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S. HRG. 108–596 

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT—UNION 

CERTIFICATION 

HEARING 

BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

SPECIAL HEARING 

JULY 16, 2004—HARRISBURG, PA 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 

TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman 

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi 

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania 

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico 

CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri 

MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky 

CONRAD BURNS, Montana 

RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama 

JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire 

ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah 

BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado 

LARRY CRAIG, Idaho 

KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas 

MIKE DEWINE, Ohio 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina 

PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont 

TOM HARKIN, Iowa 

BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland 

HARRY REID, Nevada 

HERB KOHL, Wisconsin 

PATTY MURRAY, Washington 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota 

DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California 

RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

JAMES W. MORHARD, Staff Director 

LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director 

TERRENCE E. SAUVAIN, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND

EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES

ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman 

THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi 

JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire 

LARRY CRAIG, Idaho 

KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas 

TED STEVENS, Alaska 

MIKE DEWINE, Ohio 

RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama 

TOM HARKIN, Iowa 

ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

HARRY REID, Nevada 

HERB KOHL, Wisconsin 

PATTY MURRAY, Washington 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (Ex officio) 

Professional Staff 

BETTILOU TAYLOR

JIM SOURWINE

MARK LAISCH

SUDIP SHRIKANT PARIKH

CANDICE ROGERS

ELLEN MURRAY (Minority) 

ERIK FATEMI (Minority) 

ADRIENNE HALLETT (Minority) 

Administrative Support 

CAROLE GEAGLEY
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Opening statement of Senator Arlen Specter ........................................................ 1 

Statement of John E. Higgins, Jr., Deputy General Counsel, National Labor 

Relations Board .................................................................................................... 2 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 

Statement of Charles I. Cohen, esquire, partner, Morgan Lewis, testifying 

on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ..................................................... 9 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 10 

Statement of Eileen Connelly, executive director, Service Employees International Union, and vice president, Pennsylvania AFL–CIO .......................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 18 

Statement of Sarah Fox, esquire, Bredhoff and Kaiser, testifying on behalf 

of AFL–CIO .......................................................................................................... 22 

Statement of Glenn M. Taubman, staff attorney, National Right to Work 

Legal Defense Foundation ................................................................................... 24 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 26 

Statement of Clarice Atherholt, employee, Dana Corporation ............................ 32 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 

Statement of Arlene Brockel, former employee, B. Braun, on behalf of the 

United Steelworkers of America, AFL–CIO ....................................................... 35 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 37 

Statement of Josephine Ruckinger, certified nursing assistant at Presbyterian 

Home of Hollidaysburg, PA, on behalf of the 1199P Service Employees 

International Union, AFL–CIO ........................................................................... 38 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 

Prepared statement of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 

1776 ....................................................................................................................... 54 

(1) 

EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT—UNION 

CERTIFICATION 

FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2004 

U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN

SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Harrisburg, PA. 

The subcommittee met at 2 p.m., in room 140, Pennsylvania 

State Capitol Building, Hon. Arlen Specter (chairman) presiding. 

Present: Senator Arlen Specter. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER

Senator SPECTER. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services 

and Education will now proceed. The purpose of this field hearing 

is to explore the provisions of S. 1925, which would establish a procedure for union certification where a majority of the employees of 

a firm have signed an authorization card. 

This would make a change in the existing practice where there 

is a requirement for some 30 percent to have stated an interest in 

forming a union and after an investigation by the National Labor 

Relations Board there is a determination made as to whether that 

30 percent is accurate and then there is a secret ballot to determine if there will be union representation. 

There have been allegations and counterallegations that pressure 

is exerted on both sides, which impedes a democratic vote, with 

some saying that the employees are pressured by the employer not 

to go forward with the election and others saying that the employees are pressured by the unions to go forward. 

This is a very fact-sensitive matter and it seemed that we ought 

to have a hearing on it to consider both sides. We have a very well 

balanced hearing this afternoon. 

We’re going to have the Deputy General Counsel of the National 

Labor Relations Board, Mr. John Higgins, who will be the first witness. The NLRB takes no position on legislation, as I understand 

from the preliminary statement of Mr. Higgins’ proposed testimony, and he nods in the affirmative, because they feel it might 

impact on some of their decisions. 

We’re going to hear from Mr. Charles Cohen, who is a partner 

of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius law firm, representing the Chamber 

of Commerce, in opposition. 

We’re going to hear from Ms. Eileen Connelly, the executive director of the Pennsylvania State Council of Service Employees 
2 

International Union and vice-president of the Pennsylvania AFL– 

CIO, speaking in favor of the proposed legislation. 

We’re going to hear from Ms. Sarah Fox, attorney from Bredhoff 

and Kaiser law firm, representing the AFL–CIO, in favor of the 

bill. 

Then we’re going to hear from Mr. James Taubman, Staff Attorney for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, in 

opposition to the bill. 

Then we’re going to hear from three employees, Clarice 

Atherholt, Arlene Brockel, and Josephine Ruckinger, who will express their views as to what they have found. 

In accordance with the Senate procedures, each witness is allotted 5 minutes. There is a clock on the witness table. It’s green for 

four minutes, it turns to amber for a minute and then it turns to 

red. In light of the substantial number of witnesses, the subcommittee would appreciate if you observe the time limits, and 

there will be an opportunity to amplify views during the questionand-answer session which will follow. 

So, with that, Mr. Higgins, we welcome you here and look forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF JOHN E. HIGGINS, JR., DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL, 

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you, Senator, and thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. First I’d ask that my written remarks be admitted into the record. 

Senator SPECTER. Your full statement will be made a part of the 

record and without objection. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you. I appear before you today for the purpose of providing technical assistance or information about the National Labor Relations Act and its enforcement by the Office of 

General Counsel. As you indicated, the Board and the Office of 

General Counsel have a longstanding policy of not commenting on 

proposed amendments to the Act and my remarks will be consistent with that tradition. 

I have been with the Board 40 years next month and it is because of this experience that, in response to your invitation, General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld asked me to represent him here 

today to discuss the current state of the law. 

Senator SPECTER. Sir, can you pull the microphone just a little 

closer. Senator Thurmond always used to say, pull the machine 

closer. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Is that better? All right. 

Senator SPECTER. You have a very deep South Carolina accent, 

so we can hardly understand you. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Mine is a Boston accent. 

Senator SPECTER. You got the machine closer. Senator Thurmond 

can hear you now. 

Mr. HIGGINS. In General Counsel’s role as a neutral prosecutor, 

he is statutorily separate and independent of the Board itself. So 

the views that I express today are not those of the Board. I am Mr. 

Rosenfeld’s deputy and I’ve served in this position for three other 

General Counsels and for two acting General Counsels. 
3 

I can’t really be exhaustive about this subject because we don’t 

see every neutrality agreement. By their nature, they don’t come 

before the Agency unless someone files a petition for an election or 

files an unfair labor practice charge. 

The legislation you are considering proposes to supplement the 

procedures for Board certification of bargaining representatives by 

providing for card checks on a footing equal to those currently enjoyed by Board conducted secret ballot elections. 

To say whether or not that’s a good idea is not my purpose here 

today. That’s a decision for Congress and certainly not for the 

NLRB. But I can say that with respect to the current certification 

procedures, they work quite well. 

NLRB ELECTION IS CROWN JEWEL

The Board’s election process has sometimes been called its crown 

jewel, and that I think is certainly well-deserved praise. Over the 

years we have run a lot of elections and we generally run them 

quickly, efficiently and fairly. The appellate procedures available to 

a party who is dissatisfied with an election can sometimes result 

in undue delay of the final resolution of the question concerning 

representation, but those delays are occasioned by the appeals 

process and not by Agency inaction. 

To be sure, there are some cases that the Agency takes too long 

with, but that doesn’t eclipse the outstanding record of our regional 

office staffs in seeing to it that our elections are run, for example, 

last year, in a median time of 40 days from the filing of the petition. And the statistics for the cases on the high side of that median are equally good, if not better. 92.5 percent of the elections 

run by the Board last year were run in 56 days or less. 

As my written testimony indicates, we’ve had a number of cases 

involving neutrality agreements. As recently as yesterday, the General Counsel decided an unfair labor practice case that presented 

the issue of employee disaffection from the union contemporaneously with the union and the employer agreeing on recognition. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

In many respects, this case is the unfair labor practice counterpart of the representation case now pending before the Board involving recognition bar, a case that’s described more fully in my 

written remarks. The parties have not been notified of the General 

Counsel’s decision, so I don’t want to advise you of the results of 

that case or the case name, but I mention it only to emphasize the 

frequency with which we see these cases and the varying contexts 

in which they are presented. 

So now I’ll be willing to answer any questions you may have. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOHN E. HIGGINS, JR. 

I am pleased to appear before the Subcommittee today as it considers the issue 

of voluntary recognition of labor organizations by employers under the National 

Labor Relations Act. I am a 40-year career employee of the NLRB, currently serving 

for the second time as Deputy General Counsel. I had the honor of serving as a 

Member of the National Labor Relations Board under recess appointments by President Reagan and the first President Bush. I appreciate the opportunity, on behalf 

of NLRB General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld, to explain the current status of the law 
4 

1See, e.g., Snow & Sons, 134 NLRB 709 (1961), enfd. 308 F.2d 687 (9th Cir. 1962). 2Linden Lumber Div., Summer & Co., 419 U.S. 304 (1974). 3 NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575 (1969). 

and to identify some of the legal issues that have arisen out of voluntary recognition 

pursuant to neutrality agreements. 

At the outset I want to make clear, consistent with long standing policy at the 

NLRB, that the General Counsel, who is appointed by the president and confirmed 

by the Senate to be a neutral prosecutor under the National Labor Relations Act, 

does not comment on the merits of pending legislative proposals. We will, of course, 

do our best to enforce the law firmly and evenhandedly, if Congress sees fit to 

amend it. We have done so for 69 years and have enforced major as well as minor 

changes to the Act during that time. 

The issue presented by the proposed legislation is voluntary recognition under the 

NLRA; a practice by which an employer accords to a labor organization the status 

of exclusive representative of employees in a bargaining unit on the basis of some 

verification that the labor organization has the support of a majority of the unit employees. Such verification can be by an independent neutral third party such as an 

arbitrator or a member of the clergy, or by the employer itself. Voluntary recognition—an alternative to the statutorily sanctioned process of Board-conducted, secret 

ballot elections—has been a common practice in labor-management relations for 

many years. Indeed, the Board has held that an employer that agrees to recognize 

a union upon a showing of majority support is bound by that commitment.1

The important thing about such voluntary recognitions under current labor law 

is that they are indeed voluntary. That is, as the law has stood for many years, the 

National Labor Relations Board cannot legally compel an employer, in the absence 

of an agreement otherwise, to recognize a labor organization, except under the representation provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. Those provisions, set out 

in Section 9 of the Act, require a secret ballot election, conducted by agents of the 

Board. 

That right—to insist on a secret ballot election—is safeguarded to all employers 

under the Act. The Supreme Court made this clear in its Linden Lumber decision.2

It is forfeited only if an employer commits such egregious unfair labor practices as 

to render the holding of a fair election impossible.3

An employer that receives a union demand for recognition has a choice as to 

whether to accede to the request based on a showing of majority, to tell the union 

to file a petition or to file the petition itself. In those situations in which a petition 

is filed, it is processed under the Act’s representation procedures. Most of these 

cases, indeed over 85 percent of them, go to an election by means of a Stipulated 

Election Agreement. These agreements obviate the need for hearing and provide the 

most expeditious way of getting to an election. But, whether or not we have a hearing or a stipulated agreement, we run all elections within a 42 median day from 

the filing of the petition. Last year, for example, we ran 2,659 elections in a median 

time of 40 days. And, 92.5 percent of these elections were run within 56 days. This 

is quite a remarkable record and we are very proud of it. Our Regional Offices work 

very hard to get to Stipulated Election Agreements and they strongly encourage 

early election dates. Of course there are always cases where the process takes 

longer—in some cases, too long. These cases are however, as the statistics I just 

cited indicate, are the exception and not the rule. 

Over the years employers have seen fit in some circumstances to forego their right 

to insist on a Board election and to simply recognize a union that claims and establishes majority support. Little controversy has attended this practice until recently. 

Rather, such recognitions have been challenged only occasionally—usually on the 

ground that they were ‘‘sweetheart’’ recognitions in which the favored union did not 

enjoy the support of a majority of the bargaining unit. Such illegitimate recognitions 

have routinely been challenged and condemned under Section 8(a)(2) of the Act, 

which outlaws improper ‘‘assistance’’ of a labor organization. The Office of the General Counsel has been diligent over the years in investigating and prosecuting such 

claims. Indeed, recognition of a minority union is one class of cases that readily 

lends itself to injunctive relief under Section 10(j) of the Act. 

Recently, we have come to see a growing practice of ‘‘neutrality agreements’’ in 

which a union and an employer agree to ground rules that they will follow in the 

event that the union attempts organize the employer’s employees. Under one form 

of these, a so-called ‘‘card check’’ agreement, the employer agrees to recognize the 

union on the basis of an independent verification of majority status. Card check 

agreements have become a matter of some controversy. Indeed, there are bills now 

pending in Congress that would effectively outlaw such agreements and require an 

NLRB election to establish a bargaining relationship. Similarly, other legislative 
5 

4Majestic Weaving Co., 147 NLRB 859, (1964), enf. denied on other grounds 355 F.3d 854 (2d 

Cir. 1966) (employer violates Section 8(a)(2) when it recognizes and negotiates a contract with 

a union that does not have authorization from a majority of the employer’s employees to represent the employees in collective bargaining, even when the recognition and contract are conditioned upon the Union’s future demonstration of majority support). 5See, e.g., Keller Plastics Eastern, 157 NLRB 583 (1966). 6Dana Corp., 341 NLRB No. 150 (2004). 

proposals would sanctify ‘‘card checks’’ and elevate them to the status of a Boardconducted, secret ballot election, even in the absence of prior agreement by the employer. 

One aspect of the General Counsel’s role as prosecutor under the Act is to review 

and evaluate novel legal claims and to determine whether they warrant formal presentation to the five-Member Board in the form of an adversary legal proceeding. We 

have recently begun to see an uptick in cases that raise a number of novel legal 

issues growing out of voluntary recognition—both ad hoc recognition and recognition 

as a product of a neutrality agreement. In the time remaining I will briefly outline 

some of these. 

One major class of cases we are seeing concerns whether terms contained in a 

neutrality agreement amount to unlawful assistance to the union in violation of 

§ 8(a)(2) of the Act. In some of these cases, recognition has been granted pursuant 

to an agreement that is alleged to improperly favor the union by suggesting employer approval of the union and/or by not permitting the employees who oppose the 

union the same access to employees that the employer permits the union. In some 

cases the agreement is said to illegally promise or imply employment terms that 

would be implemented upon the employees’ designation of the union as their representative. Such an agreement may run afoul of the Board’s Majestic Weaving doctrine.4

Another significant group of cases concerns agreements between an employer and 

a union that are said to commit the employer to require entities that the employer 

is affiliated with or does business with to execute a neutrality agreement. It is alleged that such agreements are unlawful secondary agreements under Section 8(e) 

of the Act. Section 8(e) is the so-called ‘‘hot cargo’’ provision, which outlaws certain 

agreements between employers and labor organizations. 

A third issue is that of the application of the recognition bar doctrine to cases in 

which an employer and union have agreed to voluntary recognition. The recognition 

bar doctrine precludes the running of an election for a reasonable time after an employer has voluntarily recognized the union on the basis of a showing of majority 

support.5 This policy bars election petitions by a group of employees seeking to decertify the union as bargaining agent or by a rival union, seeking to replace the new 

incumbent. The Board is now considering the viability of the recognition bar doctrine and just how far it should extend.6 Briefs were solicited from any interested 

parties last month and the General Counsel has filed a brief suggesting that while 

recognition bar serves a valuable statutory purpose, it should not preclude giving 

employees an opportunity for a secret-ballot election where within 30 days of a recognition, at least 50 percent of the unit employees express opposition to that recognition and file a petition for an election with the Board. Briefs were filed yesterday. 

