Teamster Boss: Democracy Doesn't Need Secret Ballots

The elimination of secret ballots in employee voting to certify their union membership, which is a big part of the Employee "Free Choice" Act, doesn't worry Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union.

Not that I thought it would.

Hoffa blasted the hostile, multimillion-dollar campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.

"This business about the Employee Free Choice Act taking away the secret ballot is nonsense spread by front groups for corporate fat cats who don't want to give up their $16,000 wastebaskets," Hoffa said.

"Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?" Hoffa said. "Town meetings in New England are as democratic as they come, and they don't use the secret ballot. Elections in the Soviet Union were by secret ballot, but those weren't democratic."

Mark Steyn, over at National Review Online, had it pegged right:

The day Jimmy Hoffa shows up at my Town Meeting is the day we move to paper ballots.

Amen.