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| June 20th, 2007 |
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Media Contact(s): Peter Carr (202) 224-9854,
Jared Whitley (202) 224-5251 |
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Printable Version |
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DEMS PAYING BACK UNION BOSSES, HATCH SAYS
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| Sen. Hatch denounces the so-called Employee Free Choice Act alongside Senators Ensign, Alexander, and Isakon. 6/20/2007 |
Washington - Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) today spoke at a press conference with several other Republican Senators, who have vowed to stop passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 800), which among other things would take away the right to a private ballot when workers are deciding whether or not to unionize. Hatch's remarks follow.
When the Democrats took over Congress they said their number two legislative priority was helping the country's energy crisis. Well, since they've interrupted our important work on energy for this, I guess that their number one priority must be paying back the union bosses.
In fact, if you listen to what they say, they'll readily admit that they took over the Senate of the United States and the Congress of the United States because of union money.
Keep in mind, 40 percent of all union workers are Republican, but almost 100 percent of every dime that they give for political purposes happens to go to Democrats.
Now, I have a history with organized labor that most of my colleagues do not. I was a card-carrying member of the AFL-CIO when I was a metal lather in my youth. That was a skilled trade. I went to a formal apprenticeship program and learned that skilled trade and worked in the building construction trade unions for around 10 years.
More than anyone who never belonged to a union, I understand the role that unions have played in our nation's history and their importance in protecting the rights of workers.
But this bill doesn't help those protected rights. It robs Americans of one of the most sacred principles of democracy, and that is a private ballot election or a secret ballot election, the right to a private vote.
Now, act also -- and this isn't very often mentioned, but the act also requires compulsory binding arbitration of initial union contracts.
Now, if union leaders and management fail to agree to a contract -- if this bill would be enacted, if they fail to agree to a contract after 90 days of collective bargaining and 30 days of mediation, this bill would allow federal mediators to impose the wages, terms and condition of employment for two years.
In other words, they could even set pension programs if they wanted to.
Now, this would deny the employees the opportunity to approve or ratify the terms of the contract. And they would be prevented by the National Labor Relations Board's contract bar from initiating a private ballot certification election challenging the union's continuing majority status for the two-year term of that contract.
Now, government-mandated arbitration after an inadequate negotiation period seems to hurt employees, quote, "free choice," unquote, much more than it would help it.
With regard to the secret ballot election, the unions have gone all over the world saying, "We need secret ballot elections in other countries." Well, why is it suddenly in our country they don't think we need secret ballot elections? I think we all know the answer to that.
This is a very, very important battle and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that these employees are protected.
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