These are some of the issues with which the Board and the General Counsel are 

now grappling. They are complex and require careful investigation and consideration. Our Regional Offices have recently been directed to submit neutrality agreement unfair labor practice cases to our Division of Advice in Washington, so that 

they may receive expert legal review before any prosecutorial decisions are made. 

The General Counsel wants to assure that the theories being advanced in these 

cases are consistent and uniform. 

Again thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I would be happy 

to answer any questions you may have. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you, Mr. Higgins. I note your comment 

that 90 percent of all elections are conducted in 56 days of filing 

a petition. What is the longest one that you had heard last year? 

Mr. HIGGINS. I don’t know, Senator. I don’t know what that one 

was. There are some cases that are pending before the Board involving preelection issues that have been pending before the Board 

for more than a year. 
6 

Senator SPECTER. Well, are some still pending for more than a 

year? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir. But it’s a handful compared to the 4,600 

petitions we received last year. 

Senator SPECTER. And the average time on appeal to the NLRB 

in Washington is 473 days; is that accurate? 

Mr. HIGGINS. I think that is, but, again, that’s a handful of cases, 

that’s an average, which is distorted by a particularly long case. 

There are cases pending at the Board for a long period of time and 

one of the goals of the current Board is to get rid of this backlog. 

The Board has been plagued, as you know, for a number of years 

now with a problem with turnover among the Board members, recess appointments, Board members coming and going. 

Senator SPECTER. Is that figure accurate, though, if you know? 

Mr. HIGGINS. I’d have to check on that, Senator. I’d be more than 

happy to do that and submit it for the record. 

Senator SPECTER. Well, 473 days is a little long for an appellate 

process, more than a year, wouldn’t you say? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir. 

Senator SPECTER. There have been efforts made to very materially cut back on NLRB funding. When I took over as Chairman of 

this Subcommittee, there was an effort in the House of Representatives to cut the funding by some 30 percent and that was altered 

in the Senate. We not only eliminated that cut but gave the appropriate inflation relief. Do you consider the funding for the NLRB 

to be adequate today to enable the NLRB to do its job? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes. And, of course, we support the President’s 

budget request. 

Senator SPECTER. You are not disagreeing with the President? 

Mr. HIGGINS. No, sir. 

Senator SPECTER. I’m not surprised. 

Well, that’s something which comes up constantly for those who 

are attending the hearing. Some of the Federal agencies think that 

budgets are too sparse. I haven’t found one yet in my 24 years that 

said they think they’re overfinanced, but even when an agency may 

think they need more money, they don’t say so. They have a rigorous line of review through the Office of Management and Budget 

and it’s expected they’re good soldiers. When the administration 

says that’s that, they don’t say the budget is insufficient. 

Every now and then we meet someone in the corridor who tells 

us a different story. I’m not saying NLRB has done that, but we 

watch your budget and when we find that the time is long—and 

I think these time limits are really on the outer limit, I think they 

are too long—then we, as a matter of congressional oversight, put 

in more funding to try to get matters expedited. 

We find veterans’ appeals, for example, are much, much too long. 

Social security appeals are much, much too long. And it is very important to get a very prompt disposition of these matters in controversy, because people are waiting. It’s like the court system, 

where we just opened up the station in Reading where we have a 

Federal station, two new judges. Judge Stengel from Lancaster and 

Judge Sanchez from Chester County are sitting there. 

So we would keep a close eye on it. And if there’s any suggestion 

that anybody from the Board wants to bring to this subcommittee, 
7 

we’re in charge of the appropriations, we’d be very interested to 

hear it. 

Mr. HIGGINS. We appreciate it. As you correctly note, this Committee has been very supportive of the Board’s budget requests in 

the past, particularly in the past 2 or 3 years, and we have used 

that additional money to remove some of the backlog, particularly 

the backlog in the field. 

The problem with the cases that you are speaking of, of course, 

are at the Board, and that’s where the problem with Board member 

turnover has plagued the Board with getting some of cases out. 

Senator SPECTER. This subcommittee has been very supportive of 

the Board, because you perform a very important function. And 

when you don’t make a decision, a lot of people out there are hanging in limbo. And that’s our job to see to it that you have funding 

to carry out a very important process. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Again, we’re very appreciative, Senator. 

Senator SPECTER. Mr. Higgins, is there currently consideration 

by the Board to alter the practice where the employees and the employer agree to have a card certification, as an alternative to holding an election? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Well, before the Board now is a case involving the 

viability of the recognition bar doctrine, the question being whether 

or not a recognition extended between an employer and a union 

bars a decertification petition filed by a group of employees who 

don’t want the union and whether it will bar a petition for more 

than a reasonable period of time. 

That case is before the Board. As a matter of fact, I described 

that case in my written remarks and also described the general 

counsel’s brief on that question that was filed yesterday in that 

case. 

In addition to that, there are a number of unfair labor practice 

cases currently pending before the General Counsel. None of them 

actually go specifically to challenging the concept of neutrality 

agreements qua neutrality agreements. 

There are allegations that some recognitions were extended in 

the context of coercive conduct either by the employer or the union. 

There are allegations that particular neutrality agreements may 

violate section 8(e) of the Act. And those are all pending decision 

by the General Counsel as we speak. In fact, in a number of them 

we’ve had the parties in, the employer, the union, and the charging 

party, the Right to Work people. 

Senator SPECTER. Mr. Higgins, isn’t it correct that under current 

law if employees and the employer agree to have the so-called card 

count that that can be done? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir, that is correct. And under current law, the 

Board will require the employer and the union to honor the results 

of that, absent showing that the cards were obtained coercively or 

that the cards don’t truly reflect the union’s majority status. 

Senator SPECTER. If there is some irregularity, of course, you 

don’t have to recognize the result, but if it’s a regular procedure 

and a majority of the employees sign the cards, as long as there’s 

an agreement between the employees and the employer, that is an 

alternative way under existing law for union certification? 
8 

Mr. HIGGINS. That is correct, sir for recognition. And that’s 

what’s called the Snow & Sons doctrine, which comes out of a case 

called Snow & Sons. 

Senator SPECTER. Now, is there any active consideration by the 

NLRB to change that procedure? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Again, I don’t know of any case now in which 

there’s an unfair labor practice charge that specifically challenges 

the legality of a card check. 

Senator SPECTER. Well, if there’s an unfair labor practice, that 

could result in setting it aside on factual grounds. My question goes 

to a different point, as to whether there is any consideration now 

by the National Labor Relations Board to alter the existing procedure where an employer and employees agree to card certification. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, there is. Well, to the extent that recognition 

bar case that I described a moment ago is an attempt to alter the 

procedure, that is one matter that’s pending before the Board now 

that’s under consideration. 

What that could do would be to alter the bar status of a recognition agreement. And when I say bar, I mean barring a decertification petition or decertification election. 

Senator SPECTER. Are you saying that there’s a matter pending 

now which could eliminate this certification by cards where there 

is agreement between the employer and employees—— 

Mr. HIGGINS. No, sir, it wouldn’t eliminate it. 

Senator SPECTER. Let me finish the question. We can’t tell anything about your answer unless we finish the question. 

Is there anything pending before the NLRB now which would 

alter certification where the employer and employees agree that it 

will be done by the card certification? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir. This would alter it only to the extent that 

it would permit employees who are unhappy with an agreement 

and with a recognition under one of those agreements to come in 

and ask the Board to run an election. Today they cannot come in 

and ask the Board to run such an election, because of what is 

called the recognition bar doctrine. 

There is a case pending before the Board right now in which the 

Board has asked the parties to brief the question of whether or not 

that recognition bar doctrine should continue in existence in the 

face of a recognition agreement of the kind you described. 

Senator SPECTER. Well, so, in effect, you’re saying that the Board 

is considering changing the procedure? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir, that is correct. I’m sorry. The proposal 

does not propose to outlaw recognition agreements. It would only 

remove the bar quality, and that’s a term, bar meaning it would 

remove the recognition as a bar to a decertification election petition 

filed by unhappy employees. 

Senator SPECTER. So it would be only in the case of a decertification decision? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir. 

Senator SPECTER. But otherwise, the current rule would stay the 

same? 

Mr. HIGGINS. Yes, sir. 
9 

Senator SPECTER. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Higgins, we 

appreciate your coming to the field hearing and thank you very 

much for your testimony. 

Mr. HIGGINS. Thank you. 

Senator SPECTER. We’ll now call our second panel, Mr. Charles 

Cohen, Ms. Eileen Connelly, Ms. Sarah Fox, and Mr. Glenn 

Taubman. Thank you all for joining us. 

Mr. Charles Cohen is a partner with the labor and employment 

practice of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, testifying today on behalf 

of the United States Chamber of Commerce. From 1994 to 1996, he 

served as a member of the NLRB, graduate of Tulane University 

and a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. 

Thank you for joining us, Mr. Cohen, and my first question is, 

when did Morgan, Lewis and Bockius become Morgan Lewis? 

Mr. COHEN. Well, the name of the firm is still Morgan, Lewis 

and Bockius, but we go by Morgan Lewis for about the last 4 years. 

Senator SPECTER. This is an esoteric question which lawyers who 

have practiced in Philadelphia for a long time are interested in and 

they’re condensing all their names. Mr. Cohen, you have 5 minutes. 

You may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF CHARLES I. COHEN, ESQUIRE, PARTNER, MORGAN 

LEWIS, TESTIFYING ON BEHALF OF THE U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you, Senator. I am pleased and honored to be 

here today and I also ask that my written remarks be admitted 

into the record. 

Senator SPECTER. Everybody’s written remarks will be made, 

without objection, a part of the record in full and then that gives 

you an opportunity to summarize within the allotted 5 minutes. 

Mr. COHEN. Thank you, Senator. Before becoming a member of 

the Board, I worked for the NLRB in various capacities from 1971 

to 1979, and then as a labor lawyer representing management in 

private practice until serving on the Board and then in private 

practice for the past 8 years. 

In my 33 years of experience, I’ve had the opportunity from different vantage points to observe and understand the issues which 

go to the heart of the proposed legislation. It is my sincere belief 

that Senator Wagner and the Congress got it right in 1935 by providing for government supervised NLRB elections and that Congress again got it right in 1947 by providing for employer free 

speech, subject to the restriction that that speech not contain promises of benefit or threats of reprisal. 

You will hear situations where the system did not work. Undoubtedly, that occurs. But, in my view, those situations are not as 

pervasive as portrayed. Indeed, it is not those situations which give 

rise to the decline in union density. Rather, that trend transcends 

NLRA law and has come about largely from the pressures of public 

competitive global economy, the wealth of employee protective legislation enacted over the past 40 years and societal changes regarding group affiliations. 

The heart of the proposed legislation, turning the NLRB into a 

card-counting mechanism rather than the guarantor of industrial 

democracy is a quite radical notion. Rather than being a 21st century idea in response to a 21st century problem, the idea of card 
10 

check recognition in lieu of a secret ballot election was on the union 

wish list at the time the so-called Labor Law Reform Bill was considered under the Carter administration. 

The same concerns were expressed about inadequacies of the 

NLRA and rising virulence of employers in their anti-union campaigns. But card check recognition was determined to be too extreme for passage. Hence, the notion of extremely quick secret ballot elections was substituted in that proposed legislation. 

I submit that if ever there were a time for card check recognition 

rather than secret ballot elections—— 

Senator SPECTER. There was a change from card check to secret 

ballot in the legislation? 

Mr. COHEN. In proposed legislation under the Carter administration, legislation which never got enacted. I submit that if ever 

there were a time for card check recognition rather than secret ballot elections, the present is the least appropriate time. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

With vastly increased use of neutrality agreements providing, in 

effect, a gag order on employers, employees need to know not only 

the potential benefits but the pitfalls of unionization. By coupling 

card check recognition with neutrality agreements, employee 

knowledge is foreclosed. 

In addition, it needs to be recognized that neutrality agreements 

are not, in my experience, the product of employee desires. Rather, 

they come from leverage that unions exert over the employer with 

respect to already recognized employees and/or from governmental 

or regulatory pressures. 

I thank you for the opportunity to be here. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHARLES I. COHEN

Chairman Specter and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased and honored 

to be here today. Thank you for your kind invitation. 

By way of introduction, I was appointed by President Clinton, confirmed by the 

Senate, and served as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board from March 

1994 until my term expired in August 1996. Before becoming a Member of the 

Board, I worked for the NLRB in various capacities from 1971 to 1979 and as a 

labor lawyer representing management in private practice from 1979 to 1994. Since 

leaving the Board in 1996, I have returned to private practice and am a Senior Partner in the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. I am a member of the Labor 

Relations Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Chair of its NLRB subcommittee, and am testifying today on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

The National Labor Relations Act was enacted in 1935 and has been substantially 

amended only twice—once in 1947 and once in 1959. The Act establishes a system 

of industrial democracy which is similar in many respects to our system of political 

democracy. At the heart of the Act is the secret ballot election process administered 

by the National Labor Relations Board. In order to understand how recent trends 

in organizing are diluting this central feature of the Act, some background is necessary. 

THE NLRB’S SECRET BALLOT ELECTION PROCESS

If a group of employees in an appropriate collective bargaining unit wish to select 

a union to represent them, the Board will hold a secret ballot election based on a 

petition supported by at least thirty percent of employees in the unit. The Board 

administers the election by bringing portable voting booths, ballots, and a ballot box 

to the workplace. The election process occurs outside the presence of any supervisors 

or managerial representatives of the employer. No campaigning of any kind may 

occur in the voting area. The only people who are allowed in the voting area are 
11 

the NLRB agent, the employees who are voting, and certain designated employee 

observers. 

The ultimate question of union representation is determined by majority rule, 

based on the number of valid votes cast rather than the number of employees in 

the unit. If a majority of votes are cast in favor of the union, the Board will certify 

the union as the exclusive bargaining representative of all employees in the collective bargaining unit. Once a union is certified by the Board, it becomes the exclusive 

representative of all of the unit employees, whether or not they voted for the union. 

The employer is obligated to bargain with the union in good faith with respect to 

all matters relating to wages, hours, and working conditions of the bargaining unit 

employees. 

The Board is empowered to prosecute employers who engage in conduct that 

interferes with employee free choice in the election process, and may order a new 

election if such employer interference with the election process has occurred. The 

Board will also order the employer to remedy such unfair labor practices, for example by ordering the employer to reinstate and compensate an employee who was unlawfully discharged during the election campaign. In extreme cases, the Board may 

even order an employer to bargain with the union without a new election, if the 

Board finds that its traditional remedies would not be sufficient to ensure a fair 

rerun election and if there is a showing that a majority of employees at one point 

desired union representation. The Supreme Court affirmed the Board’s power to 

issue this extraordinary remedy in NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575 (1969). 

When issuing a Gissel bargaining order, the Board will determine whether majority 

support for the union existed by checking authorization cards signed by employees 

during the organizing process. 

As the Board and the Supreme Court have acknowledged, the use of authorization 

cards to determine majority support is the method of last resort. A secret ballot election is the ‘‘most satisfactory—indeed the preferred—method of ascertaining whether a union has majority support.’’ Gissel Packing, 395 U.S. at 602. Unions likewise 

prefer an NLRB secret ballot election, at least when they are faced with a potential 

loss of majority support. In Levitz Furniture Co. of the Pacific, 333 NLRB 717 

(2001), the United Food and Commercial Workers, supported by the AFL–CIO as 

amicus curiae, took the position that ‘‘Board elections are the preferred means of establishing whether a union has the support of a majority of the employees in a bargaining unit.’’ Id. at 719 (emphasis added). The Board agreed with the unions’ position in Levitz. See id. at 725 (‘‘We agree with the General Counsel and the unions 

that Board elections are the preferred means of testing employees’ support.’’). 

Although authorization cards may adequately reflect employee sentiment when 

the election process has been impeded, the Board and the Court in Gissel recognized 

that cards are ‘‘admittedly inferior to the election process.’’ Gissel Packing, 395 U.S. 

at 602. Other federal courts of appeal have expressed the same view: 

—‘‘[I]t is beyond dispute that secret election is a more accurate reflection of the 

employees’ true desires than a check of authorization cards collected at the behest of a union organizer.’’ NLRB v. Flomatic Corp., 347 F.2d 74, 78 (2d Cir. 

1965). 

