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# FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Steve Forde

# February 14, 2007 (202) 225-4527

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| **In Unprecedented Assault on Democracy,**                            |
|                                                                       |
| **House Democrats Reject** **GOP Move to Protect**                    |
|                                                                       |
| **Secret Ballot Rights for American Workers**                         |
|                                                                       |
| **WASHINGTON, D.C. --** U.S. House Education and Labor Committee      |
| Democrats this evening rebuffed a Republican proposal to protect      |
| secret ballot rights for American workers in union organization       |
| elections. This unprecedented rejection of a fundamental democratic   |
| right came as the panel's Democrats advanced legislation to expose    |
| workers' private votes in workplace elections and make them           |
| completely public. Committee Democrats also voted down a series of    |
| amendments exposing some truly jarring positions on unionization and  |
| labor issues.                                                         |
|                                                                       |
| "After 200-plus years of our American democracy, it is breathtaking   |
| to see the right to a secret ballot rejected so flatly and so         |
| strongly," said Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), the Committee's  |
| Senior Republican. "If Democrats can attempt to kill the time-honored |
| secret ballot so quickly into the new Congress, you've got to ask,    |
| 'what's next?'"                                                       |
|                                                                       |
| McKeon continued, "As soon as Democrat leaders and the Big Labor      |
| interests guiding them announced their intent to move quickly on      |
| their agenda, I predicted that the right to a private ballot was in   |
| the crosshairs. And today, House Democrats took their very first      |
| shot."                                                                |
|                                                                       |
| The move by Committee Republicans to protect workers' rights to a     |
| secret ballot was offered as an amendment during debate on the        |
| cleverly-worded "Employee Free Choice Act," legislation to strip      |
| workers of their right to privacy in union organization elections.    |
| Instead, the bill would implement mandatory "card checks," in which   |
| union bosses gather authorization cards purportedly signed by workers |
| expressing their desire for a union to represent them. Mandatory card |
| checks often leave workers vulnerable to coercion, pressure, and      |
| outright intimidation and threats.                                    |
|                                                                       |
| The Republican substitute amendment, the *Secret Ballot Protection    |
| Act*, was introduced last week by the late Rep. Charlie Norwood       |
| (R-GA), a longtime Member of the Committee and former Chairman of the |
| panel's Workforce Protections Subcommittee. The amendment would have  |
| prohibited a union from being recognized based on a mere card check;  |
| insisted that a union may only be recognized by an employer and       |
| certified by the National Labor Relations Board if it has won         |
| majority support in a secret ballot election; and secured the right   |
| of every worker to a secret-ballot vote on whether to unionize.       |
|                                                                       |
| During consideration of the "Employee Free Choice Act," Committee     |
| Democrats also **rejected** amendments to:                            |
|                                                                       |
| -   Require a union to demonstrate that any card presented in a card  |
|     check campaign for union representation be signed [only by a      |
|     U.S.]{.underline} [citizen or legal]{.underline}                  |
|     [immigrant]{.underline};                                          |
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| ```{=html}                                                            |
| <!-- -->                                                              |
| ```                                                                   |
| -   Allow employees to conduct a card check campaign to decertify     |
|     union representation. Labor unions have argued passionately for   |
|     secret ballot rights in decertification elections, even as        |
|     they've worked to take that right away in organization elections; |
|                                                                       |
| -   Require that an authorization card, in a card check, is not       |
|     deemed valid unless signed in the presence of a National Labor    |
|     Relations Board representative;                                   |
|                                                                       |
| -   Permit an employee to put himself or herself on a "do not         |
|     contact" list to avoid in-person union solicitation during card   |
|     check campaigns;                                                  |
|                                                                       |
| -   Ensure that no employee can be forced to join a union or pay      |
|     union dues or agency fees against their will;                     |
|                                                                       |
| -   Provide that union bosses may not commence a strike unless union  |
|     members vote on management's last, best offer;                    |
|                                                                       |
| -   Restrict violence in the workplace by: barring the National Labor |
|     Relations Board from reinstating any employee who has engaged in  |
|     violent or coercive actions; and directing the Board to revoke    |
|     the exclusive bargaining status of any labor union found to       |
|     engage in the use of violent or coercive actions;                 |
|                                                                       |
| -   Make it an unfair labor practice to fail to return a              |
|     previously-signed union authorization card within five days of an |
|     employee's request; and                                           |
|                                                                       |
| -   Protect the right of union members to vote on a contract with     |
|     management by eliminating mandatory arbitration requirements in   |
|     the card check bill. As a result, Committee Democrats now have    |
|     gone on the record in favor of stripping employees of their right |
|     to vote in union organization elections, while stripping their    |
|     ability to vote on labor contracts as well.                       |
|                                                                       |
| The card check bill now moves to the full House. The Bush             |
| Administration announced today that should the measure ever arrive at |
| the President's desk, it will be met with a veto.                     |
|                                                                       |
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