February 9, 2007
Contact: Paul Williams, 703/894-1805, ext. 242
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Employee Free Choice Act
The U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health,
Employment, and Pensions held a hearing yesterday on the Employee Free
Choice Act, which was introduced this week as H.R. 800. This
legislation would prohibit the use of secret ballot elections as the
primary method for employees to determine whether to recognize a union
to represent them.
The legislation would require employers to recognize a union if the
union presents signed authorization cards (“card checks”) from a
majority of employees, depriving employees the opportunity of casting a
private ballot when making this important decision.
The subcommittee hearing featured two panel discussions. The first
panel was comprised of three employees, selected by the Democratic
leadership, to discuss firings, coercion, and forms of harassment they
allege they were subjected to by employers as a result of their union
organizing efforts. Another panelist, selected by the Republican
leadership, was a former union organizer for UNITE HERE who discussed
the coercive methods and tactics used by union organizers on employees.
The former organizer noted that unions prefer card checks because it is
a much easier way to influence employees to join unions as opposed to
secret ballot elections.
A second panel discussion was comprised of three expert witnesses
representing the AFL-CIO and pro-union academicians, selected by the
Democratic leadership. Chuck Cohen, an attorney with the law firm
Morgan Lewis and chair of the U.S. Chamber’s subcommittee on the
National Labor Relations Act, was the fourth panelist in that
discussion and testified on behalf of the U.S. Chamber detailing how
the bill will erode workplace democracy.
Randel Johnson, Chamber vice president for labor policy, stressed
that many of today’s employees have strong working relationships with
their employers and do not respond to “the vitriolic rhetoric of the
1930s still relied upon by unions.” Johnson also commented, “If unions
want to boost their numbers, they should concentrate on creating an
agenda and program relevant to today’s workforce—not try to eliminate
the rights of workers to cast their votes in private.”
ALFA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and other leading national trade
and business organizations have formed the Coalition for a Democratic
Workplace to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. ALFA has also created
the Employer of Choice Program to counter organized labor’s threat to
the senior living industry. More details about yesterday’s subcommittee hearing