—‘‘It would be difficult to imagine a more unreliable method of ascertaining the 

real wishes of employees than a card check, unless it were an employer’s request for an open show of hands. The one is no more reliable than the 

other. . . . Overwhelming majorities of cards may indicate the probable outcome of an election, but it is no more than an indication, and close card majorities prove nothing.’’ NLRB v. S.S. Logan Packing Co., 386 F.2d 562, 565 (4th 

Cir. 1967). 

—‘‘The conflicting testimony in this case demonstrates that authorization cards 

are often a hazardous basis upon which to ground a union majority.’’ J.P. Stevens & Co. v. NLRB, 441 F.2d 514, 522 (5th Cir. 1971). 

—‘‘An election is the preferred method of determining the choice by employees of 

a collective bargaining representative.’’ United Services for the Handicapped v. 

NLRB, 678 F.2d 661, 664 (6th Cir. 1982). 

—‘‘Although the union in this case had a card majority, by itself this has little 

significance. Workers sometimes sign union authorization cards not because 

they intend to vote for the union in the election but to avoid offending the person who asks them to sign, often a fellow worker, or simply to get the person 

off their back, since signing commits the worker to nothing (except that if 

enough workers sign, the employer may decide to recognize the union without 

an election).’’ NLRB v. Village IX, Inc., 723 F.2d 1360, 1371 (7th Cir. 1983). 

—‘‘Freedom of choice is ‘a matter at the very center of our national labor relations 

policy,’... and a secret election is the preferred method of gauging choice.’’ 

Avecor, Inc. v. NLRB, 931 F.2d 924, 934 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (citations omitted). 
12 

Having recognized in Gissel that a secret ballot election is the superior method 

for determining whether a union has majority support, the Supreme Court in Linden Lumber v. NLRB, 419 U.S. 301 (1974), held that an employer may lawfully 

refuse to recognize a union based on authorization cards and insist on a Board-supervised secret ballot election. The only exceptions to an employer’s right to insist 

on an election are when the employer, as in the Gissel situation, has engaged in 

unfair labor practices which impair the electoral process or when the employer has 

agreed to recognize the union based on a check of authorization cards. Thus, an employer can agree to forgo a secret ballot election and abide by the less reliable card 

check method of determining union representation. 

THE INCREASING USE OF NEUTRALITY/CARD CHECK AGREEMENTS IN ORGANIZING

CAMPAIGNS

One of the highest priorities of unions today is to obtain agreements from employers which would allow the union to become the exclusive bargaining representative 

of a group of employees without ever seeking an NLRB-supervised election. These 

agreements, which are often referred to as ‘‘neutrality’’ or ‘‘card check’’ agreements, 

come in a variety of forms. In some cases, the agreement simply calls for the employer to recognize the union if it produces signed authorization cards from a majority of employees. In many cases, the agreement includes other provisions which are 

designed to facilitate the union’s organizing campaign, such as: 

—An agreement to provide the union with a list of the names and addresses of 

employees in the agreed-upon unit; 

—An agreement to allow the union access to the employer’s facilities to distribute 

literature and meet with employees; 

—Limitations or a ‘‘gag order’’ on employer communications to employees about 

the union; 

—An agreement to start contract negotiations for the newly-organized unit within 

a specified (and short) time frame, and to submit open issues to binding interest 

arbitration if no agreement is reached within that time frame; and 

—An agreement to extend coverage of the neutrality/card check agreement to 

companies affiliated with the employer. 

Whatever form the agreement may take, the basic goal is the same: to establish 

a procedure that allows the union to be recognized without the involvement or sanction of the National Labor Relations Board. Neutrality and card check agreements 

therefore present a direct threat to the jurisdiction of the Board and its crown jewel, 

the secret ballot election process. I have written two law review articles discussing 

this trend. See Charles I. Cohen, Neutrality Agreements: Will the NLRB Sanction 

Its Own Obsolescence?, The Labor Lawyer (Fall, 2000); Charles I. Cohen and Jonathan C. Fritts, The Developing Law of Neutrality Agreements, Labor Law Journal 

(Winter, 2003). 

The motivating force behind neutrality/card check agreements is the steady decline in union membership among the private sector workforce in the United States. 

Unions today represent only about 8 percent of the private sector workforce, about 

half of the rate 20 years ago. See U.S. Dep’t of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

Union Members in 2003 (Jan. 21, 2004), available at http://www.bls.gov/ 

news.release/pdf/union2.pdf. There are many explanations for this precipitous decline: the globalization of the economy and the intense competition that comes with 

it, the increasing regulation of the workplace through federal legislation rather than 

collective bargaining, and the changing culture of the American workplace. While 

unions may not disagree with these explanations to varying degrees, they claim that 

the NLRB’s election process is also to blame. Unions argue that the NLRB’s election 

process is slow and ineffective, and therefore an alternative process is needed— 

namely, neutrality/card check agreements. 

I believe there are two basic problems with this argument. First, it is not supported by the facts. The NLRB’s election process is efficient and fair, as demonstrated by hard statistics. Second, neutrality/card check agreements limit employee free choice and are generally the product of damaging leverage exerted by 

the union against the employer. 

THE NLRB’S ELECTION PROCESS IS EFFICIENT AND FAIR

The standard union criticisms of the NLRB’s election process are more rhetorical 

than factual. Unions argue that the NLRB’s election process is slow and allows employers to exert undue influence over employees during the pre-election period. Both 

of these arguments are not supported by the facts. 

The NLRB’s election process is not slow. In fiscal year 2003, 92.5 percent of all 

initial representation elections were conducted within 56 days of the filing of the 
13 

petition. Memorandum GC–04–01, Summary of Operations (fiscal year 2003), at p. 

5 (December 5, 2003), available at http://www.nlrb.gov/nlrb/sharedlfiles/gcmemo/ 

gcmemo/gc0401.pdf?useShared=/nlrb/about/reports/gcmemo/default.asp. During that 

same time period, the median time to proceed to an election from the filing of a petition was 40 days. Id. Based on my experience over the past 30 years, these statistics 

demonstrate that the Board’s election process has become even more efficient over 

time. 

Unions are currently winning over 50 percent of NLRB secret ballot elections involving new organizing. This is the category of elections that unions are seeking to 

replace with neutrality/card check agreements, and it is also the same category of 

elections that would be replaced by the Miller-Kennedy bill. If anything, unions’ win 

rate in representation elections is on the rise. The NLRB’s most recent election report shows that unions won 58.9 percent of all elections involving new organizing. 

See NLRB Election Report; 6-Months Summary—April 2003 through September 

2003 and Cases Closed September 2003, at p. 19 (March 26, 2004). This figure is 

about the same as it was 40 years ago. In 1965, unions won 61.8 percent of elections 

in RC cases (cases which typically involve initial organizing efforts, as opposed to 

decertification elections or employer petitions). See Thirtieth Annual Report of the 

National Labor Relations Board, at p. 198 (1965). After 1965, unions’ election win 

rate declined before rising back to the level where it is today: 

—In 1975, unions won 50.4 percent of elections in RC cases. See Fortieth Annual 

Report of the National Labor Relations Board, at p. 233 (1975). 

—In 1985, unions won 48 percent of elections in RC cases. See Fiftieth Annual 

Report of the National Labor Relations Board, at p. 176 (1985). 

—In 1995, unions won 50.9 percent of elections in RC cases. See Sixtieth Annual 

Report of the National Labor Relations Board, at p. 153 (1995). 

These statistics undermine any argument that the NLRB’s election process unduly favors employers, or that the recent decline in union membership among the 

private sector workforce is attributable to inherent flaws the NLRB’s election process. Unions are winning NLRB elections at the same or higher rate now than they 

have in almost 40 years. To be sure, there are ‘‘horror stories’’ of employers who 

abuse the system and commit egregious unfair labor practices in order to prevail 

in an election. In such cases, the law provides remedies for the employer’s unlawful 

behavior, including Gissel bargaining orders. But these situations are the exception 

rather than the norm. In the overwhelming majority of cases where employees 

choose not to be represented by a union, they do so based on the information that 

is presented by both sides during the campaign process. 

Unions attempt to portray the Board’s secret ballot election process as fundamentally unfair (except when unions are faced with a challenge to their majority status) 

by making unfavorable comparisons between Board elections and a typical political 

election in the United States. In doing so, unions frequently ignore several important facts about the NLRB election process: 

—The union controls whether and when an election petition will be filed. Imagine 

if the challenger in a political election controlled the timing of the election. 

—The union largely controls the definition of the bargaining unit in which the 

election will occur, because the union need only demonstrate that the petitioned-for unit is an appropriate bargaining unit. Imagine if the challenger in 

a political election had almost irreversible discretion to gerrymander the voting 

district to its maximum advantage. 

—The union usually has obtained signed authorization cards from a majority of 

employees at the time the petition is filed. Thus, the union already knows the 

voters and has conducted a straw poll before the employer is even aware that 

an election will be held. Imagine if the challenger in a political election could 

campaign and poll the electorate without the incumbent’s knowledge, wait until 

the polls show that the challenger has majority support, and then give the incumbent less than 60 days’ notice of the election. 

—Even though the union already knows the voters well by the time the election 

petition is filed, the employer must give the union a list of all of the voters’ 

names and home addresses after the petition is filed. The union, but not the 

employer, is then permitted to visit the employees at home to campaign for 

their vote. 

—The union, unlike the employer, can make campaign promises to the employees 

to induce them to vote for the union. 

—The union, like the employer, may designate an observer to be present in the 

voting area for the duration of the election, in order to check every voter and 

make sure that no irregularities occur. 

These facts illustrate that, far from being unfair to unions, the NLRB’s election 

process offers unions many unique advantages. 
14 

PROBLEMS WITH NEUTRALITY/CARD CHECK AGREEMENTS

The fundamental right protected by the National Labor Relations Act is the right 

of employees to choose freely whether to be represented by a union. 29 U.S.C. § 157. 

Neutrality/card check agreements limit employee free choice by restraining employer free speech. Section 8(c) of the Act protects the right of employers to engage 

in free speech concerning union representation, as long as the employer’s speech 

does not contain a threat of reprisal or a promise of benefit. 29 U.S.C. § 158(c). 

Unions, through neutrality/card check agreements, seek to restrain lawful employer 

speech by prohibiting the employer from providing employees with any information 

that is unfavorable to the union during the organizing campaign. Such restrictions 

or ‘‘gag orders’’ on lawful employer speech limit employee free choice by limiting the 

information upon which employees make their decision. 

A second problem with neutrality/card check agreements is the method by which 

they are negotiated. In my experience, neutrality/card check agreements are almost 

always the product of external leverage by unions, rather than an internal 

groundswell from unrepresented employees. The leverage applied by the union can 

come from a variety of sources. In many cases, the union has leverage because it 

represents employees at some of the employer’s locations. The union may be able 

to use leverage it has in negotiations for employees in an existing bargaining unit, 

in order to win a neutrality/card check agreement that will facilitate organizing at 

other locations. Bargaining over a neutrality/card check agreement, however, has little or nothing to do with the employees in the existing bargaining unit, and it detracts from the negotiation of the core issues at hand—wages, hours, and working 

conditions for the employees the union already represents. 

In other cases, the union exerts pressure on the employer through political or regulatory channels. For example, if the employer needs regulatory approval in order 

to begin operating at a certain location, the union may use its political influence 

to force the employer to enter into a neutrality/card check agreement for employees 

who will be working at that location. Political or regulatory pressure may be coupled 

with other forms of public relations pressure in order to exert additional leverage 

on the employer. In general, this combination of political, regulatory, public relations and other forms of non-conventional pressure has become known as a ‘‘corporate campaign,’’ and it is this type of conduct—rather than employee free choice— 

that has produced these agreements. 

Thus, when a union succeeds in obtaining a neutrality/card check agreement, it 

generally does so by exerting pressure on the company through forces beyond the 

group of employees sought to be organized. The pressure comes from bargaining 

units at other locations, and/or it comes from politicians, regulators, customers, investors, and the public at large. It is a strategy of ‘‘bargaining to organize,’’ meaning 

that the target of the campaign is the employer rather than the employees the 

union is seeking to organize. 

The strategy of ‘‘bargaining to organize’’ stands in stark contrast to the model of 

organizing under the National Labor Relations Act. Under the Act, the pressure to 

organize comes from within—it starts with the employees themselves. If a sufficient 

number of employees (30 percent) desire union representation, they may petition the 

NLRB to hold a secret ballot election. If a majority vote in favor of union representation, the NLRB certifies the union as the employees’ exclusive representative and 

the collective bargaining process begins at that point. At all times, the focus is on 

the employees, rather than on the employer or the union. 

There is no cause for abandoning the secret ballot election process which the 

Board has administered for 7 decades. The Act’s system of industrial democracy has 

withstood the test of time because its focus is on the true beneficiaries of the Act— 

the employees. In my view, the Miller-Kennedy bill is not sound public policy because it would deprive employees of the fundamental right to determine the important question of union representation by casting their vote in a Board-supervised 

secret ballot election. Indeed, that it would be unwise public policy to abandon government-supervised secret ballot elections in favor of mandatory card check appears 

to me to be a self-evident proposition. It likewise would eviscerate the proud tradition of industrial democracy that has been the hallmark of the NLRB for nearly 

seven decades. 

I am aware that Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has introduced quite opposite 

legislation, S. 2637, which would require that union representation for currently unrepresented groups of employees be determined by a secret ballot election. Without 

the increasing use of corporate campaigns and neutrality/card check agreements 

over the last decade—a trend that has eroded employee free choice and reflects a 

shift in focus from organizing employees to organizing employers—such legislation 

would not be needed. But, in light of this trend, such legislation, in my view, is nec-
15 

essary to protect the interests of the employees the Act is intended to benefit, by 

ensuring that their right to vote is not compromised by agreements that are the 

product of external pressure on their employer. 

THE MILLER-KENNEDY BILL’S INTEREST ARBITRATION PROVISIONS

In addition to mandating recognition by card check rather than a secret ballot 

election, the Miller-Kennedy bill would eviscerate another fundamental tenet of U.S. 

labor law: voluntary agreement. As the Supreme Court held in H.K. Porter v. NLRB, 

397 U.S. 99 (1970), the Act is founded on the notion that the parties, not the government, should determine the applicable terms and conditions of employment: 

‘‘The object of this Act was not to allow governmental regulation of the terms and 

conditions of employment, but rather to ensure that employer and their employees 

could work together to establish mutually satisfactory conditions. The basic theme 

of the Act was that through collective bargaining the passions, arguments, and 

struggles of prior years would be channeled into constructive, open discussions leading, it was hoped, to mutual agreement. But it was recognized from the beginning 

that agreement might in some cases be impossible, and it was never intended that 

the Government would in such cases step in, become a party to the negotiations and 

impose its own views of a desirable settlement.’’——Id. at 103–04 (emphasis added). 

The Miller-Kennedy bill would destroy this bedrock principle of the Act by mandating that, if the parties are not able to reach agreement on a first contract within 

a 120-day period, the terms of the contract will be set by an arbitration panel designated by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. As with the abandonment of the secret ballot election, I believe this interest arbitration requirement is 

unwise public policy. The employer is the entity which must run the business, remain competitive, and pay the employees each week. The union has the opportunity 

to influence the employer’s thinking by engaging in economic warfare. But, the actual agreement is forged in the crucible of what the business can sustain. I firmly 

believe that our present system has it right for employers and employees covered 

by the NLRA and that the employer must retain the power to determine whether 

the terms of the agreement are acceptable to it. 

CONCLUSION

This concludes my prepared oral testimony. I look forward to discussing my comments in more detail during the question and answer period, but before that, I 

would again like to thank the Subcommittee for inviting me here today, and for its 

attention to these very important developments regarding labor law in the 21st century. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you very much, Mr. Cohen. I would 

turn now to Ms. Eileen Connelly, the executive director of the 

Pennsylvania State Council of Service Employees International 

Union and vice-president of the Pennsylvania AFL–CIO. Prior to 

her union work, she was a medical laboratory technician at the Hazleton-St. Joseph Hospital in Hazleton. 

