I've obtained some internal polling from proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act that shows us precisely how interest groups shape public opinion as they gague it.
Let's take the main provision of EFCA -- "card check," which the AFL-CIO now calls "majority sign up."
The AFL-CIO's polling firm, Hart Research Associaties, asks respondents whether they'd support legislation that "[a]llows employees to have a union once a majority of employees in a workplace sign authorization cards indicating they want to form a union."
75% say yes.
Pollster John McLaughlin, working for the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace,the question this way: "There is a bill in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act which would effectively replace a federally supervised secret ballot election with a process that requires a majority of workers to simply sign a card to authorize organizing a union and the workers' signatures would be made public to their employer, the union organizers and their co-workers. Do you support or oppose Congress passing this legislation?"
74% say no.
Most American workers don't know what EFCA is, or what 'card check' would mean. So the definition is contestable in the public sphere, a case where the framing metaphor really applies.
The AFL-CIO's definition of the legislation leaves out some details -- namely, that workers participating in card check events won't be able to keep their choices a secret.
The CDW definition includes loaded language implying that their co-workers and bosses could intimidate them into signing the card. Privacy is the killer for unions; when Americans are read descriptions of the bill that make it plain that their votes won't be kept secret (that's the point of card check, in a way), their support plummets.
Now -- EFCA doesn't eliminate secret ballot elections. Since the National Labor Relations Act was passed, there have always been two ways to join a union, either through "card check" or a ballot election. Current law allows companies to force an election, even if a majority of workers have signed up. In effect, EFCA switches the choice to the workers; they can choose whether to hold a card check election or whether they want a regular secret ballot election. Effectively, EFCA would increase the frequency of card check elections, which are easier for unions to win.
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