Dueling Democracies: Protecting Labor Representation Elections from Governmental Interference

Abstract

Public officials should be free to support or oppose unionization, but we must prevent their electioneering from undermining the industrial democracy of labor representative elections. Such elections are designed to be freely held; workers decide whether they wish to be represented by a union for purposes of collective bargaining. This choice of whether to unionize is for the workers alone without any governmental favoritism or coercion. Government officials however have repeatedly jeopardized laboratory conditions by campaigning in labor representation elections. The Board should reassure workers of their right to cast uncoerced ballots, clarify that the political officials are not declaring governmental policy, and emphasize that the Board is both impartial in the election and committed to protecting the workers\u27 freedom of decision. In this manner, dueling democracies might evolve into dynamic democracies, where workers can critically appraise the opinions of government representatives yet remain confident of their power to vote as they choose