So some folks will say, hey labor law sounds good, but don't the business lobbies have a point that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) proposed by labor and its supporters will undermine democracy by eliminating the secret ballot. I'll have a post soon about how the secret ballot will be fine and more used in workplaces if EFCA passes, but let's take the basic corporate argument headon. Under EFCA, instead of holding an election with a secret ballot, workers can also choose a union alternatively by a majority of workers signing cards asking to have their union recognized.

Horrors, the business lobby cries, weeping for the lost democratic voice of their workers (as they threaten to fire anyone who supports the union during the election), but here's the thing-- an NLRB election recognizes the union if a majority of THOSE VOTING support the union, while the card check option requires support from a majority of ALL WORKERS IN THAT COMPANY OR VOTING UNIT.  So the latter option is harder and actually is more guaranteed to reflect the will of the workers.  Follow below the fold to imagine how this would play out in a federal Presidential election.

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In comments on my last post, Resistance writes that it's union members' faults for the anti-union legacy of Reagan because they supported his election: "Union workers cut their own throats; the movement was destroyed from within, I remember the election of Reagan and was so angry that Union workers voted for him."

Except this was a myth; sure some union members did support Reagan, as some did Bush, but the large majority supported Carter back in 1980.  But it's not surprising that this myth persists, because it was a major rightwing propaganda operation to create the illusion of pro-union support for Reagan.

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If progressives want to lock in and expand the progressive victories we had last Tuesday, everyone should be joining hands to push through labor law reform as the most important priority.  Yes, we want to use our victory to deliver on needed priorities, from health care to green jobs to civil rights, and governing well to solve real problems will help at reelection time.

But from a cold, pragmatic level, the demographics of the election are clear-- progressives get the overwhelming support of blacks, Jews, gays and young people, but we can't  create more of those (well not for eighteen years in the case of more young people).   We can expand the latino and new immigrant vote through immigration reform legalization of undocumented immigrants, which should be more of a  progressive priority for that reason, but in the larger electorate, there is  nothing that will expand progressive power more than increasing unionization.

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