Thank you very much for joining us, Ms. Connelly, and we look 

forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENT OF EILEEN CONNELLY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SERVICE 

EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, AND VICE PRESIDENT, 

PENNSYLVANIA AFL–CIO 

Ms. CONNELLY. Hi, Senator. First let me extend my condolences 

to you and your staff on the death of Carry Lackman. I also want 

to welcome all the union members in the room. There’s quite a few 

here. And I’m proud to be testifying on behalf of SEIU and the 

AFL–CIO here. 

I think that you know that SEIU represents about 60,000 people 

in the State of Pennsylvania, and just from the first two witnesses 

I guess only SEIU’S having all the problems, but we have seen a 

lot with regard to organizing. 
16 

My personal experience, doing this over 20 years, I’ve been organizing thousands and thousands of workers into unions in the 

State of Pennsylvania, and I’ve witnessed way too much abuse, way 

too much intimidation and harassment by employers. And all of my 

organizing has been in health care. I think that’s important to 

point out. I have not organized workers in other industries. 

I’ve seen employers manipulate the NLRB process in such a way 

as to turn the concept of democracy on its head. Employers, their 

attorneys, their consultants, they’re all experts at playing the legal 

system, and they discourage, they frustrate, they stall, they do everything possible to keep workers from organizing. They spend 

hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lot of which is health care dollars that should be spent on patient care in the health care system. 

I did want to share, and it’s in my written remarks, but I did 

want to share a few specific examples, because I think that they 

point out exactly what we go through in organizing, and they’re not 

in any way the exception with regard to my experience in organizing. 

There’s a group of workers in Pittsburgh, and this happened very 

recently, they’re very poor workers they work for a for-profit company. They signed up over 70 percent on union cards. They followed the current Board procedure, they filed for an election, and 

instead of voluntarily agreeing to an election the employer claimed 

that all the LPNs and the lead cook were supervisors. 

They went through days of hearings, they filed briefs. Months 

later, not 56 days, months later they still didn’t have an election 

in sight. But the Labor Board found in favor of the union and 

found that they had to go to an election. But through that period, 

you’d think, well, the employer lost the case. No. Through that period, they never expected to win the issue, but they just wanted to 

delay long enough to intimidate, harass and scare the workers 

there. 

The message was simple in this campaign. We’re the boss, we decide whether or not you have a job and we’re totally committed to 

stopping you from organizing, and that’s what they did. We were 

not able to maintain that campaign. We just recently pulled out of 

the election, because we lost a majority of the support, from 70 percent a few months later to probably down to around 30 percent, 

and we didn’t go through with the election. 

Even workers who overcome these, they often have their decision 

nullified. One of the employee witnesses here today from SEIU will 

testify specifically to what she experienced at the Presbyterian 

Home in Hollidaysburg, where 2 years later—they waited a year 

for the ballots to be counted following their election. They waited 

1 year to get a first contract, still don’t have a first contract. And 

right now the employees are waiting to have a decertification election after 2 years from the day that they filed for their election. 

Some of what I heard earlier from the Labor Board with regard 

to the exception rather than the rule, I see that as the rule in 

terms of very, very long delays, very, very long processes. 

The other thing that employers do very typically is they hire 

what we call outside union busters, they call them attorneys, we 

call them union busters, and they train supervisors. We’ve seen 

here in Pennsylvania numerous times people actually go in and live 
17 

at the facility day and night weeks before an election to have oneon-one meetings, we call them captive audience meetings, or oneon-one literally where it’s the consultant and the employee sitting 

and the consultant is telling the employee things like, well, you 

don’t know if you’re going to have a job or you don’t know if you’re 

going to keep what you have. 

These companies oftentimes cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. We’ve seen it in hospitals here in Pennsylvania. A few years 

ago the State auditor general actually found Geisinger up in 

Danville, the hospital in Wilkes-Barre that we organized that they 

illegally used Medicare money to—actually, Medicaid money it 

was—to fight the union in an organizing campaign. Nothing happened, absolutely no penalty to the employer for that. 

So what happens is that the employer, not the union, has control 

over the employees in the workplace. So when you’re going through 

an organizing campaign, the employees are really not in a free and 

democratic position with regard to going through that campaign. 

Senator SPECTER. Who was the employer in that case, Ms. 

Connelly? 

Ms. CONNELLY. Geisinger Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre. 

Geisinger, the main Geisinger is in Danville, Pennsylvania. This 

hospital was part of the Geisinger System in Wilkes-Barre that 

SEIU was organizing. 

The Employee Free Choice Act is meant to avoid all of this, to 

not allow the employer to be able to go through all this. Under current laws, it is legal for a group of workers who have a majority 

of support for the employer to recognize the union. It doesn’t happen that way. 

We have experience after experience after experience where we 

file for an election, we wait 56 days, we wait months and months 

before we actually get a date for an election, and then with legal 

filings going through what goes on in D.C. where—I mean I’ve seen 

it over and over and over again where people have to wait 1 year 

from a filing in D.C. until they get a date for an election. It is, in 

my experience, not the exception at all. It’s absolutely the rule. 

You know, one thing—I’m running out of time, but one thing I 

do think it’s important to think about with regard to this piece of 

legislation and within the context of how people vote in this country, the workplace, as I said before, is not democratic at all. In this 

country, if we were put in a situation like happens with union elections where only one candidate had access to the population and 

another candidate, for instance, had to try to talk to the population 

that was going to vote for them from another State, then we would 

say, well, that’s not fair that we do that. But, in reality, that’s what 

happens in the workplace. The union doesn’t have access to talk to 

employees. We are not allowed inside the workplace. The employer 

has them every day, every minute that they’re at work. So if you 

think about it within the context of an election for Senator, you 

know, it’s like you would have to talk to your constituents from 

New Jersey, because you’re not allowed—— 

Senator SPECTER. Be careful, Ms. Connelly. When he is in New 

Jersey, Senator Lautenberg is not here. 
18 

Ms. CONNELLY. Actually, I’m a Jersey girl born and raised, so I 

can talk about Jersey. And I still have a lot of people who vote in 

Jersey in my family. 

But in all seriousness, I mean it is I think in a lot of ways very 

helpful to look at the same kind of a situation, because in the 

union that’s how we feel. We’re not allowed to have equal access, 

equal ability to share information, equal ability to provide information as the employer in the setting of a union. We have to go to 

employees’ homes. We have to stand at the bottom of the driveway 

in the bitter cold, which I’ve done many times, and hopefully people 

stop and talk to us. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

So it’s not how democracy was ever meant to be in this country. 

It should be that if you have a majority, the majority rules. That’s 

what this country is set up on. So a lot of details on different situations I’ve been through in different campaigns are in my written 

testimony, but I will answer any questions you have. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF EILEEN CONNELLY

Thank you for inviting me to testify before this committee today, my name is Eileen Connelly, I am the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania State Council for 

the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is the largest and fastest 

growing labor union in the AFL–CIO. SEIU represents 1.6 million workers nationally in healthcare, building services and public sector employment and 60,000 workers in Pennsylvania. I am a Vice President of the Pennsylvania AFL–CIO and a 

member of the Executive Committee of the AFL–CIO. Please accept my written testimony which I submit for the record of these proceedings. 

In 1982 I was working as a Medical Lab Technician at Hazleton-St. Joseph Hospital in Hazleton, PA. At that time District 1199P had won an election for the technical employees and was negotiating a first contract. I was a member of the bargaining team. Since that time I have worked as both a member/organizer and beginning in 1984 as a full-time union organizer in numerous union organizing campaigns in Pennsylvania, primarily helping nursing home workers form a union so 

that they could engage in collective bargaining. 

I take enormous pride in the fact that I have helped thousands of workers form 

unions in their workplaces and assisted workers through collective bargaining gain 

better wages, benefits and most importantly a voice for workers in the care of their 

patients. Today though, I want to tell you about the incredible obstacles workers 

face every day when they try to form a union. I have witnessed too much worker 

abuse, intimidation and harassment by employers who are unwilling to respect 

workers’ rights to form unions. That is why there is a critical need to reform our 

nation’s labor laws by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, S. 1925. Let me share 

with you some specific stories I have witnessed. 

Because I have done the majority of my organizing work helping nursing home 

workers form unions, I ask this committee. Is it right that publicly funded or subsidized health care facilities use taxpayer dollars to thwart workers’ rights and violate our nation’s labor laws? 

I have seen employers manipulate the NLRB election process in such a way as 

to turn the concept of democratic free choice on its head. Employers and their lawyers and consultants have become experts at playing the system, using the NLRB 

to frustrate, stall, and discourage workers from exercising their democratic right to 

form unions. Often, the result is that workers who have chosen to form a union are 

simply defeated in their efforts; sometimes, workers ultimately win, but only after 

tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent and months or even years 

have been wasted, bringing true meaning to Dr. King’s axiom that ‘‘Justice delayed 

is justice denied.’’ 

Recently, our union got a call from a group of about 35 workers at The Residence 

on Fifth, an assisted living facility in Pittsburgh who wanted to form a union. These 

workers are the definition of the working poor, doing some of the most important 

work in their community, in this case for a large for profit company, but earning 
19 

literally poverty level wages. Our organizers met with them, and within a short period of time, they had built an organizing committee and signed up over 70 percent 

of the employees on union cards. They followed the current NLRB procedure and 

filed for an election. Instead of voluntarily agreeing to an election, the Employer responded by claiming that all of the LPNs and the lead cook at the facility are supervisors, and therefore have no legal right to organize. This triggered several days of 

hearings, followed by the filing of legal briefs, and then the decision by the NLRB 

Regional Office. All of this took months, with no election date in sight. The Board 

found that the Employer’s position had no merit and that the disputed job classifications must be included in the bargaining unit. So you might think that the Employer lost the case. Not so—like so many other Employers, they never really expected to prevail on the issue, they simply wanted to delay the process so that they 

could use the time to intimidate and confuse the workers into backing down from 

organizing their union. And intimidate and confuse they did, with numerous one on 

one mandatory intimidation sessions with supervisors, many letters from the employer, and other tactics. The message was simple—we’re the boss, we decide whether you have a job or not, and we are totally committed to stopping you from organizing a union. You could end up losing what you have, you will probably have to 

strike, and you may be permanently replaced. If you want to keep what you have, 

including your job, vote NO. These workers got the message loud and clear, and by 

the time the Board issued its decision in favor of the workers, support for the union 

had eroded to a small minority, and the union had no choice but to withdraw from 

the election. This story is repeated time and time again all over Pennsylvania when 

workers try to exercise their freedom to form a union. 

Even when workers overcome these tactics and win an election, they often have 

their decision nullified later by more legal shenanigans. In 2002, workers at the 

Presbyterian Home of Hollidaysburg, PA voted to form a union. The home had argued that because they were a faith-based institution, their employees were excluded from the scope of the National Labor Relations Act, an issue that was long 

ago decided in favor of the workers by the Board and the Courts, and the NLRB 

Regional Office rejected the Employer’s claim. But in this case, the Employer refused to accept the decision of the NLRB Regional Office and filed a request for review with the NLRB in Washington, DC. The result was that the workers’ votes 

were impounded for about one full year from the time of the election, while the case 

wound its way through the Federal bureaucracy. After the votes were counted, revealing that the workers had won, the Home proceeded to stall negotiations for another year. By this time, workers had been waiting over 2 years for a contract, many 

of the workers who had organized the union had quit in frustration, and many of 

those who remained were convinced that they would never be able to succeed 

against their employer. Predictably, the employer was able to convince a group of 

workers to file for a new election to decertify the union, and that election will be 

happening in the next few weeks. 

In an organizing campaign, the employer typically hires outside union busters to 

take over employee relations during the period of an organizing campaign, and 

apply techniques borrowed from psychology and sociology to turn employees against 

the idea of organizing. The union busters teach supervisors how to identify and target union supporters and how to use their supervisory authority to pressure the 

staff to refrain from exercising their right to organize. They put together letters and 

leaflets to scare and confuse workers. Often, they meet directly with workers in 

mandatory one on one or group ‘‘captive audience’’ meetings. They develop slick videos and websites full of misinformation and half truths about the labor movement. 

And they do it all for a hefty price. In recent years, Pennsylvania health care institutions from Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, to Geisinger Medical Center 

in Danville, to Wyoming Valley Health Care System in Wilkes-Barre, have hired expensive union busting consulting firms from, respectively, Ohio, Arizona, and 

Malibu, California, to attempt to defeat workers organizing efforts, in each case paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now I ask you. Who is paying for this employer activity? The patients? Their families? Or the taxpayers, through Medicare 

and Medicaid funding? The answer is, all of the above. A few years ago, the office 

of the Auditor General of PA found that Geisinger Health System had illegally used 

nearly $300,000 in public Medicaid dollars on an anti-union consultant firm from 

Arizona. Unfortunately, under current law, Geisinger suffered literally no penalty 

for this illegal diversion of funds—none. 

Needless to say, NLRB elections are conducted in an inherently coercive environment—the workplace. The employer—not the union—has ultimate power over employees. Only the employer has the ability to withhold wages or grant increases in 

salary, assign work and shifts, and ultimately discharge workers—the capital punishment of the workplace. 
20 

1Kate Bronfenbrenner, Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capitol Mobility on Workers, Wages 

and Union Organizing, September 6, 2000. 

In the end, even when conducted by NLRB professional staff, elections under the 

NLRA are not democratic, because the workplace is not democratic. 

The Employee Free Choice Act is intended to remove these obstacles and at the 

same time improve cooperation between employees and employers by eliminating 

the requirement of mandatory voting when the majority of workers has already expressed its decision to self-organize. Under current laws, it is perfectly legal for a 

majority of employees to choose union representation without the need for an election; however, as it now stands, their employer has the right to veto their decision, 

absent an NLRB election. Again, it is not the employer’s choice to form a union, it 

is the choice of the employees. 

SEIU is using this legal majority verification procedure (commonly known as 

‘‘card check’’) more and more. Some employers, generally in situations where workers have already built a strong union presence in their company over many years 

of conflict and struggle, have agreed to a card check procedure like the one envisioned by the Employee Free Choice Act. Here in Pennsylvania, the best example 

is the huge nursing home company, Beverly Enterprises. Senator, I know that you 

are aware of the long history of struggle of the Beverly employees in this state to 

exercise their legal right to form unions. At one time, Beverly was known as the#1 

violator of workers’ right to organize in the history of the National Labor Relations 

Act, and as a result this company is the subject of an extraordinary national cease 

and desist order issued by the Federal Courts for violations of workers’ rights. Unfortunately, it took literally 20 years of fighting, including the largest nursing home 

strike in Pennsylvania history, to hold the Company accountable for its actions 

under the current labor laws. The two decades of strife and conflict between Beverly 

and its workers were bad for everyone affected, including the taxpayers and certainly the residents of Beverly’s homes. But earlier this year Beverly and SEIU 

began a new era of collaboration and cooperation that puts quality care and services 

for residents and fairness for workers front and center. We are working together to 

ensure proper funding for nursing homes, and were proud to stand with you at a 

Beverly facility in northeastern PA recently to call for release of the funds desperately needed by our long term care industry to provide quality care. And we have 

instituted a new card check procedure by which workers at three Beverly homes 

have recently exercised their right to organize the union with none of the conflict, 

acrimony, and wasted resources that have typified Beverly workers’ organizing efforts in the past. The process is working for everyone, and it is working well. 

Another company, Addus Home Care, recently reached a similar agreement with 

SEIU, allowing a group of home care workers in Philadelphia to form a union 

through card check verification earlier this year. 

So some employers are recognizing that there is a better way of conducting the 

union recognition process that truly respects workers’ rights. But too often, employers refuse to grant recognition, even when presented with overwhelming proof that 

a majority of workers have signed authorizations. In fact, it has been my experience 

during organizing campaigns, we present proof that 60 percent, 70 percent or more 

worker signed cards. Card check, or majority verification, provides workers a means 

of making a free and fair decision about joining a union. 

The NLRB election process is a meat-grinder, and allows the employer a freehand to wage a campaign where employees are intimidated, threatened, spied upon, 

harassed, and—in a quarter of all cases—fired,1 in order to suppress the formation 

of a union. 

Our union has seen this on far too many occasions—here’s just one example. Several years ago, a group of workers at South Fayette Nursing Center, a small nursing 

home in the hills of southwestern PA called us to assist them in forming a union. 

