-By Warner Todd Huston
The misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will take away the secret ballot for potential union members and force them to openly declare their preferences for or against a union, causing that worker to be easily open to intimidation by union thugs. This is a law currently in the table in Congress, one that Barack Obama has pledged to push through regardless of how it eliminates one of the oldest democratic rights there is.
But, now Missouri is trying to head off the possible federal enactment of “card check” (the provision that eliminates the secret ballot) by legislating that a secret ballot is protected by state law.
So, the question remains, can a state law supersede a federal law? After all, if Missouri passes their new Constitutional provision, it will come in direct conflict with the federal EFCA law if that bill gets passed in Washington.
Secret ballots would not only be guaranteed but required by Missouri law under a proposed constitutional amendment pitched yesterday.
State Sen. John Loudon, a Republican from Ballwin and co-chairman of the so-called Save Our Secret Ballot, or S.O.S., initiative in Missouri, filed for a citizen initiative petition that would put the amendment on the 2010 ballot.
Information of the S.O.S. initiative can be seen at the website: http://www.sosballot.org/.
The S.O.S. campaign maintains, in part, that:
There is an option: We can use state laws and state constitutions to create protection for secret ballots even if the federal government refuses to guarantee this right. We benefit from the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, who created a federal system so that states can protect rights even if the national government does not.
Let’s give this initiative all the support we can.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.