DeMint, McKeon file bill to protect workers’ secret ballot

Two Republican congressmen have introduced legislation intended to protect employees’ right to a secret ballot in workplace union representation elections.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, Rep. Howard McKeon, R-CA, and Rep. John Kline (R-MN) say their proposed Secret Ballot Protection Act (SBA) is needed as an alternative to the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that abolishes the secret ballot. The House approved EFCA in 2007, but the proposal fell short of the 60 votes needed to clear its passage in the Senate.

 “The Secret Ballot Protection Act is urgently needed to stop the growing attacks on workers’ rights, “Demint said. “Unfortunately, current law does not guarantee a secret ballot because it can be waived by employers. Even worse, Democrats have teamed up with union bosses to completely eliminate secret ballot votes in the workplace, and instead impose a mandatory ‘card check.’ ”

SBPA is modeled after an earlier bill submitted by the late Congressman Charles Norwood (R-Ga). It prevents unionization based solely on “card check,” a process that requires only a simple majority of worker signatures and also bars recognition of a union that was formed without a secret ballot election.

There are 16 original co-sponsors on the Senate side including  Lamar Alexander (R-TN), John Barrasso (R-WY), Sam Brownback (R-KS) Richard Burr (R-NC), Jim Bunning (R-KY), Tom Coburn (R-OK), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bob Corker (R-TN), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John McCain (R-AZ), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Pat Roberts (R-KS), John Thune (R-SD), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and David Vitter (R-LA). There are over 100 co-sponsors in the House.

DeMint said the auto industry’s current woes illustrate the negative consequences of giving unions too much power.

“Why would we be using these difficult times as an excuse to expand unionization?” he asked. “Why would we take a business model that has virtually destroyed the American auto industry and try to force it onto the entire American industry?”

Democrats backing EFCA claim their legislation does not abolish secret ballots, and they say corporate critics of their proposal are “spreading misinformation.”

Section Two reads as follows: “If the [National Labor Relations] Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative and that no other individual or labor organization is currently certified or recognized as the exclusive representative of any of the employees in the unit, the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative described in subsection.”

This language makes it clear that secret ballots would be replaced with undemocratic methods, Rep. Kline said.

“It is interesting to see those advertisements now being run on television by supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act,” he said. “They see that when Americans understand that this eliminates the secret ballot for employees, they are opposed. So they must try to convey the sense that it doesn’t eliminate the secret ballot, yes it does.”

If EFCA becomes law, workers would be subject to the kind of intimidation tactics described in recent hearings before Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on the proposal.

 It is “virtually impossible to imagine a scenario” where workers would have a realistic opportunity to petition the NLRB for a secret ballot election under the card check system described in EFCA, Kline said.

Rep. Price, who is now chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said American workers could be subjected to action that contradicts long-standing democratic principles.

Kevin Mooney is an editorial writer for The Washington Examiner.