The conditions at this home were really abysmal, and the workers’ choice to 

unionize was nearly unanimous—over 90 percent of them signed up to join the 

union in two or three days. Now this operator was no Beverly Enterprises, he was 

a small businessman operating on a tight margin. But let me tell you, he spared 

no expense in trying to stop workers from exercising their rights. He hired not one 

but two union-busting consultant firms, one of whom sent in a union buster who 

spent every single day and night in the facility for weeks before the election, forcing 

workers to meet with him in small groups and one on one, sowing fear and confusion among these workers. He threatened that the company would close the home 

if they voted yes. He told them they would lose what they already had. He told them 

the union was corrupt and would steal their money. He showed them carefully edited videos of strikes and tried to associate the union with violence and sabotage. 

Meanwhile, the workers had virtually no access to union folks to talk them through 
21 

any of theses issues. Union organizers and union members from nearby facilities 

had to stand at the end of a long driveway in the winter snow at shift change, or 

find workers outside of work at their homes, to have any direct contact with them, 

but they were getting barraged every day at work. By the time the union buster 

got done with them, many of these workers were completely intimidated and confused. Nonetheless, the workers voted for the union, by one vote. The employer responded by filing objections to the election claiming that the union—that’s right the 

union!—had threatened and intimidated workers. What’s more, within a week of the 

election they fired one of the key leaders of the organizing campaign, who they outrageously claimed had threatened workers into voting yes. 

Months and months later, the Labor Board dismissed the objections and negotiated a cash settlement for the fired worker, who by then had moved on with his 

life and gotten another job. But the message to the workers was clear: stand up for 

the union and you risk your job. After a year of stalling negotiations for the first 

union contract, the employer got a group of anti-union workers to file for a decertification election. By then, few workers who had been at the home at the time of 

the original election even remained, and most of those who had been there from the 

beginning were scared to participate in union activities. Not surprisingly, the union 

was decertified. This story is not an exception, but too often the rule when workers 

try to organize in America today. Any union like ours that has been actively out 

there trying to help workers organize under the current legal framework could give 

you numerous other examples of this type. 

Until one has been through the meat grinder of trying form a union under the 

current procedure, or at least seen it first hand, it is very hard to understand why 

the process of having elections in the workplace isn’t really democratic at all. After 

all, elections are the basic way that we make decisions in our democratic society. 

But Senator, I can tell you, that if we ran political elections in this country under 

the rules that apply to union elections, not a single American would consider them 

free and fair exercises in democracy. Imagine a political election where one candidate has 100 percent guaranteed access to the voters five days a week, while the 

other has to try to communicate from one state over. Where if voters vote or campaign against the incumbent, they may very likely be out of a job, and even if they 

prove they were fired for their campaign activities, it can take literally years for 

them to get their job back. The reality is that elections under the NLRA bear almost 

no resemblance to the free and fair elections in which we all participate in the political arena. 

Finally, this legislation would create meaningful penalties for violations of the 

Act. The bill would not restrict employer free speech, but would ensure the employer 

speech is not coercive or threatening, or intended to deter employee free choice. 

Under current law discipline or discharge of workers for union activity, threats to 

close or move the workplace, harassment and intimidation of workers at ‘‘captive audience’’ or one-on-one meetings with supervisors on work time, interrogation and 

surveillance of workers suspected of wanting to form a union are all technically illegal under the NLRA. Under current law in most instances, the only sanction an employer faces for its conduct is posting a cease-and-desist order in the workplace. Firing and disciplining workers, or having to post a notice is an acceptable cost of doing 

business for employers. They know they don’t face any real economic penalty for violating worker’s rights. 

This bill would create fines of up to $20,000 per infraction, and provide for triple 

back pay awards for fired and disciplined workers. I know that if the employer at 

South Fayette Nursing Center had to pay a substantial fine and triple back pay to 

the worker that they illegally fired the week after the union election, they would 

probably have thought twice about breaking the law, and those workers would in 

all likelihood have a union today. 

In summary, the Employee Free Choice Act would reform the NLRA so that when 

a majority of workers demonstrate their choice to form a union their representative 

can be certified by the NLRB without the need for the NLRB election. The legislation would also guarantee effective and efficient collective bargaining, and create 

real penalties as a determent to unlawful employer conduct. 

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to testify before this committee I urge 

your support of the Employee Free Choice Act, S. 1925. I am happy to answer any 

questions you might have regarding my testimony. 

Senator SPECTER. Okay. Thank you very much, Ms. Connelly. 

We’ll come back to you on some of the things you’ve said during 

the question-and-answer session. 
22 

We turn now to Ms. Sarah Fox, a labor lawyer from the firm of 

Bredhoff and Kaiser in Washington. From 1996 to 2000, she served 

as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, has also 

served as Chief Democratic Labor Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, graduate of Yale University with a law degree from Harvard. 

I might note just parenthetically that Ms. Fox has been very 

heavily engaged, as I have, on the asbestos problem, which poses 

a major concern for both injured workers and for corporations 

which have been driven into bankruptcy. There are at the present 

time thousands of people who suffer very serious injuries from lifethreatening ailments like mesothelioma whose companies have 

gone bankrupt, and at the same time the jobs have been lost, the 

companies have gone down, some 70 major bankruptcies in the 

United States. 

Last year the Senate passed a bill out of committee to try to do something about this. So a trust fund was created in excess of $100 

billion. The thought was there would be schedules like Workers’ 

Compensation so you didn’t have to go to court to prove fault. You 

could collect on a showing of injuries. 

I enlisted the aid of a Federal judge, retired Judge Becker, and 

for 2 full days last August, we sat in his chambers with him in 

Philadelphia. We’ve had meetings in my office every 2 or 3 weeks 

since. Another meeting is scheduled for next week. We’ve ironed 

out a lot of problems. It’s my view that we will come to a consensus 

here, that is, a consensus between the manufacturers and insurers 

on one side and the AFL–CIO, trial lawyers, plaintiffs’ lawyers on 

the other side. 

When you have an issue that intense, what we try to do is get 

people to agree. I don’t think you can legislate unless there is that 

kind of agreement. We’d be looking for some agreement here, too, 

and that’s one thing, it’s useful to see if you can find ways that people can come to an agreement. 

But Ms. Fox has done quite a job there and it’s a subject which 

hasn’t received a lot of attention, so I think it’s worth a moment 

or two to tell the millions of people watching on Pennsylvania 

Cable Network, this is being broadcast live, the millions of people 

watching what is going on. 

Ms. Fox, that doesn’t take a minute of your 5 minutes. It begins 

now. 

STATEMENT OF SARAH FOX, ESQUIRE, BREDHOFF AND KAISER, TESTIFYING ON BEHALF OF AFL–CIO 

Ms. FOX. Thank you very much for your introduction. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today to talk to you for once not 

about asbestos but about S. 1925, the Employee Free Choice Act. 

It is particularly a pleasure for me to be here because two of the 

other witnesses are former colleagues of mine on the Board. Mr. 

Cohen and I served together in 1996. And Mr. Higgins, although 

he didn’t mention it, he’s a career NLRB employee, but has also 

had two stints as a member of the Board, including one that overlapped with mine. So we had sort of a reunion here today. 

I’d like to focus particularly today on the provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act which deal with what is referred to some-
23 

times as card check recognition. So I’m happy to answer questions 

about the other provisions, but I wanted also just to set the stage 

for this by talking a little about the history of the Act and the history of this procedure under the Act, because I view it not as what 

is being proposed here, not as a radical change in the Act, but as 

really restoring the initial premise of the National Labor Relations 

Act. 

The Act was enacted in 1935 because all over the country millions of workers or hundreds of thousands of workers were organizing into unions and their employers were refusing to bargain 

with them, to respect their choice to be represented by unions in 

their dealings and to bargain collectively with them. 

The Act for the first time imposed a legal obligation on employers 

to bargain with majority representatives, and the language of the 

statute is ‘‘designated or selected by their employees.’’ 

The Act also had a provision for the Board to certify unions as 

majority representatives, but it specifically contemplated that certification was not the only way that a union could become the majority representative and that the employer would have to bargain 

with them, that outside of the Board process, if the union could 

demonstrate majority support, it was perfectly lawful for the employer to recognize and bargain with them. 

For the first several years under the Act, the Board certified 

without secret ballot elections, that is, when a union filed a petition 

the Board would hold a hearing and the union could put in evidence that membership rolls, cards that were signed, show that a 

majority of the workers had participated in a strike. Any kind of 

evidence that the Board considered sufficient to establish that a 

majority supported the union was enough to achieve a certification. 

Now, the Board did in about 1940 start a practice of not certifying unless—automatically just calling for an election in those circumstances, and that was codified by Congress in 1947. Nevertheless, the other procedure of voluntary recognition continued and, in 

fact, to call it voluntary recognition is a bit of a misnomer, because 

until the mid’ 60s, an employer who was presented with evidence 

of majority support was required to recognize and bargain with the 

union unless he had a good faith doubt. 

The Board for many years was very clear that a good faith doubt 

could not be wanting to buy time to try to persuade the employees 

not to support the union or otherwise trying to undermine support 

for the union. 

It is only since 1966 that employers have had this right, when 

presented with this evidence by their employees, to say it’s up to 

us and we’ve decided that we won’t accept the evidence, we will 

make you have an election regardless of whether we believe that 

at this time the union, in fact, represents a majority. 

So to say that this is a radical change I think overstates how relatively recent in the history of the Board the total focus on the 

election has been. 

People talk a lot about—and I want to emphasize that, because 

people talk a lot about this process of cards as being unreliable, but 

employers do have the right to recognize now on the basis of cards 

and they don’t complain in those situations that it’s unreliable. 
24 

Employers also have the right under the law now when they 

have a union in place and a majority of the employees come with 

a petition that says we don’t want the union anymore, the employer has the legal right to withdraw recognition from the union 

on the basis of those signatures. 

So we have this anomalous situation under the law that if you 

had a certified union that had won a Board election and a majority 

of employees presented a petition to the employer, the employer 

could say no more union. But if 1 year later the exact same employees and the same number of employees presented a petition to 

the employer saying we want the union, the employer would have 

the choice of whether to recognize them or to demand an election. 

So I just wanted to put a little of this into perspective and I’m 

happy to answer any questions. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you very much, Ms. Fox. We turn now 

to Mr. Glenn Taubman, who for the past 20 years has been a Staff 

Attorney with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Mr. Taubman has his law degree from Emory University 

School of Law. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Taubman, and the 

floor is yours. 

STATEMENT OF GLENN M. TAUBMAN, STAFF ATTORNEY, NATIONAL 

RIGHT TO WORK LEGAL DEFENSE FOUNDATION 

Mr. TAUBMAN. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the important issues before the Committee. 

I am a Staff Attorney with the National Right to Work Foundation 

and since 1968 the Foundation has provided free legal aid to workers who choose to stand apart from a labor union to exercise their 

right to refrain that Congress gave them in Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. And, more importantly, it is their right 

under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. 

I am pleased to be here among witnesses for organized labor and 

witnesses for various employers, for each of these groups have their 

own agendas and their own self interests. I am here to speak on 

behalf of another group, the group for whom the National Labor 

Relations Act was specifically designed. I’m speaking about individual employees, the workers who have First Amendment and 

Section 7 rights to join or an equal right to refrain from joining a 

labor union. 

It is these employees whose rights are sacrificed or potentially 

sacrificed whenever a union is chosen to act as their exclusive bargaining representative, because these individual workers may not 

desire such representation and, indeed, may strongly oppose it. In 

such situations, these workers’ rights to enjoy the fruits of their 

own labor are extinguished or greatly limited by the mere existence 

of a bargaining agent whom they do not desire. 

Thus, what we’re really talking about with this bill is the extent 

to which individual employee rights, which are already limited 

under the National Labor Relations Act, are going to be further 

limited through the card check recognition process. This 

euphemistically entitled process strips away any possibility that 

employees will vote in a secret ballot election as to whether they 

wish to have or refrain from having a union. 
25 

This process also eliminates or very drastically reduces NLRB 

and Federal Court oversight of the union selection or rejection 

process, leaving employee rights in the hands of self-interested 

unions who are desperate for more dues paying members and selfinterested employers who may be desperate to avoid a union corporate campaign or similar union pressure tactics or who may simply want to cut a financially beneficial deal with a compliant or favored union of its choosing. 

This is not just pie in the sky rhetoric but part of a documented 

trend. You need to only look at a case like the NLRB and the U.S. 

Court of Appeals 2004 decision in Duane Reade, a case regarding 

the UNITE union, or, for example, an earlier case called Windsor 

Castle Health Care involving the SEIU union, to find examples 

where employers and unions shamelessly colluded to force unwanted union representation on nonconsenting employees, all 

based upon supposed card check recognition. 

Every card check campaign is inherently coercive and the contrast between the rules governing an NLRB supervised secret ballot election and the rule of the jungle governing card checks could 

not be more stark. 

When an employee signs or refuses to sign a union authorization 

card, he is likely not to be alone. To the contrary, it is likely that 

he will be asked to sign in the presence of one or more union organizers. And by signing that card, he is thereby casting, quote, a 

vote for the union. 

This solicitation could occur during an unwanted home visit, in 

any circumstance, the employee’s decision is not secret as in an 

election, because the union clearly knows who signed the card and 

who didn’t. Indeed, once an employee has made the decision yea or 

nay in a secret ballot election, the process is at an end. 

By contrast, a choice against signing a union authorization card 

does not end the decision-making process for an employee in the 

jaws of a card check drive, but often represents only the beginning 

of harassment and intimidation for that employee. 

As my client Clarice Atherholt’s statement indicates, many employees signed union cards in her shop just to get the union organizers off their back, not because they really wanted the union to 

represent them. Is that fair? 

PREPARED STATEMENT

Senator, I do not think that your constituents would want to cast 

their vote for President or Senator or mayor under similar circumstances with active poll watchers from one of the candidates or 

political parties looking over their shoulder, knowing precisely how 

they vote, and continually harassing them if they vote the wrong 

way, all in an election, quote, unquote, that has no time limits and 

can stretch on for months or even years until such time as the candidate browbeats enough, quote, voters to get the votes he needs. 

Simply stated, this is not the American way. 

Thank you for your time. I ask you to not support the KennedyMiller bill and, in fact, to support Congressman Charles Norwood’s 

bill that mandates secret ballot elections. Thank you. 

[The statement follows:] 
26 

1Tierney v. City of Toledo, 116 LRRM 3475 (N.D. Ohio 1984), aff’d., 785 F.2d 310 (6th Cir. 

1986), vacated and remanded, 106 S. Ct. 1628 (1986), reversed on reconsideration, 824 F. 2d 

1497 (6th Cir. 1987), further proceedings, 917 F.2d 927 (1990); Lowary v. Lexington Local Board 

of Education, 124 LRRM 2516 (N.D. Oh. 1986), reversed, 854 F.2d 131 (6th Cir. 1988); further 

proceedings, 704 F. Supp. 1430 (N.D. Ohio 1987), further proceedings, 704 F. Supp. 1456 (N.D. 

Ohio 1988), further proceedings, 704 F. Supp. 1476 (N. D. Ohio 1988), affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part, 903 F.2d 422 (6th Cir. 1990); Jordan v. City of Bucyrus, 739 F. 

Supp. 1124 (N.D. Ohio 1990), further proceedings, 754 F. Supp. 554 (N.D. Ohio 1991). 2 E.g., UFCW Local 951 v. Mulder, 812 F. Supp. 754 (W.D. Mich. 1993), aff’d, 31 F.3d 365 

(6th Cir. 1994); NLRB v. Office and Professional Employees Intern. Union, Local 2, AFL–CIO, 

292 NLRB No. 22 (1988), enforced, 902 F.2d 1164 (4th Cir. 1990); California Saw and Knife 

Works, 320 NLRB 224 (1995); Schreier v. Beverly California Corp., 892 F. Supp. 225 (D. Minn. 

