Federal Issues
MRCC Opposes the Federal Employee Free Choice Act
(a.k.a. Card Check) because:
- It effectively eliminates the secret ballot
- It requires federally-appointed arbitrators to write labor contracts
- It imposes a completely unbalanced increase in penalties
Unions have lost their prevalence in the workforce over the past five decades, making up 30% of the private workplace in the 1950s and less
than 8% today. “Card Check” would reverse this trend and open up wide
swaths of the economy to union organizing, especially small business.
The existing law honors a worker’s right to a private ballot. Currently, workers sign cards indicating interest in an election. The union and the employer
then have a chance to make their case before workers vote in a federally supervised
private-ballot election. If the union wins more than 50% of the votes,
they are certified and collective bargaining begins.
Card Check would effectively eliminate private elections. Under Card Check, if more than 50% of workers at a facility sign a card, the NLRB would
have to certify the union, and a private ballot election would be prohibited, even if workers want one.
But that’s not all. Card Check could force companies to let government arbitrators decide how their business operates. Card Check would send companies into binding arbitration if they cannot reach agreement with the union on an initial contract after 120 days. This means a panel of government arbitrators with no understanding of the business would impose a two year contract which would decide all workplace terms without any review by the company or its employees. Because this package will always be more than the employer is prepared to offer, the company will always lose.
Resources:
U.S. Chamber of Commerce - Card Check Basics