Reject “Card-Check” and Candidates Who Support It
As the US Congress makes a renewed push to overturn long-standing secret ballot elections for labor unions, North Carolina voters are casting a doubtful eye on its actions.
According to a new poll released today by Civitas Institute, 54 percent of North Carolina voters prefer the current federally supervised secret ballot elections for unionization as opposed to an open card-check effort, which aspires to force workers into publicly displaying personal votes. Only 32 percent of voters prefer the card-check method. Fourteen percent of voters were unsure.
The misleadingly named legislation, H.B. 800, the Employee Free Choice Act (aka card-check bill) is a high priority for President Obama’s administration, despite its defeat in the 2007 US Senate.
“The right of workers to hold secret ballot elections, free from intimidation by labor bosses is a fundamental issue of freedom,” said Francis De Luca, executive director of Civitas Institute. “Voters in North Carolina recognize this falsely named legislation as an affront to basic worker freedoms and is nothing more than a power grab by big labor unions to increase their membership rolls.”
Voters will also hold elected officials responsible who support taking away the right of workers to secret-ballot elections. When asked if they were more or less likely to vote for a Senator who supports eliminating secret-ballot elections for union workers, 44 percent of voters said they were less likely to support that Senator’s re-election. Only 21 percent said they were more likely to support them again. Twenty-four percent of voters said a Senator’s support for card-check legislation would have no bearing on their support.
“This should be seen as a strong message to Senators Burr and Hagan that North Carolina voters do not approve of card-check legislation and will hold any Senator, who votes for the bill, personally accountable for their actions,” added De Luca.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues and policies facing North Carolina. Complete results of the poll will be released at noon on Thursday, Jan. 29 at the Clarion Hotel in downtown Raleigh during the monthly poll luncheon hosted by Civitas.
Full text of questions:
“Currently, in order to form a labor union, workers hold a federally supervised secret ballot election to determine if a majority of workers voted for unionization. Some in Congress want to replace secret-ballot elections with a system where workers would publicly sign a card stating they wanted unionization. Which system do you think is best?”
Private Ballot – 54%
Public Card Signature – 32%
Not Sure – 14%
“Would you be more or less likely to re-elect a United States senator who supports eliminating secret ballot elections for union workers?”
More – 21%
Less – 44%
No Difference – 24%
Not Sure – 11%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
The study of 600 registered voters was conducted Jan. 19-22, 2009. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that:
95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
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For more information regarding this topic or to schedule an interview with Chris Hayes, please contact Gabe Dellinger at 919.747.8065 or gabe.dellinger@nccivitas.org
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