1995); Bloom v. NLRB, 153 F.3d 844 (8th Cir. 1998), vacated, 209 F.3d 1060 (2000); Production 

Workers of Chicago (Mavo Leasing), 161 F.3d 1047 (7th Cir. 1998); Penrod v. NLRB, 203 F.3d 

41 (D.C. Cir 2000). 3 UAW and Freightliner/Daimler-Chrysler, Case Nos. 11–CA–20070–1, 11–CA–20071–1, 11– 

CB–3386–1, 11–CB–3387–1; UAW and Dana Corp. (Elizabethtown, KY), Case Nos. 9–CA– 

40444–1 and 9–CB–10981–1, Case Nos. 9–CA–40521–1 and 9–CB–10996–1; UAW and Dana 

Corp. (Bristol, Va), Case Nos. 11–CB–3397, 11–CB–3398, 11–CB–3399, 11–CA–20134, 11–CA– 

20135, 11–CA–20136 (Region 11, Winston-Salem); Heartland Industrial Partners and United 

Steelworkers of America (USWA), Case No. 8–CE–84–1 (Region 8, Cleveland Oh.); Patterson v. Heartland Industrial Partners, et. al, No. 5:03 CV 1596 (U.S. District Court, N.D. Ohio); UAW 

and Dana Corp. (St. Johns, MI), Case Nos. 7–CA–46965–1 and 7–CB–14083–1, 7–CA–47078– 

1 and 7–CB–14119, and 7–CA–47079–1 and 7-CB–14120; UAW and Dana Corp. and Metaldyne 

Precision Forming/UAW (St. Marys, PA)., 341 NLRB No. 150 (June 7, 2004) (granting review 

in two decertification cases); United Steelworkers of America and Cequent Towing Products (Goshen, IN)., NLRB Case No. 25–RD–1447. 4 ‘Neutral’ Union Bid Fails First Local Test, Grand Rapids Press, September 27, 2003, p. A– 

1. 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF GLENN M. TAUBMAN

Chairman Specter and Distinguished Senators: Thank you for the opportunity to 

comment on the issues raised in these important hearings. 

My name is Glenn Matthew Taubman. I am a Staff Attorney with the National 

Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, in Springfield, Virginia. Since the Foundation was founded in 1968, it has provided free legal aid to workers who choose 

to stand apart from a labor union, to exercise the ‘‘right to refrain’’ that Congress 

granted them under § 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 157, and 

that, more fundamentally, is guaranteed by the First Amendment’s freedom of association. 

I have worked as a Foundation staff attorney for more than twenty years. In that 

time, I have provided free legal representation to thousands of individual employees 

nationwide, seeking through litigation to vindicate their fundamental constitutional 

and civil rights against compulsory unionism abuses perpetrated by both unions and 

employers. In addition to representing public sector employees in a wide variety of 

federal civil rights cases dealing with the abuses of compulsory unionism,1 I have 

spent a large part of my professional life litigating cases under the National Labor 

Relations Act.2 In recent years, I have been representing individual employees facing a new challenge to their right to refrain from compulsory unionism: so-called 

‘‘neutrality and card check’’ programs hatched by unions to help force union ‘‘representation’’ on unwilling employees. I am counsel or co-counsel in numerous currently pending cases challenging some form of ‘‘neutrality and card check’’ scheme.3

WHAT IS ‘‘NEUTRALITY AND CARD CHECK?’’ 

Frustrated that workers are not voluntarily choosing to join or be represented by 

unions, labor union officials have turned to organizing employers and imposing 

unionization on employees from the top down. The National Labor Relations Board 

reports that unions win less than 50 percent of secret ballot elections, and that figure does not even include the many occasions where unions withdraw election petitions and walk away because they lack employee support. Of necessity, union officials do not want to publicize these election losses, preferring to act secretly. A case 

in point recently occurred at the Magna Donnelly plant in Lowell, Michigan. There, 

the United Auto Workers union (UAW) secured an agreement for strict employer 

neutrality, but with the stipulation that there be a secret-ballot election. Even with 

strict employer neutrality, the UAW lost badly, with one employee publicly commenting to the local newspapers, ‘‘Unions are not needed in America anymore.’’ 4

Unions obviously would rather operate in secrecy. 

Even putting all of this aside, the basic issue under discussion in these hearings 

is simply one of worker free choice, the right of employees to freely choose or reject 

representation by a particular union. That is the heart of the NLRA. Proposals like 
27 

5The Senate need look no further than the Board’s recent decision in Duane Reade, Inc., 338 

N.L.R.B. No. 140 (2003), enforced, Case No. 03–1156, 2004 WL 1238336 (D.C. Cir. June 10, 

2004), to see this union and employer self-interest at work. There, in blatant disregard of employees’ § 7 rights to freely choose or reject a union, the employer unlawfully assisted its handpicked union in coercing employees to sign union authorization cards so that ‘‘voluntary recognition’’ could be bestowed. 6 Attached as Exhibit 1 is the Declaration of Clarice Atherholt, the petitioner in UAW and 

Dana Corp. (Upper Sandusky, OH), Case No. 8–RD–1976. Ms. Atherholt describes her inability 

to even see the secret agreement that her employer, Dana Corporation, entered into with the 

UAW. 7See http://www.nrtw.org/d/uawna.pdf 

the Kennedy-Miller legislation, which virtually outlaw secret-ballot elections under 

the NLRA, do not enhance this right to freely choose or reject a union. Instead, they 

strip workers of their already limited rights against unions, and impose an undemocratic system with no checks and balances. 

This is especially true given the growth of so-called ‘‘neutrality and card check’’ 

agreements. In these agreements, unions and employers take deliberate advantage 

of the NLRB’s rules to delete the Board from the process in which employees choose 

(or reject) union representation. Exclusion of the Board from the representational 

process leaves employees’ rights in the abusive hands of employers and unions, each 

of which is pursuing its own self-interests under these agreements. Unions are desperately seeking additional members and dues revenues. Employers are (naturally) 

pursuing their business interests, such as avoiding coercive union corporate campaigns or obtaining a pre-negotiated ‘‘sweetheart deal’’ regarding future-organized 

employees’ terms and conditions of employment. Neither entity has any interest in 

protecting employees’ rights to freely choose or reject union representation, the very 

rights the NLRA exists to protect. 

Under ‘‘neutrality and card check’’ agreements, the employer anoints a particular 

union, and negotiates a secret, pre-arranged ‘‘partnership agreement’’ that obligates 

the employer to assist its ‘‘partner’’ union with organizing the employees. The employer then provides that anointed union with special privileges (e.g., captive audience speeches praising the new ‘‘partner’’ union, lists of employees’ home addresses, 

gerrymandered bargaining units to weed out union opponents, and the waiver of secret ballot elections in favor of so-called ‘‘card checks’’), and turns a blind eye as the 

union harasses and misleads employees into signing union authorization cards. Employee free choice should not, and under the text of the NLRA cannot, be subject 

to the vagaries of self-interested unions and employers. See MGM Grand Hotel, 329 

N.L.R.B. 464, 469–75 (1999) (Member Brame, dissenting).5 Abolition of ‘‘voluntary 

recognition,’’ or at least strong curbs on its abuse, are needed to protect the paramount employee right to freely choose or reject union representation. 

So what exactly is a ‘‘neutrality agreement?’’ It is an enforceable contract between 

a union and an employer usually kept secret from the very employees it targets 6— 

under which the employer agrees to support a union’s attempt to organize its workforce. Although these agreements come in several different forms, common provisions include: 

—Gag Rule.—While most neutrality agreements purport merely to require an employer to remain ‘‘neutral,’’ in reality they impose a gag order on speech not favorable to the union. A company, including its managers and supervisors, is 

prohibited from saying anything negative about the union or unionization during an organizing drive. Employees are only permitted to hear one side of the 

story: the version the union officials want employees to hear. In a recent speech 

to the ABA, NLRB Chairman Battista criticized the growing use of neutrality 

agreements and stated that the ‘‘purpose of using neutrality agreements is not 

to expedite [employee free choice], but to silence one of the parties.’’ Daily Labor 

Reporter, Five Members Discuss Decisionmaking, Wide Variety of Issues at ABA 

Meeting, August 15, 2003, Page B–1. 

For example, the UAW’s model ‘‘neutrality clause’’ states that an employer may 

not ‘‘communicate in a negative, derogatory or demeaning nature about the other 

party (including the other party’s motives, integrity, character or performance), or 

about labor unions generally.’’ 7 In practice this requires employers to refrain from 

providing even truthful information in response to direct employee questions. In 

contrast to this employer silence, the UAW’s model neutrality agreement requires 

the signatory employer to affirmatively ‘‘advise its employees in writing and orally 

that it is not opposed to the UAW being selected as their bargaining agent.’’ Such 

limits on free speech, and requirements of forced pro-union speech, are purposefully 

designed to squelch debate and keep employees in the dark about the union that 

covets them. 
28 

8 Attached as Exhibit 2 is a sworn Declaration of Faith Jetter in Support of her Motion to 

Intervene or, Alternatively, to File a Brief Amicus Curiae in the case of Sage Hospitality Resources, LLC v. HERE Local 57, 299 F. Supp. 2d 461 (W.D. Pa. 2003), appeal pending, No. 03– 

4168 (3d Cir.) (Before any employees were hired, the City of Pittsburgh pressured hotel operator 

to sign a neutrality and card check agreement as a condition of approving the public financing 

necessary to complete its project, even directing the hotel operator to contact specific HERE officials to negotiate this mandatory arrangement). In her Declaration, Ms. Jetter describes her 

own harassment at the hands of the union granted such ‘‘neutrality,’’ and in addition states: 

‘‘I also saw the union representatives try to coerce another employee to sign a card, even though 

they never explained to the employee what this card meant, or told her that the union could 

be able to be automatically recognized as the representative of the employees without a secret 

ballot election. It was clear to me that this employee had no idea what this card meant when 

the union tried to get her signature.’’ 9 NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., 395 U.S. 575, 604 (1969). 

In Chamber of Commerce v. Lockyer, 364 F.3d 1154, 1166 (9th Cir. 2004) (emphasis added), the Ninth Circuit recently struck down a state law mandating ‘‘neutrality’’ because it directly interfered with employees’ right to organize or refrain 

from doing so. The Ninth Circuit reached this conclusion because ‘‘an overriding 

principle of the NLRA is that the collective bargaining process cannot function unless both employers and employees have the ability to engage in open and robust 

debate concerning unionization.’’ This interest in ‘‘open and robust debate’’ about the 

pros and cons of unionization is hardly enhanced by employer gag rules favoring one 

anointed union. 

—No Secret Ballot Election.—Most neutrality agreements include a ‘‘card check’’ 

agreement. Under such an agreement, employees are not permitted to vote on 

union representation in a secret ballot election monitored by the National Labor 

Relations Board. Instead, the employer pledges to recognize the union automatically if it can produce a certain number of signed union authorization cards. Experience shows that employees are often coerced or misled into signing these 

authorization cards. For example, employees report being falsely told that these 

union authorization cards are merely health insurance enrollment forms, nonbinding ‘‘statements of interest,’’ requests for an election, or even tax forms.8

Indeed, the United States Supreme Court has recognized this as well: ‘‘We would 

be closing our eyes to obvious difficulties, of course, if we did not recognize that 

there have been abuses, primarily arising out of misrepresentations by union organizers as to whether the effect of signing a card was to designate the union to represent the employee for collective bargaining purposes or merely to authorize it to 

seek an election to determine that issue.’’ 9

Moreover, when an employee signs (or refuses to sign) a union authorization card, 

he or she is not likely to be alone. Indeed, it is likely that this decision is made 

in the presence of one or more union organizers pressuring the employee to sign a 

card. This solicitation could occur during or immediately after a union mass meeting 

or a company- paid captive audience speech, or it could occur in the employee’s own 

home during an unsolicited union ‘‘home visit.’’ In all cases the employee’s decision 

is not secret, as in an election, since the union clearly has a list of who has signed 

a card and who has not. Thus, a choice against signing a union authorization card 

does not end the decision- making process for an employee in the maw of a ‘‘card 

check drive,’’ but often represents only the beginning of harassment and intimidation for that employee. 

In sharp contrast, each employee participating in an NLRB-conducted election 

makes his or her choice one time, in private. There is no one with the employee at 

the time of decision. The ultimate choice of the employee is secret from both the 

union and the employer. Once the employee has made the decision ‘‘yea or nay’’ by 

casting a ballot, the process is at an end. Thus, only with an Orwellian world-view 

can unions claim that ‘‘we save industrial democracy and employee free choice by 

doing away with the secret ballot election.’’ 

—Access to Premises.—Neutrality agreements commonly give the union permission to come on company property during work hours for the purpose of collecting union authorization cards. This differs from the guidelines set by the 

NLRB and the courts, under which an employer has no obligation to, and may 

actually be prohibited from, providing the union with such sweeping access to 

its employees. —Access to Personal Information.—Neutrality agreements frequently require that 

the company provide personal information about employees to the union, including where employees and their families live. Armed with a company-provided 

list of the names and addresses of each employee, union officials can conduct 

‘‘home visits’’ to pressure employees to sign union authorization cards. 
29 

10See Exhibit 2 attached hereto. 11 Aeroground, Inc. v. City & County of San Francisco, 170 F. Supp. 2d 950 (N.D. Cal. 2001) 

(municipal ordinance which regulated private-sector labor relations and mandated the waiver 

of rights and interests protected by the NLRA is unconstitutional as preempted); see also Chamber of Commerce v. Lockyer, 225 F. Supp. 2d 1199 (C.D. Cal. 2002) (similar state statute preempted), affirmed, 364 F.3d 1154 (9th Cir. 2004); Metropolitan Milwaukee Ass’n of Commerce 

v. Milwaukee County, 325 F.3d 879 (7th Cir. 2003) (employer association has standing to challenge county ordinance requiring employers to enter into ‘‘labor peace agreements’’). 

Employee Faith Jetter attested to what happened after her employer provided the 

HERE union with her personal information: 

‘‘I was called at home and also contacted in person by HERE union representatives and urged to sign a union authorization card. These union representatives already had my name and home address and telephone number. I was asked if the 

union representatives could come to my home and make a presentation about the 

union. I allowed them to come, as I was willing to listen. 

‘‘Two union representatives came to my home and made a presentation about the 

union. They tried to pressure me into signing the union authorization card, and 

even offered to take me to out dinner. I refused to sign this card as I had not yet 

made a decision at that time. 

‘‘Shortly thereafter, the union representatives called again at my home, and also 

visited my home again to try to get me to sign the union authorization card. I finally 

told them that my decision was that I did not want to be represented by this union, 

and that I would not sign the card. 

‘‘Despite the fact that I had told the union representatives of my decision to refrain from signing the card, I felt like there was continuing pressure on me to sign. 

These union representatives and others were sometimes in and around the hotel, 

and would speak to me or approach me when I did not want to speak with them. 

I also heard from other employees that the union representatives were making inquiries about me, such as asking questions about my work performance. I found this 

to be an invasion of my personal privacy. Once when I was on medical leave and 

went into the hospital, I found that when I returned to work the union representatives knew about my hospitalization and my illness. I felt like their knowledge 

about me and my illness was also an invasion of my personal privacy.‘‘ 10

—Captive Audience Speeches.—Employees may be forced to attend company-paid 

‘‘captive audience’’ speeches pursuant to neutrality agreements. In these mandatory forums, the union and management work together to pressure employees 

to sign up for the union. Sometimes it is announced that the union and company have already formed a ‘‘strategic partnership,’’ making union representation seem a foregone conclusion. In one facility owned by Johnson Controls Inc., 

it was strongly implied that if workers did not support the union’s organizing 

effort, they risked losing potential job opportunities. Can it be said that employees freely signed cards after such coercion? 

HOW DO UNIONS SECURE NEUTRALITY AGREEMENTS?

Employers are often pressured into neutrality agreements by union picketing, 

threats, or comprehensive ‘‘corporate campaigns.’’ Some employers are pressured 

into neutrality agreements by other companies who are acting at the behest of union 

officials. A neutrality agreement itself may require an employer to impose the neutrality agreement on other companies with whom it affiliates. But do employees who 

are targets of these agreements approve? Are they ever asked? Many do not even 

know that such a deal covering their unionization exists. As employee Faith Jetter 

noted in her sworn Declaration (Exhibit 2), ‘‘I heard that the Hotel and the HERE 

union signed an agreement covering the union’s attempt to organize the employees 

of the Hotel. I also learned that this agreement required my employer to give the 

HERE union a list of employees’ names and addresses, and access to the employees 

inside of the Hotel. No one asked me if I approved of this, and I do not. I am opposed to the Hotel giving the HERE union a list of with my name and personal information, and allowing them access to me in the workplace.’’ 

