URGENT- ACTION CALL-PLEASE
CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS
Dear President-Elect Obama:
December
1, 2008
 My
name is Malcolm Lunn, Chairman of the Board, United
Small Business of America. As you may remember,
we are a national small business grassroots organization
with an underlying membership of approximately
5,000 members.
"To be coerced to join
or not to join?" is the question our members
want to ask you. You stated recently that you
wanted to represent all America, but this legislation,
mislabeled as "Employee Free Choice Act",
as you know, favors only "Big Labor"
which has only 7.5% of the labor force.
Doesn't it seem incongruous
to you, President-Elect, that at a time when we
are spending billions of dollars to foster and
support free elections around the world, your
friends in Congress and "big labor"
want to roll back the clock on our own workplace
elections by abolishing federally protected secret
ballots? Can't you see the dire consequences
your actions would have on other nations if you
sign this corrupt bill?
Not only this "card check
union for all " bill would end secret ballots
for organizing elections at worksites, but employees
would be subject to peer pressure, duress, and
public intimidation-no firm would be safe!! To
make matters worse, this job-killing bill would
require mandatory arbitration by government-appointed
arbitrators if the union and the small business
could not agree on terms of a first contract within
120 days. Finally, is it fair that this bill would
increase the penalties against employers for violation
of labor laws during union organizations'
campaigns but, not increase penalties of unions
that violate these same laws?
When I was with the United
States Chamber of Commerce we documented 2193
incidents of union violence between 1991 and 2001,
including numerous acts of attempted murder. And
these figures include only violent acts reported
in the media. Many more acts of violence were
not reported because of fear of reprisal. By the
way, the National Institute for Labor Relations
Research has this documentation. If there were
over 2000 incidents just reported with a secret
ballot can you imagine a thousand times that number
with an open ballot?
The states with right-to-work
laws have performed better economically for workers
of all types. In fact the Mackinac Center for
Public Policy proclaims that right-to-work states
over the past 30 years have lower unemployment,
higher rates of job creation, and faster growth
in GDP and per-capita personal income than states
with compulsory union membership.
Samuel Gompers, the first and
longest-serving president of the American Federation
of Labor (AFL) once said "No lasting gain
has ever come from compulsion". Or, as a
union official said about an organizing dispute
a few years ago "There's no reason to
subject the worker to an election." That
is their mindset.
In summation, President-elect
Obama, you should ask the venerable, 106 year
old Ann Nixon Cooper, who knew Martin Luther King
as a child, what her thoughts are about this opprobrious
bill? Since she was unable to vote for decades?
We also do not believe that Martin Luther King
would be in favor of this dissolute bill- he gave
up his life so his people would be treated fairly
and have the right to vote in secrecy without
coercion, public ridicule or intimidation at the
voting booth. You might remember a letter he wrote
from a Birmingham jail in 1963 where he stated
"Give us the ballot."
We await your response.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Lunn
Chairman of the Board
United Small
Business
Proclaming Liberty to America's Small Business
P O Box 3132 St. Charles, IL 60174 - unitedsmallbus1@aol.com
Phone - 877/ 535-4 USB Fax - 877/ 722-4USB
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