/or coercion” to get signed “membership” cards from many employees. 

According to Ms. Chavez and Ms. Gutierrez, UFW officials falsely told employees their signatures on union “authorization” cards were necessary to obtain taxpayer-funded, COVID-19-related benefits, and also deceitfully told them their cards would not be used for union organizing purposes. 

Mr. Mourad commented: 

“The ALRB has already admitted the worker allegations of UFW criminal misconduct are ‘serious in nature.’ 

“Unfortunately, that may not matter. 

“With the Joe Biden-backed 2022 amendment now incorporated, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act is so biased against employees who disagree with union bosses that the UFW hierarchy may ultimately get to retain its ‘exclusive representation’ privileges over Wonderful Nurseries Employees anyway. 

“Effectively, the ALRB could decide it doesn’t matter how UFW bosses got their cards! 

“The fact is, when Joe Biden leaned on Gov. Newsom to sign A.B.2183 roughly 20 months ago, the President was most likely aware that, once signed into law, this scheme would be used to facilitate ‘fraud’ and ‘deceit.’ 

“Given that even Bill Clinton appointed former National Labor Relations Board Chairman Bill Gould basically admits A.B.2183 is stacked against employees’ freedom of choice, how could Mr. Biden not have known? 

“If he’s reelected this fall, all kinds of American workers may soon be in the same boat as California farmworkers.”

---

This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.

To support our cause and help end forced unionism, go here to donate.

---