Even more ominous, there is a growing trend in which state and local politicians 

pass laws mandating that employers who wish to do business with the state or locality must sign neutrality agreements. In one notorious case, the San Francisco 

Airport Authority mandated that any concessionaires who wished to lease space at 

the airport had to first sign a neutrality agreement. That governmental interference 

in private labor relations was held to be federally preempted, and was enjoined.11

Unfortunately, many state and local politicians are still attempting to require neu-
30 

12 Even the union oriented press has reported that the UAW trades employee wages and benefits for ‘‘neutrality,’’ see ‘‘UAW Trades Pay Cuts for Neutrality’’ at http//www.labornotes.org/archives/2003/07/c.html and http//www.labornotes.org/archives/2003/10/b.html 

trality agreements as a condition of contracting with the government or of obtaining 

grants, even though most, if not all, such requirements are federally preempted. 

The bottom line is this: employees’ rights of free choice are sacrificed and lost 

under so-called ‘‘neutrality agreements.’’ Instead of being able to freely choose for 

themselves whether they desire union representation through a secret ballot election, management and union officials work together to impose unionization on workers from the top down. 

EXAMPLES OF WORKER ABUSE UNDER ‘‘NEUTRALITY AGREEMENTS’’ 

There are many pending legal cases challenging neutrality agreements and card 

checks as abuses of workers’ rights, some of which are cited in footnote 3 above. One 

that particularly highlights these abuses is Dana Corp. and UAW, Case Nos. 7–CA– 

46965–1 and 7–CB–14083–1and 7–CA–47078–1 and 7–CB–14119. 

In this case, the UAW has been trying to unionize the Dana Corporation plant 

in St. Johns, Michigan (‘‘Dana St. Johns’’) for several years, without success. In August, 2003, the UAW reached a ‘‘partnership’’ agreement with Dana that covers the 

employees of Dana St. Johns (and others), even though the UAW does not represent 

any of the targeted employees. The terms of this ‘‘partnership’’ agreement have been 

kept secret. 

This ‘‘partnership’’ agreement is undisputably a ‘‘labor contract’’ enforceable under 

§ 301 of the NLRA, 29 U.S.C. § 185. See UAW v. Dana Corp., 278 F.3d 548 (6th Cir. 

2002). The provisions of this enforceable contract: (1) establish a ‘‘card check’’ and 

dispense with NLRB-supervised secret ballot elections, (2) establish joint UAWDana captive audience speeches; (3) gag all supervisors from even truthfully answering employees’ questions; (4) give union organizers wide access to employees in 

the plant; and (5) give union organizers personal information about the employees 

including home addresses all with the joint goal of prodding these employees into 

accepting the UAW as their representative. In practice, the UAW has also used this 

‘‘partnership’’ to limit employees’ ability to revoke their authorization cards, by informing them that in order to do so, one or more union officials must personally 

come to their homes! 

The UAW and Dana entered into their ‘‘partnership’’ agreement out of fear that 

the union would continue to fail in its quest to unionize the employees at Dana St. 

Johns and elsewhere. This ‘‘partnership agreement’’ is a classic example of a ‘‘bargaining to organize’’ scheme, wherein union officials commit to act in a manner favorable to management interests in exchange for employer assistance with gaining 

and maintaining control over employees.12 Despite public fanfare about the existence of this ‘‘partnership,’’ the specific terms of the agreement are secret from the 

very employees it targets, and whose interests it compromises. 

As noted, the employees of Dana St. Johns have long rejected the UAW as their 

collective bargaining agent. It is for this reason that in the fall of 2003, a majority 

of the Dana St. Johns employees signed a petition which stated unequivocally: 

PETITION AGAINST UAW ‘‘REPRESENTATION’’ 

The undersigned employees of Dana Corporation-St. Johns, MI., do NOT want to 

be ‘‘represented’’ by the UAW union, do NOT want to join the UAW union, and do 

NOT wish to support the UAW union in any manner. 

To the extent that any of the undersigned employees have ever previously signed 

a UAW membership card or UAW ‘‘authorization card’’, the undersigned hereby REVOKES that card. More specifically, that Dana Corporation, the UAW union, and 

all third parties or arbitrators take NOTICE that any such card signed by an undersigned employee prior to the signing of this petition is NULL AND VOID. 

The undersigned employees of Dana Corporation DO NOT wish to be subjected 

in any way to the ‘‘partnership agreement’’ sign by corporate Dana officials and corporate UAW officials, and request that Dana Corporation and the UAW union 

CEASE giving any affect to the ‘‘partnership agreement’’ at this Dana plant in St. 

Johns, MI. 

The undersigned employees of Dana Corporation hereby request that Dana Corporation NOT disclose or otherwise reveal to the UAW union, or its agents, any personal information about them; including, but not limited to: their name, social security number, home address, telephone number, job title, or work history. 

The undersigned employees of Dana Corporation hereby request that Dana Corporation expressly recognize that the UAW union does NOT represent a majority 
31 

of the employees at this facility, at which we work, for an irrevocable period of oneyear. 

This petition states in part that the undersigned employees recognize the destructive and self-serving behavior of the UAW, and its documented role in union violence, union corruption, and plant closures caused by featherbedding and other uneconomic union work rules. 

Finally, I DO NOT want any UAW officials, organizers, or agents calling or visiting me at my home. I hereby deny access to my property to any UAW official, organizer, or agent. 

Respectfully Submitted, 

DANA CORPORATION, 

St. Johns employees. 

Copies of this petition—signed by a majority of employees—were delivered to both 

Dana management officials and UAW officers. However, the petition was not acted 

upon by Dana or the UAW. Although the petition recites that the signatures are 

irrevocable for one year, Dana and the UAW nevertheless conducted their captive 

audience speeches, Dana gave out lists of employees’ names and home addresses, 

gagged its supervisors and the UAW conducted home visits. In response to employee 

inquiries about revoking previously signed authorization cards, UAW officials told 

employees that the only way to revoke their cards was for union organizers to personally visit them at their homes. In short, these employees have not been respected 

in their congressionally- granted ‘‘right to refrain.’’ To the contrary, they have been 

subject to a concerted campaign to force them to sign union cards, whether they 

wish to or not. 

Unfair labor practice charges were filed in these cases on or about December 15, 

2003. Despite the clear record in these cases, the Regional Director dismissed the 

charges and, on appeal, NLRB’s General Counsel has to this day failed to take any 

action. These and several related Dana-UAW cases remain pending, while the employees are in limbo despite having made their choice against UAW representation. 

Thankfully, however, the full NLRB has begun to take action against this sort of 

abusive conduct. They have done so by granting review in three decertification 

cases, UAW and Dana Corp. and Metaldyne Precision Forming/UAW, 341 NLRB 

No. 150 (June 7, 2004) (cases consolidated for purposes of decision), and United 

Steelworkers of America and Cequent Towing Products (Goshen, IN), NLRB Case 

No. 25–RD–1447. 

In the Dana and Metaldyne cases, the facts are as follows: Dana and the UAW 

became parties to a secret ‘‘neutrality agreement’’ in August, 2003. Even though 

Dana employees in Upper Sandusky are the targets of the agreement, the terms of 

the agreement were kept secret from them prior to Dana’s declaration of ‘‘voluntary 

recognition.’’ (See Declaration of Clarice K. Atherholt, and Ex. 2 thereto). Local management at Dana Upper Sandusky was gagged, and not allowed to inform any employees about the details of the neutrality agreement. Employees were told only that 

the UAW union organizers would have wide access to employees’ personal information and the plant. 

Several months ago, apparently pursuant to the neutrality agreement, UAW organizers came in force to the Dana Upper Sandusky plant, and have stayed there ever 

since. Dana management held a series of company-paid captive audience meetings 

at the plant, praising its new ‘‘partner.’’ At these meetings, officials from Dana Corporation in Toledo and UAW officials from Detroit told the employees that the UAW 

and Dana were now ‘‘partners,’’ and that this partnership would be beneficial in getting new business from the Big Three into the plant. With a wink and a nod, the 

implication was that Dana Upper Sandusky would lose work opportunities or jobs 

if employees did not sign cards and bring in the UAW. (Id). 

The UAW’s ‘‘card check’’ drive that followed was the antithesis of an NLRB secretballot election. UAW organizers did everything they could to harass, coerce and 

pressure employees into signing union cards. The UAW put constant pressure on 

some employees to sign cards by having union organizers bother them at work, and 

repeatedly call and visit them at home. UAW organizers also misled many employees as to the purpose and finality of the cards. Overall, many employees signed the 

cards just to get the UAW organizers off their back. (Id). (This is hardly conduct 

that would be allowed if formal objections were raised in the context of an NLRB 

secret-ballot election, which requires ‘‘laboratory conditions’’). This coercive effort 

culminated on or about December 4, 2003, when Dana suddenly announced that the 

UAW was ‘‘chosen’’ as exclusive representative of the Upper Sandusky employees, 

based upon a count of signed authorization cards. There was no vote and no secret 

ballot election. 

Within days of this ‘‘voluntary recognition,’’ over 35 percent of Clarice Atherholt’s 

fellow workers signed her decertification petition. The Regional Director of the 
32 

NLRB dismissed that petition, but the full NLRB has now granted review. 341 

NLRB No. 150 (June 7, 2004). 

The facts in the companion cases, Metaldyne Precision Forming, Case Nos. 6-RD1518 and 6-RD–1519 are very similar, except that within days of the ‘‘voluntary recognition,’’ more than 50 percent of the covered employees signed decertification petitions. Again, a Regional Director of the NLRB dismissed those petitions, but the full 

NLRB has now granted review. 341 NLRB No. 150 (June 7, 2004). In all of these 

cases, employees’ fate is now in the hands of the NLRB, where all they seek is a 

secret-ballot election to ensure their right to choose or reject a union free from coercion and harassment. 

CONCLUSION

None of the abusive situations outlined herein, which are just the tip of the iceberg, would be happening if the National Labor Relations Act required secret ballot 

elections, and outlawed union ‘‘recognition’’ via coercive ‘‘card checks.’’ Since the 

touchstone of the NLRA is employee free choice, good faith and fairness requires 

that employees be given the right to have a true secret ballot election conducted 

under laboratory conditions. 

I trust these hearings will shed further light on the abuses inherent in ‘‘neutrality 

and card check’’ processes. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you very much, Mr. Taubman. The testimony so far has touched on the issues of coercion and intimidation. I think it would be useful before raising questions with the 

panel to hear from the three employees who have some specific 

facts to testify about. Keep your seats. We’re just going to ask them 

to join you and we will hear from them and they will shed some 

additional light factually on some of the issues raised and we’ll proceed from there. 

Our next three witnesses are Ms. Clarice Atherholt, Ms. Arlene 

Brockel, and Ms. Josephine Ruckinger. We’ll start first with Ms. 

Atherholt, an employee of the Dana Corporation, a non-union automotive firm from Toledo, Ohio. She lives in Sandusky, is married 

with two children and five grandchildren. 

Thank you for joining us, Ms. Atherholt. Go forward with your 

testimony. 

STATEMENT OF CLARICE ATHERHOLT, EMPLOYEE, DANA CORPORATION 

Ms. ATHERHOLT. Good afternoon, Senator Specter, ladies and 

gentlemen. 

Senator SPECTER. Pull that machine closer, too. Thank you. 

Ms. ATHERHOLT. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to describe the ordeal that my co-workers and I faced immediately after 

my employer, Dana Corporation, cut a deal last year with the 

United Auto Workers that we would be unionized. 

When my marriage ended in 1985, I knew that I needed to get 

back into the workforce to support my two children. During our 

married life, my husband was a truck driver and part of that time 

was spent in a union environment. He didn’t want to join a union, 

but in order to drive he had no choice. Other than paying monthly 

union dues, the union never did a thing for him. 

I knew that I did not want to work where there was a union, so 

I purposely did not apply where there were unions. In May 1985, 

I was hired by Continental Hydraulic Hose in Upper Sandusky, 

Ohio. We then were sold to Echlin, Inc. and approximately 6 years 

ago we were bought out by Dana Corporation. 

Suddenly, in August 2003, we were informed that Dana and the 

UAW had signed something they called a neutrality agreement 
33 

which targeted employees not only in our Upper Sandusky plant 

but many other Dana plants. Despite our complaints, the agreement was kept secret from us. Our local management was not allowed to inform any of us about the specifics, but we learned that 

a main provision was that we would not be permitted to vote in a 

secret ballot election. 

Once this backroom deal went into effect, UAW organizers obtained not only the names of all employees, but also addresses and 

phone numbers. As my views were well known, UAW organizers 

did not come to my home to harass me, but they did go to the 

homes of many of my friends, sometimes not just once, but two, 

three and even four unsolicited home visits. Each time they were 

soliciting signatures on union authorization cards and seemed unwilling to take no for an answer. 

In November, we were strongly encouraged for our own benefit 

to attend a captive audience speech. The company said it had a 

new partnership with the UAW and that this partnership would be 

beneficial to us in getting new business from the Big Three. The 

implication was that our plant would lose business if we did not 

sign union cards and bring in the UAW. 

One question that was asked of Mr. King, who is the UAW vicepresident in charge of organizing, was what can the union guarantee us? He had no answer. But someone in the audience replied, 

they’ll take 2 hours pay a month. 

The organizers continued to make home visits as well as hanging 

out in three break areas at work. They interrupted private conversations among friends and made general nuisances of themselves. I believe that the organizers also misled many employees as 

to the purpose and the finality of the cards. Overall, many employees did sign the cards just to get the organizers off their back, not 

really because they wanted to be represented by the union. 

On December 4, 2003, an announcement was posted on the bulletin Board stating the UAW was now bargaining representative 

for our plant. We were never told who the third party was that tabulated the cards, but rumor had it that 50 percent plus five cards 

had been signed and two or three of those cards were supposedly 

voided. 

Many fellow employees do not want to be represented by the 

UAW or any other labor union. That’s why I, on my own time, secured 68 signatures out of approximately 182 eligible employees on 

decertification petitions. That is over the required 30 percent to 

trigger an election. I filed these with the Cleveland regional office 

of National Labor Relations Board on January 2 of this year. 

Much to our chagrin, the regional office rejected our request that 

would allow us once and for all to vote in a secret ballot vote on 

whether or not to unionize. The National Labor Relations Board in 

Washington, D.C. is reviewing the case, along with a similar petition filed by more than a majority of employees at Metaldyne in St. 

Marys, Pennsylvania. 

I am here today because I strongly believe that it is wrong to declare the UAW our representative when we haven’t had a secret 

ballot vote. And I’m running out of time. 
34 

PREPARED STATEMENT

After Mr. Miller, who is sponsoring the HR bill, he and several 

of his colleagues sent a letter to the government of Mexico demanding the use of secret ballot elections. Quoting from his letter, ‘‘absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose.’’ And 

that is attached as Exhibit 1. 

Senator Lindsey Graham has recently introduced a counter-bill 

to the S. 1925. It is S. 2637. And I am very grateful for that. And 

thank you for allowing me to be here. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CLARICE ATHERHOLT

Good Afternoon Senator Specter, Ladies, and Gentlemen. Thank you for giving me 

the opportunity to describe the ordeal that my coworkers and I faced immediately 

after my employer, Dana Corporation, cut a deal last year with the United Auto 

Workers that we would be unionized. 

When my marriage ended in 1985, I knew that I needed to get back into the work 

force to support my two children. During our married life, my husband was a truck 

driver and part of that time was spent in a union environment. He didn’t want to 

join a union, but in order to drive, he had no choice. Other than paying monthly 

union dues, the union never did a thing for him. 

I knew that I did not want to work where there was a union, so I purposely DID 

NOT APPLY where there are (were) unions. In May 1985, I was hired by Continental Hydraulic Hose in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. We then were sold to Echlin, Inc. 

and approximately 6 years ago we were bought out by Dana Corporation. 

