Union partisans in the Biden administration want to bypass Congress and enact controversial labor policies by dusting off rejected 1940s-era legal theories.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act could replace secret-ballot union elections—which operate just like political elections with private voting booths—with inferior "
card check" drives, where union agents are permitted to solicit votes in person from workers by demanding they sign union cards. This move has
support from President Joe Biden and virtually every major labor union. If they obtain cards from a majority, union officials get their government-enforced monopoly without facing an actual election.
Unsurprisingly, there are countless stories of coercion during card check drives, ranging from groups of union agents
harassing workers in their homes and
lies about the true purpose of a signature to threats of violence against those who won't sign. One health care worker even reported being
told the union would "come and get her children" and "slash her tires" if she didn't sign a union card.
There was a time when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the agency that enforces labor laws covering most private sector workers, would force employers to bargain with unions on the basis of such cards alone. In 1947, Sen. Robert Taft (R–Ohio)
summarized the problem this created during debates over amendments to the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA):
"Today an employer is faced with this situation. A man comes into his office and says, 'I represent your employees. Sign this agreement, or we strike tomorrow.' Such instances have occurred all over the United States. The employer has no way in which to determine whether this man really does represent his employees or does not. This bill gives him the right to go to the Board under those circumstances, and say, 'I want an election. I want to know who is the bargaining agent for my employees.'"