Unions Rally Against Democratic
Elections
- Card Check: The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would
replace secret ballot organizing elections with publicly signed
union cards, allowing union organizers to deceive, harass, and
threaten workers into signing these cards and thereby
unionizing.
- Stripping Away Privacy and Freedom: A worker may vote
"no" against a union behind a curtain but may be less courageous if
pressured in public. This is why most union organizers currently
don't call for elections until between 60% and 75% of a shop notes
interest, knowing that there will be drop off once the votes are
tallied.
- Union Workers Oppose: A recent Zogby poll found that 71%
of union members believe that the current private-ballot process is
fair. A McLaughlin & Associates poll found that fully 74% of
union members favor keeping the current system in place over
replacing it with one that provides less privacy.
-
Liberals Opposed It ... in Mexico: In 2001,
labor-friendly Members of Congress, including EFCA sponsors,
pressed Mexico in a letter to increase its use of the secret
ballot, saying it was "absolutely necessary in order to ensure that
workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not
otherwise choose."
Card Check Creates Government-Run
Workplaces
- Collective Bargaining: Under current law, no contract
takes effect until both workers believe they get a fair deal and
management believes the contract will not bankrupt the firm. If
negotiations end, the workers can strike or management can lock
them out, but neither side must work under an unworkable
contract.
- Putting the Power in Washington: Section 3 of EFCA gives
government officials the power to impose contr8acts on workers and
firms. After a union organizes a business, there would a short
period of time for management to offer them an "acceptable"
contract. If the union does not agree, the matter would be sent to
a federal arbitration board.
- Bureaucrats in Charge of Your Workplace: Instead of
mutual consent, the federal government would then impose working
conditions on both employers and employees, whether they were
workable or not, and these conditions would be binding on the
business for two years until the negotiations are reopened.
- In Summary: So after the unions strong arm employees
into their union, they would then have government-backed
authority to tell business owners how to run their
business, including wages and bonuses; employment levels;
retirement and health care plans; business operations; promotions;
assignments; subcontracting; and closure, sale, or merger of a
business.
Increase Opportunities for
Employees
- There IS an Alternative: There is a better way to help
workers earn more money. Unionized workers are not allowed to earn
more than their union contract calls for; no matter how hard they
work. Unions keep wages of above-average employees down so that
workers will look to the union--instead of their own efforts--as
the way to get ahead.
- Let Workers Earn More Money: By allowing employers to
pay individual workers more than a collective bargaining agreement
calls for, Congress would eliminate union wage ceilings and allow
workers to earn more money and be rewarded for outstanding
performance.
- Don't Kill Jobs: Unions reduce job opportunities in the
economy. Conservative estimates show that EFCA would reduce
employment opportunities by 765,000 potential jobs in the economy
over the next seven years. Other studies estimate even greater
effects.
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