The flaw in 'card check'

Congress fought back against the Depression and unemployment in the 1930s with the National Labor Relations Act, protecting employees who wanted to organize unions but who feared management retaliation. The pendulum swung away from labor in 1947 when Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act over President Truman's veto. It has never swung back, and in fact, labor organizers have been stymied by a succession of regulatory restrictions and hostile National Labor Relations Board decisions that have helped undermine the 1935 act's stated policy of encouraging collective bargaining to negotiate terms and conditions of employment.

March 29, 2009