One of the reasons janitorial workers struck against the University of Miami in the recently settled contentious battle led by SEIU, is that SEIU has been in the forefront of arguing for card check union recognition as opposed to secret ballot elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board and the union was fighting for that right at the U of M.

That university's president, former Clinton official, Donna Shalala, argued that a secret ballot election, as the contracting company desired, was just fine and in fact, a democratic way to go. But, evidence keeps piling up to the contrary--including in a story reported in today's New York Times by Steve Greenhouse. Greenhouse writes that after nine years, the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. has upheld an NLRB ruling against Smithfield Packing Company in Tar Heel, N.C. for "illegally skewing a 1997 election by intimidating and firing workers."

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