Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumblePoll shows support weak for ‘card check’ legislation
Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009 | 2:45 p.m.
Sun Coverage
WASHINGTON -- New polling out today shows little support in Nevada for key provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act, the labor-led legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions -- an issue that may return to the congressional agenda in the new year.
The poll showed 57 percent of respondents oppose changing the way unions are organized and 64 percent oppose allowing mandatory arbitration to settle organizational disputes between workers and managers, as is proposed under the bill.
The poll also showed more voters would be less likely to support political candidates who support such changes.
The polling was conducted for the Workforce Fairness Institute, an organization that has been vigorously fighting the Employee Free Choice Act all year.
The legislation is also known as “card check” – because it would allow workers to simply sign a card if they want to join a union. It had been the top priority of labor leaders this year.
But the bill stalled as Congress took on other priorities and it seemed unclear if it would have 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate.
Unions prefer the card check method as an alternative to secret ballots because they say managers often drag out elections and intimidate workers. But businesses say the ballots should be used in every case.
Card check is used in most of the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.
Polling of 500 registered voters by Public Opinion Strategies for the Workforce Fairness Institute was conducted Dec. 12-15 in Nevada.
Respondents were split among self-described Democrats, Republicans and Independents, though 53 percent of respondents described themselves as conservative on issues.
The poll also includes information on favorability ratings for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Sen. John Ensign and Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons. But there's not much new there that cannot be summed up in a few words: High unfavorable ratings for all.
Health care reform is also polled, with 50 percent saying they believe the health care reform before Congress is a "bad idea" (and 20 percent having "no opinion").
Check out the full poll here.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- Chinese company agrees to finance proposed Henderson arena
- South Point owner Michael Gaughan’s take on ‘Vegas Stripped’: ‘I’ll give it an 8’
- Romney says he prevented Massachusetts from becoming ‘the Las Vegas of gay marriage’
- Coolican: Henderson officials out of loop on police brutality case, raising red flags
- See mug shots of 16 arrested in stolen-property police sting
- UNLV eager to get on the court for big game against San Diego State
- Criss Angel denies allegations of fight with fired employee
- Lumberjacks — ‘Where the Big Boys Eat’ — hiring for North Las Vegas location
- Berkley draws stark contrasts with Heller over immigration
- Conceptual design unveiled for Henderson Space and Science Center
Blogs
The Kats Report
Live color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: Motley Crue noise and Rebel noise is about the same
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (3 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Card check is the union answer to using Mafia tactics of peer pressure to get their way.
Card check and no e-verify, Reid's best wet-dream.
Unions have gone way past their prime. It's an antiquated thing that needs to be put out to pasture. I have never been a member of any union and every job I have ever had has paid more and been much better than a union job would ever be. It's time to let go of the socialist b.s. that is taking over things even more so today then in the past. Unions are one of those socialist things. They are not for free enterprise. Why should one have to pay another group in order to work?
RFS you are uneducated and obviously didn't pay attention in school if you were ever there. I'm sorry(NOT), maybe you too are one of those INTERNATIONALS - PC - for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. lcdmandingonamvet you are a genius, Thank You.
I am for card check! I enjoy my double time, my $40hr, great pensions, annuity and medical insurance. You guys continue with your race to the bottom, your outsourcing of jobs and importing of cheap labor. It's really been working out great for you, huh?
"Card Check"?
Go ahead, pass it. The first time an employee organizer starts passing out cards, they will be summarily walked off the property. Ka-Pow.
Especially true here in "right to work" Nevada.
The Labor Commissioner's office here is a running joke. I personally have talked to people who had to SIGN their right to overtime away (which they had under state law) just to to be hired for $7.50 an hour and NO benefits. So after working 10 hours a day for 6 days at a time and no OT, they filed a complaint with the esteemed Nevada Labor Commissioner's office.
What they were told by the Commissioner's office was in essence, "too bad, not enough people have filed complaints about this overtime thing from your jobsite, so what you are saying cannot be corroborated."
Get that. SIGN OVERTIME RIGHTS AWAY to get hired and the Labor Commissioner's office told them to 'get lost'.
This pathetic goofy state, from an employee's perspective, is so retrograde that it makes Mississippi look like that great welfare state of states, famously dem-laden New York.
And besides, which Nevada Union has the money to pay somebody's salary when they get canned for trying to pass out "cards" on the job, anyhow?
Sure, the fool who agrees to do it will have a sense of "pride" and "accomplishment". But after they get their last paycheck after being told to "hit the bricks" from "Joe's Warehouse and Street Cleaning", their "rapture" will soon fade to black while their former employer fights this ex-employee's unemployment claim by claiming the ex-employee acted with misconduct. (That's all it takes, folks. One signature from HR on one piece of paper sent to the state.)
Now the foolish ex-employee's unemployment claim will be tied up for weeks on end. If the ex-employee wins, the employer simply needs to appeal. So there goes at least another six weeks with no unemployment checks after the first four weeks of waiting.
So now we're at ten weeks. Time for the exalted Hearing. That can take another eight weeks to get a formal decision. That's eighteen weeks total of NO income, for just passing out "cards" for the Union.
What will the Union say when their patsy gets canned?
Uh, sorry. The dispatch office doesn't have anything for you right now, either. But we'll let you get on book "D", though.
Book "D"...?
Is that the book for the....Dead?
So there you have it. Unions with no real financial ability to pay for their patsy's lost wages, employers who will fire the patsy in a New York minute, and unless the patsy is organizing against a national business (one that has another location in another state), all the "right to work" employees in Nevada can tell the Union to take a hike and not pay a dime in Union dues, even if the Union wins the election and organizes the employees (or what's left of them after the employer starts closing shop - which is legal to do).
I mean, even I can figure this out here in Employee-Loser-Ville-Nevada......
Workers have to start somewhere. If workers don't fight for the right to organize, and hold employers feet to the fire, they get exactly what they have been getting, underpaid and overworked!
Without decent wages and benefits, the middle class will be off limits for most of everyone who works. There also safety violations, that are causing serious injuries and death. The USA is becoming no better than the developing world, when it comes to workers rights.
Unions are under 10% of the work force. This is a travesty, and worth marching in the streets for. When are we as a nation going to get on our hind legs and start fighting these greedy corporations? My guess is maybe never.
We have to bring back industry to the USA. The macro-economic system is in a steep decline and needs to be reorganized. If not, we will see more anarchy and chaos in the streets.
Coalition for the Future American Worker
http://www.americanworker.org/
Card check is a bad idea; it allows the unions and the employer to see your vote. There could be all kinds of real and perceived repercussions for that simple act.
Mandatory arbitration where the arbitrator has the power to negotiate the first contract is also a bad idea. How is the arbitrator supposed to know the financial condition of the employer? In construction, the employers generally have contracts with their clients. If you honestly believe the employer can go to the client and say my employees want to unionize and here's what it's going to cost you, your crazy. The client is going to cancel the contract. Now the employee's can unionize but they won't have a job.
Did they sell it as a "tool" for lowering the unemployment rate?
It probably doesn't matter what "we the people" think about EFCA. The Dems were bought and paid for by the unions - - they expect to get their monies' worth. The Dems will pay off. Management bowing down to the Auto Worker's Union, among other things, resulted in the present sad state of GM and Chrysler. Unions are a business, nothing else. They sell a false promise and collect dues from believing workers. Most workers have caught on to the scam, that's why union membership continues to decline.