Workforce Committee Chair Assails

Democrat Plans to Strip Workers of Rights to

Secret Ballot Organizing Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) today assailed the plans of some congressional Democrats to place at the top of the 110th Congress’ workforce agenda legislation that would strip workers of the right to secret ballot organizing elections.

“The irony is impossible to miss: exactly one month and one day ago, representatives to the 110th Congress were elected by voters who took part in a secret ballot process that is the very cornerstone of our democracy,” said McKeon.  “Yet today, many of those same elected officials are standing beside union bosses in calling for quick action on legislation that would end secret ballot organizing elections for rank-and-file workers.  In fact, it’s not just ironic; it’s simply un-American.”

Under the National Labor Relations Act, workers have the right to join or organize a union in order to collectively bargain with their employer.  These rights are protected by secret-ballot elections – supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – to ensure they have the right to vote their conscience, without fear of reprisal. 

At a Capitol Hill rally today, some House and Senate Democrats joined organized labor activists to praise and call for swift action next year on the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1696), legislation that would dismantle these secret ballot rights and allow for the recognition of unions based on a “card-check” rather than the customary NLRB secret ballot election.  Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday confirmed plans for action on the bill early in 2007.

Under a “card check” system, senior union officials gather “authorization cards” purportedly signed by workers expressing their desire for the union to represent them.  Such “card checks” can strip an employee of the right to choose – freely and anonymously – whether to unionize, while leaving them open to harassment, intimidation, and union pressure.

“The cleverly-named Employee Free Choice Act gives workers anything but the opportunity for free choice,” concluded McKeon.  “Conversely, that’s exactly what secret ballot elections would do – and what they have done since the founding of our democracy.  I look forward to having this debate in the 110th Congress because there is no American principle worth defending more than the right to participate in a democratic secret ballot election.”

Legislation introduced last year by Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Charlie Norwood (R-GA) – the Secret Ballot Protection Act (H.R. 874) – would prohibit a union from being recognized based on a mere card check, insist that a union may only be recognized by an employer and certified by the NLRB if it has won majority support in a secret ballot election conducted by the NLRB, and secure the right of every worker to a secret-ballot vote on whether to unionize.

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