Charles Krauthammer's syndicated column today makes a case that a President Obama with significant Congressional majorities will bring the country "leftward, ho." First among the initiatives he criticizes:

Card check, meaning the abolition of the secret ballot in the certification of unions in the workplace. Large men will come to your house at night and ask you to sign a card supporting a union. You will sign.

The Blog at the Weekly Standard comments on this piece in The Hill, outlining the Party's agenda as "Dems get ready to rule": 

"They are going to be focused on turning around the economy and anything that contributes to that," said Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO. "A pro-jobs agenda."

Business leaders are anticipating an early push of union-backed bills. At the top of the list is the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, which would eliminate the right of employers to demand secret-ballot elections before a union can be certified. Instead, a majority of workers could sign petition cards certifying a union - a process known as "card-check." The bill passed the House in March 2007, but failed three months later in the Senate to get the 60 votes required for controversial legislation.

The op-ed page in the Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel features a guest column by Fort Wayne "resident" Howard Chapman.  After expressing his admiration for Senator Obama, Mr. Chapman lists as the first of the Senator's policy errors:

Labor policy. The Democrats have promised to enact the Employee Free Choice Act. Its purpose is to stifle free choice by employees. Today, a labor union collects signature cards from employees. When it has collected a majority, it presents the cards to the employer and requests to be recognized as the bargaining representative for all employees. Either party then requests that the National Labor Relations Board conduct a secret ballot election and, if the union wins by a majority, then it will be certified as the representative for the employees.

The Employee Free Choice Act will do away with secret ballot elections, and force the employer to recognize the union simply on the basis of signature cards. History has well documented the fact that unions often use intimidation, coercion and false promises to obtain employee signature cards. Without a secret ballot election, there will be no protection against this, either for employers or employees. Obama has said that passage of this law - to do away with secret ballot elections in choosing union representatives - is one of his priorities.