Baseball Bats for Big Labor Act

From Americans For Tax Reform

This week, the Senate is considering S. 1041, the Orwellian-named "Employee Free Choice Act." As a point of fact, this bill would strip workers of their right to a federally-supervised, private ballot election when deciding on the question of union representation.

S. 1041 would replace this privacy right with a risky "card check" scheme. Under this method, union thugs could intimidate workers into signing a kind of petition known as a "card check." They could do so by any means necessary. Once 50%-plus-one of the workers at a facility were coerced into signing this "card check," a union would be established right then and there.

Not surprisingly, most Americans think this is a bad idea. In a recent McLaughlin poll, 87 percent of voters agreed that "every worker should continue to have the right to a federally supervised secret ballot election when deciding whether or not to join a union."

Moreover, S.1041 contains a provision that mandates compulsory, binding arbitration on the employer and the employees as part the collective bargaining process if an agreement cannot be reached within the first 120 days of negotiations. This misguided language would have a third party, government official impose the terms of a labor contract that are binding upon both parties, even if one or both parties find those terms unacceptable. In fact, employees would not be provided with the opportunity to vote on whether or not they approve their new contract.

Unions are the biggest single supporters of larger government, and rigging the rules in their favor would be a crushing blow to taxpayers.

ATR URGES A VOTEAGAINST CLOTURE ON S. 1041