Mr. Speaker, it gives me another opportunity to remind him about how workplaces are organized. I think he somehow thinks the big balloon, the secret ballot, pops out of the air and sort of arrives in a workplace, and somehow people know it is time to vote.
The problem with a secret vote is that it is announced in the workplaces. Employers, and the evidence is there, intimidate workers because they know when the vote will happen. It is not the unions.
Employers intimidate employees prior to the vote because they know when it will happen. Evidence and research show that for those jurisdictions that bring in those changes, the amount of unionization is reduced. It is not reduced because people do not want unions, as my Conservative colleague has said. It is reduced because working men and women who try to organize the shop floor get intimidated by employers. They say that they will close the plant, which has happened, or will fire or demote people.
A card check system is a democratic way for working men and women in workplaces to talk to one another and ask their workers to join a union simply so they can collectively bargain at their workplace. It does not totally take away employer rights. Union certification, using card check, is a way to ensure working men and women can exercise their constitutional right to organize.