This commentary is by Traven Leyshon of Calais, president of the Green Mountain Labor Council.
Imagine an election in which Party A campaigners have unrestricted access to the voters for eight hours per day in the weeks leading up to the vote, while Party B campaigners are forced to catch voters on the phone or at home in the evenings, if they’re lucky.
Party A has the power to force voters, under penalty of discipline, to attend hours-long meetings during which Party A consultants praise the “virtues” of their side while condeming the “evils” of Party B.
Imagine, too, that on Election Day, voters have to cast their ballots at the headquarters of Party A, under the watchful eye of Party A bosses, whom these same voters depend on for their economic security.
Finally, imagine Party A bosses make thinly veiled threats of economic harm should voters vote the wrong way.
Would you call such an election “democratic”?
Probably not, but these are the conditions under which many American workers cast their ballots for union representation, with “Party A” representing the employer and “Party B” the workers advocating for a union.
The process for forming a union under U.S. federal law and many state laws, including Vermont’s, requires workers to move through an onerous, multistep process that typically ends in a secret-ballot election. These union-representation elections bear little resemblance to the periodic political elections that typify American democratic life.
During the lead-up to a union election, the employer has unlimited access to voters in the workplace, and is permitted to use this access to maximum advantage. Employers frequently hire consultants to subject their employees to sophisticated “union-avoidance” campaigns, which often include mandatory attendance at regular, anti-union “captive audience” meetings, so-called because workers can leave only under penalty of discipline or termination.
Based on any measure of free and fair elections, the existing union representation process would almost certainly fail to meet the minimum requirements for democratic legitimacy.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to this deeply undemocratic process. New York, Maine, Massachusetts and Connecticut (along with six other states) have enacted majority sign-up (or “card check”) for public-sector employees. Majority sign-up simplifies and expedites the union representation process by requiring employers to recognize the union once a simple majority of workers have signed cards authorizing union representation.
This one-step process levels the playing field between workers and employers by shortening the organizing timeline and reducing opportunities for employers to engage in union-busting tactics, such as mandatory captive audience meetings.
A bill currently in the Vermont Senate (S.102) would introduce majority sign-up into the Vermont public sector. S.102, informally called the “Vermont Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act,” would make it easier for public-sector workers to form unions and collectively bargain with their employer. If enacted, this bill would bring Vermont’s public-sector union certification process more in line with those of surrounding states.
It’s time to make public-sector union elections free and fair in Vermont.
