In negotiations with UPS Freight, the Teamsters union has won the right to attempt to organize the company’s workers using card checks. The president of the Teamsters, James Hoffa, has declared that those negotiations have resulted in an “historic victory.”
In elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, ballots are secret and workers do not have to announce their union or non-union preference. With card checks, however, workers can publicly announce their desire to be represented or not represented by a union.
For those with a pro-union agenda, card checks are the preferred route to successful organizing efforts. For those who want to remain union free, secret ballot elections, supervised by the NLRB, have been the best route for maintaining that union-free status
The UPS-Teamsters deal portends bad news not only for the trucking industry, but also for the grocery, nursing home, and hotel/motel industries. Agreeing to card checks is like letting the proverbial fox into the chicken house. The result will an increase in union membership and onerous demands placed on more and more companies.
