A Final Word On Americans For Tax Reform's "Card Checked"

Americans for Tax Reform has responded to our response to their response to our blog post highlighting the offensive nature of their online video game, "Card Checked." For reference, here's what we wrote in our original post:

In the game, the user plays a tattoo artist working in an environment where the Employee Free Choice Act has become law.  Union representatives follow you around trying to intimidate you into signing a card.  If you refuse, they ramp up their threats and turn to violence.  At one point, a pro-union co-worker is described as specializing in "peace signs, rainbows, and other unoriginal and conformist hippie symbols."

Anyway, ATR has again complained about us including comments about the game from Eddie Vale of the AFL-CIO and accused of us not getting the facts.  As we explained in our last post, we only quoted him making fun of the quality of the game in comparison to Nintendo and Atari (if ATR wants proof from a less biased source that their game is lame, GameCulture.com says, "It's also not a game as much as a set of interactive political cartoons studded with a dialog tree").

For a more factual analysis, we provided links to a host of fact-checks we've done regarding the Employee Free Choice Act, which ATR apparently decided not to read.  So, to end this once and for all, the game's clear message that unions, and not businesses, are the ones intimidating workers is plainly not true.  Here are some facts, which we didn't include in our original post only because we've covered the subject at length many times before:

Workers Are Forced To Attend Anti-Union Meetings, But Not Permitted To Speak Out. According to the Economic Policy Institute: "Anti-union campaign managers can campaign with every worker, throughout the workplace, and around-the-clock. Pro-union employees can campaign only on break time. Management can require employees to attend 'captive audience' anti-union meetings. Pro-union workers can be forced to attend - but denied the opportunity to speak out. Management can post anti-union messages on the workplace's walls and bulletin boards. But pro-union employees cannot make use of these facilities." [Economic Policy Institute, 1/29/09]

Businesses Are Able To Intimidate And Even Fire Workers Who Try To Organize Unions. According to the House Labor Committee: "Unlike employers, a union organizer can't fire you, cut your pay, or deny you a promotion. But, if you're an employee actively trying to organize your coworkers, you have a one in five chance of getting fired by your employer for simply exercising your democratic rights. Even a pro-business group could only find 42 cases of union deception and/or coercion in obtaining card signatures over the last 70 years. Contrast that with roughly 30,000 workers who received back pay from employers that had fired or illegally intimidated them for each year of the Bush administration. It's clear where the problem lies." [House Committee on Education and Labor, "EFCA: Fact vs. Myth," accessed 4/14/09]

• One Worker Every Eighteen Minutes Disciplined Or Fired For Union Activity. The National Labor Relations Board found that more than 29,000 people were disciplined or fired for union activity during fiscal year 2007. As noted by the Economic Policy Institute, that amounts to "one worker every 18 minutes." [NLRB Annual Report 2007, accessed 4/14/09; Economic Policy Institute, 1/29/09]

Coercion And Intimidation By Employers Is Increasing. According to the Economic Policy Institute: "Although the use of management consultants, captive audience meetings, and supervisor one-on-ones has remained fairly constant, there has been an increase in more coercive and retaliatory tactics ('sticks') such as plant closing threats and actual plant closings, discharges, harassment and other discipline, surveillance, and alteration of benefits and conditions." [Economic Policy Institute, "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition To Organizing," 5/20/09; emphasis added]

• Employers Threaten To Close Plants And Cut Wages. A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that "employers threatened to close the plant in 57% of elections, discharged workers in 34%, and threatened to cut wages and benefits in 47% of elections." [Economic Policy Institute, "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition To Organizing," 5/20/09]

And regarding the game's conclusion, in which the tattoo parlor, presumably a small business, is forced to close:

House Labor Committee: "Small Businesses Stand To Benefit From The Employee Free Choice Act." According to the House Committee on Education and Labor, "Large employers are more likely to be the subject of organizing drives than are small employers.  When workers organize, wage and other gains made by employees will mean more money in their wallets to spend locally.  When workers spend locally, they stimulate small businesses.  Moreover, when small businesses are organized, these businesses reap rewards - like partaking in apprenticeship and worker training programs and competitive multiemployer health and pension plans, which they would have been unable to provide on their own.  This has been the experience particularly in the construction industry." [House Committee on Education and Labor, "EFCA: Fact vs. Myth," accessed 4/13/09]

Many Small Businesses Are Exempt from the National Labor Relations Act.  According to the House Committee on Education and Labor, "[M]any small businesses are exempt from the NLRA and the Employee Free Choice Act altogether - some 5.5 million workers are not covered by the NLRA because their small employer is considered too small to be engaged in interstate commerce." [House Committee on Education and Labor, "EFCA: Fact vs. Myth," accessed 4/13/09]

SBA: Unionization Reduces The Probability of Business Closures.  According to a 2005 study by the U.S. Small Business Administration: "Surprisingly, state unionization rates significantly reduce the probability of business closures." [U.S. Small Business Administration, "A Spatial Model of the Impact of State Bankruptcy Exemptions on Entrepreneurship," July 2005]

In any case, we're looking forward to ATR's next game, "Binding Arbitration."