Below is my letter to the editor sent on March 11, 2009.  BTW, I sent a similar letter yester day to a reporter, Herman Wang, calling him out for publishing the same false information.

The Free Press editor combines with a sympathetic reader in today’s (March 11) edition to foster the incorrect idea that the Employee Free Choice Act eliminates secret ballots in union organizing decisions. The words, “free choice” in the title refer to a choice between a secret ballot and a card check system to determine the union’s future. In other words, workers could choose to have secret ballot or not. What’s wrong with that?

In the editorial, comparing organizing efforts to the election of officials when both use a secret ballot is a false comparison, similar to comparing hay wagons to station wagons because they both have wheels. Both Mr. Divine and the editor use absolute words, such as “deny” and “loss” to make the reader believe that secret ballots are forbidden by this bill. They’re not. The bill merely gives workers another system to make a decision. What’s wrong with that?

The bill might even make it more difficult to organize a union because it demands 50% of workers sign a card to acknowledge a collective bargaining unit. However, only 30% of workers are needed to petition to have a secret ballot.

What’s wrong with that?