COMMENTARY: Another Labor Day without labor reform

This Labor Day, millions of Americans will celebrate their day off with backyard barbecues and a family trip to the beach.

But we shouldn’t lose sight of the holiday’s deeper meaning. Labor Day celebrates employees’ “freedom of association,” our right to choose the workplace best suited to us.

Unfortunately, workplace freedom is not a reality in one part of the country: Union America. Less than 10 percent of union members ever voted for the union currently “representing” them. The few who did were never guaranteed a secret ballot election. Moreover, union members are not guaranteed recertification elections once a union is in power, leaving them with little opportunity to re-vote on union representation — even when the workforce turns over and the original voters are gone.

The problem stems from outdated labor laws. American labor law has not been substantially updated since the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which outlined unfair labor practices to protect employers and employees from union harassment. Despite the best of intentions, seventy years later, labor unions continue to exploit the status quo to maintain their stranglehold on the workplace.

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