Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina has vowed to rein in union power should she make it to the White House, saying that existing federal rules give labor leaders too much power to force ordinary workers into backing their agenda.
She said would ensure the passage of the Employees Rights Act, legislation that would give workers the right to opt out of collective bargaining and give them privacy protection from the unions.
“Employees must be free to decide whether their private information is shared with unions and whether their money will go to left-wing crusades. They need secret ballot elections and a guaranteed recertification vote when half the workforce turns over, so that current employees enjoy the same self-determination as their predecessors,” Fiorina said in a Wednesday op-ed for the Independent Journal website.
“There is legislation sitting in Congress that would do this. The Employee Rights Act puts an end to coercive union tactics and the crony capitalism in which labor organizations are embedded. So why haven’t we passed it?”
GOP lawmakers introduced the proposed legislation last year. It would prohibit a union from using a worker’s membership dues for any purpose other than collective bargaining without getting that worker’s prior written consent. It makes the use of threats or force against a worker a federal crime. The bill also includes several reforms to workplace election rules, such as requiring that all elections have secret ballots and that a union win a majority of all workers, not just a majority of those who voted.
It also would reverse a 2014 decision by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces labor laws, that shortened the time from when a union election is held to as little as 11 days from the initial announcement. Republicans have called the decision the “ambush election rule,” saying it was intended to ensure that the vote happens before workers hear all the pros and cons of joining a union.
Democrats and union leaders have characterized the legislation as little more than an attack on union power. It has had little traction despite the GOP holding majorities in the House and Senate. The bill likely would be filibustered by Senate Democrats if it were taken up, and Obama would be certain to veto it if it did reach his desk.
In her op-ed, Fiorina scolded the political class in Washington for not being able to overcome the opposition. “What we sorely need is a citizen leader who won’t take no for an answer. She must know how to challenge the status quo and understand that the government was intended to serve the people — not itself,” she said.
The candidate, a former chief executive officer for Hewlett-Packard, lags in the polls behind other GOP candidates despite some strong performances in the debates but remains a possible vice presidential pick.