Suddenly, in August 2003, we were informed that Dana and the UAW had signed 

something they called a ‘‘neutrality agreement’’ which targeted employees not only 

at our Upper Sandusky plant, but many other Dana plants. Despite our complaints, 

the agreement was kept secret from us. Our local management was not allowed to 

inform any of us about the specifics, but we learned that a main provision was that 

we would not be permitted to vote in a secret ballot election. 

Once this backroom deal went into effect, UAW organizers also obtained not only 

the names of all employees, but also addresses and phone numbers. As my views 

were well known, UAW organizers did not come to my home to harass me, but they 

did go to the homes of many of my friends. Sometimes not just once, but 2, 3, and 

even 4 unsolicited home visits per person. Each time they were soliciting signatures 

on union authorization cards and seemed unwilling to take ‘‘no’’ for an answer. 

In November, we were strongly encouraged ‘‘for our own benefit’’ to attend a ‘‘captive audience’’ speech. The company said it had a new partnership with the UAW 

and that this partnership would be beneficial to us in getting new business from 

the Big Three. The implication was that our plant would lose jobs if we did not sign 

union cards and bring in the UAW. 

One question that was asked of Mr. King, who is the UAW Vice President in 

charge of organizing, was ‘‘what can the union guarantee us.’’ He had no answer, 

but someone in the audience replied, ‘‘they’ll take 2 hours pay a month.’’ 

The organizers continued to make home visits as well as hanging out in 3 break 

areas at work. They interrupted private conversations among friends and made general nuisances of themselves. I believe that the organizers also misled many employees as to the purpose and the finality of the cards. Overall, many employees signed 

the cards just to get the UAW organizers off their back, not because they really 

wanted the UAW to represent them. 

On December 4, 2003, an announcement was posted on the bulletin board stating 

the UAW was now the bargaining representative for our plant. We were never told 

who the third party was that tabulated the cards, but rumor had it that 50 percent 

plus 5 cards had been signed. And 2 or 3 of those were supposedly voided. 

Many fellow-employees do not want to be represented by the UAW or any other 

labor union. That’s why I, on my own time, secured 68 signatures out of approximately 182 eligible employees on decertification petitions. That is over the required 

30 percent to trigger an election. I filed these with the Cleveland regional office of 

National Labor Relations Board on January 2, 2004. Much to our chagrin, the regional office rejected our request that would allow us, once and for all, to vote in 

a secret ballot vote on whether or not to unionize. The National Labor Relations 
35 

Board in Washington, D.C. is reviewing this case along with a similar petition filed 

by more than a majority of employees at Metaldyne, in St. Marys, Pennsylvania. 

I am here today because I strongly believe that it is wrong for Dana management 

to declare that the UAW was our representative without a secret ballot vote. If the 

UAW really believes that it has the support of a majority of employees, then it has 

nothing to fear by giving employees a chance to vote. 

What would happen to our country IF secret ballot elections were eliminated for 

public offices? This would reduce America to the status of a petty tyranny. Is this 

REALLY the direction we want to go in our country? 

I think it’s an outrage that Senator Ted Kennedy and George Miller would introduce legislation that would force all employees in America to be unionized through 

the unfair and coercive card-check process that we experienced at Dana. And this 

is after Mr. Miller and several of his congressional colleagues sent a letter to the 

government of Mexico demanding the use of secret ballot elections in all union recognition elections in that country because they are, and I quote, ‘‘absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union 

they might not otherwise choose.’’ (I’ve attached this letter to my testimony as Exhibit 1.) 

On the other hand, I am very grateful to Congressman Charlie Norwood for introducing H.R. 4343, THE SECRET BALLOT PROTECTION ACT, into legislation and 

am pleased that I was a participant at a press conference on May 12 of this year 

when he publicly announced it. And I just learned that Senator Lindsey Graham 

introduced a similar bill in the Senate. 

Again, Senator Specter, thank you for allowing me to be here today and a special 

thank you to Glenn Taubman, my attorney at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, who is providing us with free legal assistance in reclaiming our 

freedoms. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you very much, Ms. Atherholt. Our next 

witness is Ms. Arlene Brockel, former employee of B. Braun, a 

medical supply manufacturing company. She was involved with the 

U.S. Steel campaign to form a union at the B. Braun facility. 

Thank you for joining us, Ms. Brockel, and we look forward to your 

testimony. 

STATEMENT OF ARLENE BROCKEL, FORMER EMPLOYEE, B. BRAUN, 

ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL– 

CIO 

Ms. BROCKEL. My name is Arlene Brockel and I worked as an assembler of B. Braun, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a leading manufacturer of disposable medical supplies, for almost 20 years. B. Braun 

employs more than 900 workers in Bethlehem, Allentown and 

Breinigsville, Pennsylvania. Most of the employees at B. Braun are 

middle-aged women. Currently, I own and manage my own chocolate shop in Bethlehem. 

Thank you for inviting me to testify today. Senator Specter, I 

would like to start off by thanking you. I really appreciated the fact 

that you took the time to write a letter to the National Labor Relations Board inquiring about the labor law violations committed by 

B. Braun and a letter supportive of our campaign that you sent to 

myself and several co-workers. 

After offering B. Braun many years of service, I was extremely 

frustrated by the way my co-workers and I were being treated. The 

whole way the company operated was to create an environment 

where workers were yelled at publicly when they made minor mistakes. Raises and promotions were based on favoritism and were 

very inconsistent. Supervisors used favoritism to pit workers 

against one another and we were facing across-the-board pay cuts. 

That is why in 2001 several of my co-workers and I decided to form 

a union with United Steelworkers of America. 
36 

After a strong majority of the workforce of 900 signed cards indicating the desire to form a union, we presented these signatures 

to the company, asking for recognition of our union. The level of 

enthusiasm for our union was extremely high. After the company 

refused to recognize our majority, we filed for an election with the 

National Labor Relations Board. 

The company responded by hiring a notorious anti-worker firm, 

the Burke Group, and immediately began an organized campaign 

to intimidate, harass and coerce workers who had already indicated 

their desire to form a union on cards. Consultants at the plant representing this firm referred to themselves as Board of Labor Relations consultants, deliberately leaving the impression among my coworkers that they were government officials. 

It began when the company started sending us literature from 

our supervisors to our homes. Before long, the cafeteria television 

began looping anti-union videos all day long, anti-union signs were 

hung up everywhere, and they began unannounced searchs of our 

lockers, and the company held picnics and other events to try to 

sway favor. 

The tactics began to escalate dramatically. Before long, we were 

forced to endure repeated threats from our direct supervisors, often 

warning us that the company will move down south and close within 5 years if we voted to form a union. 

Supervisors made workers sit in mandatory group meetings that 

would last for hours at a time. They held so many of these meetings we wound up working seven days a week just to make up the 

production time that we lost. At the meetings, union supporters 

were singled out for public harassment and humiliation. The company would show us anti-union videos of violent strikes and tell us 

the company would go out of business with a union. High-profile 

managers would give lengthy one-sided presentations against our 

efforts. 

I was told that if we successfully formed a union, we would lose 

several vacation days, health care, and other benefits, and they 

would not guarantee any changes in our wages. 

This organized campaign by the employer had a devastating effect on worker morale and created such a hostile work environment 

that many workers from each side still do not talk to this day. By 

the election, all energy, effort and momentum had been drained 

and we suffered a crushing defeat, losing by several hundred votes. 

We filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board, but 

in the end all the company had to do was put a notice up in the 

workplace. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

This was not like any other election I have ever participated in 

in America and no worker at the plant was able to make a free and 

fair decision under that kind of pressure. 

We had already demonstrated our majority on cards and that decision must be honored. After the vote, I decided that after almost 

20 years of service, I could no longer work in this type of environment, so I decided to leave and start my own business. Thank you 

for the opportunity to be here. 

[The statement follows:] 
37 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ARLENE BROCKEL

My name is Arlene Brockel, and I worked as an assembler of B. Braun Bethlehem, PA, a leading manufacturer of disposable medical supplies, for almost 20 

years. B. Braun employs more than 900 workers in Bethlehem, Allentown and 

Breinigsville, PA. Most of the employees at B. Braun are middle-aged women. Currently, I own and manage a candy and chocolate store in Bethlehem. 

Thank you for inviting me to testify today. 

Senator Specter, I want to start off by thanking you. I really appreciated the fact 

that you took the time to write a letter to the National Labor Relations Board inquiring about labor law violations committed by B. Braun and a letter supportive 

of our campaign that you sent to myself and several of my co-workers. 

After offering B. Braun many years of service, I was extremely frustrated by the 

way my co-workers and I were being treated. The whole way the company operated 

was to create an environment where workers would be yelled at publicly for making 

minor mistakes; raises and promotions were based on favoritism and were inconsistent; supervisors used favoritism to pit workers against one another, and we were 

in the process of facing across-the-board cuts in pay. That is why in 2001, several 

of my co-workers and I decided to form a union with the United Steelworkers of 

America. 

After a strong majority of the workforce of 900-signed cards indicating the desire 

to form a union, we presented these signatures to the company asking for recognition of our union. The level of enthusiasm for our union was extremely high. After 

the company refused to recognize our majority, we filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. 

The company responded by hiring a notorious anti-worker firm called the Burke 

Group and immediately began an organized campaign to intimidate, harass and coerce workers who had already indicated their desire to form a union on cards. Consultants at the plant representing this firm, referred to themselves as ‘‘Board of 

Labor Relations Consultants,’’ deliberately left the impression among my co-workers 

that they were government officials. 

It began when the company started sending us literature from supervisors to our 

homes. Before long, the cafeteria televisions began looping anti-union videos all day 

long, anti-union signs were up everywhere, they began unannounced searches of our 

lockers, and the company held picnics and events to try and sway favor. 

The tactics began to escalate dramatically. Before long, we were forced to endure 

repeated threats from our direct supervisors, often warning us that the company 

will move down South and close within five years if we voted to form a union. 

Supervisors made workers sit in mandatory group meetings that would last for 

hours at a time. At the meetings, union supporters were singled out for public harassment and humiliation. The company would show us anti-union videos of violent 

strikes, and tell us the company would go out of business with a union. High-profile 

managers would give lengthy one-sided presentations against our efforts. 

I was told that if we successfully formed a union, we would lose several vacation 

days, health care and other benefits, and they would not guarantee any changes in 

our wages. 

This organized campaign by the employer had a devastating effect on worker morale and created such a hostile environment that many workers from each side still 

do not speak to each other to this day. By the election, all energy, effort and momentum had been drained, and we suffered a crushing defeat, losing by several hundred 

votes. We filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board—but in the end 

all the company had to do was put up a notice in the workplace. 

This was not like any other kind of election I have ever participated in America, 

and no worker at the plant was able to make a free and fair decision under this 

kind of pressure and threat. 

We had already demonstrated our majority on cards, and that decision must be 

honored. After the vote, I decided that after almost 20 years I could no longer work 

in this type of environment, and so I decided to leave and start my own business. 

Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you, Ms. Brockel. Thank you very 

much. We now turn to Ms. Josephine Ruckinger, Certified Nursing 

Assistant at the Presbyterian Home, Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, 

and a member of the Service Employees International Union. 

Thank you for joining us, Ms. Ruckinger, and we look forward to 

your testimony. 
38 

STATEMENT OF JOSEPHINE RUCKINGER, CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANT AT PRESBYTERIAN HOME OF HOLLIDAYSBURG, PA, ON 

BEHALF OF THE 1199P SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL 

UNION, AFL–CIO 

Ms. RUCKINGER. Thank you, Senator. Good afternoon. My name 

is Josephine Ruckinger. I’m a Certified Nurse’s Aide with the Presbyterian Home of Hollidaysburg, a member of SEIU. I have worked 

for the Presbyterian Home for 71⁄2 years and as a nurse’s aide for 

over 12 years. I’m a registered Republican and a licensed gun 

owner who enjoys activities such as canoeing and camping. And I 

care for my grandmother, who is 77, and she has moved in with 

me and my husband after having a stroke and numerous health 

problems. 

Presbyterian Home provides long-term care for 150 elderly residents. And thank you for inviting me today. I work on a unit where 

I am responsible for nine patients who require direct care in all 

daily living activities, eating, dressing, bathing and toileting. Many 

of my patients suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s. I work hard 

and care about my patients, but it’s hard work. Many of my patients can be combative or require lifting and turning, which I 

often have to do alone. 

When management changed at Presbyterian Home in 2001, the 

new management started making changes to our working conditions. Our nursing director of over 20 years left. She was fed up 

and quit because of the new administrator. It was because of new 

management who didn’t seem to care about us that caused us to 

form a union. 

During our campaign, management required all staff to attend 

mandatory in-service meetings. These meetings were held in the 

afternoon, so if it was your day off or you weren’t working until 

night, you would come in on your own time. We have three shifts. 

The meetings were held in the afternoon and all workers were required to attend, even on our days off or when you were not yet 

on shift. We have three shifts, so workers had to come in to attend 

these meetings even if they were not due to report until 11 o’clock 

that night. They made us come to work to hear management’s 

viewpoints about our union, and the union wasn’t allowed to attend 

these meetings, these mandatory meetings. 

At one of those meetings a manager said we should not open our 

doors to SEIU because while we were talking to them at our front 

door someone could come into our back door and rob our homes. 

This was because we were doing home visits of workers, which is 

the only way we can talk to each other without management 

watching. Management told us the union would only take our 

money and dues and couldn’t do anything for us. 

Management also held meetings with personal care residents to 

scare the residents. They told the residents their rent would go up 

and the union would protect bad workers. The administrator told 

one of my co-workers she would do anything to keep the union out, 

even if it meant harassment by residents toward staff. On one occasion a resident began to yell at one of my co-workers that he could 

not afford to continue to live there if his rent went up. 

They told us we would never get a first contract, and if we voted 

for the union we would lose our pension plan and other benefits. 
39 

They told us we would have to start from scratch and we would 

never get the things we have in our first contract. 

My co-workers and I did not like what management was saying, 

but we could not invite the union to attend and give their side of 

the story. 

We were finally able to vote in May 2002, but the Home challenged our ballots and the National Labor Board kept the ballots 

for over 1 year before we knew the results of our election. We found 

out that we won the election in 2003. We have not been able to get 

our first contract, just as management had said. 

Unfortunately, our LPNs lost their election, and one of my LPN 

co-workers was pulled aside by her supervisor and told her to keep 

her nose clean, you know, to stay out of it, because she supported 

the union. 

I was disciplined and lost 3 days pay. One of my residents is very 

combative. I had asked management repeatedly that I needed another worker to help me with this resident. But we all have nine 

to ten residents and we can’t always help each other. I was trying 

to brush the resident’s teeth and she tried to hit me in the face. 

When I ducked to avoid being hit, she hit her hand against the 

closet door and received a cut to the back of her hand. 

I reported this immediately to my nursing supervisor and we 

wrote a report. No one blamed me for the resident’s injury at the 

time, because everyone knew this resident could be dangerous. I 

worked for 8 days after the incident taking care of this resident 

and then I was called into my administrator’s offices and suspended for 3 days without pay. My administrator told me there is 

no policy against staff being abused. 

PREPARED STATEMENT

I had to write letters to the administrator complaining about 

being disciplined for something that was not my fault. Because I 

don’t have a union, I had to do this myself. If we had a union, I 

would have had someone to help me protect my rights and ensure 

my patients received quality care. 

Thank you. I’m running out of time. But thank you for hearing 

me today and I hope I have a job to go back to tomorrow after 

being here today. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOSEPHINE RUCKINGER

My name is JOSEPHINE RUCKINGER I am a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) 

at the Presbyterian Home of Hollidaysburg, PA and a member of the Service Employees International Union 1199P. I have worked at Presbyterian for seven and a 

half years, and have worked as a CNA for over 12 years. I am registered Republican 

and enjoy target practice and am a licensed gun owner who enjoys other outdoor 

activities such as canoeing and camping. I care for my grandmother who is 77 years 

old and lives with me after a stroke. Presbyterian Home provides long-term care for 

150 elderly patients. 

Thank you for inviting me to testify today. 

I work on a unit where I am responsible for nine patients who require direct care 

in all daily living activities, eating, dressing, bathing and toileting. Many of my patients suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. I work hard and care about 

my patients, but it is very hard work. Many of my patients can be combative or require lifting and turning, which I often have to do alone. 

When management changed at Presbyterian around 2001 the new management 

starting making changes to our working conditions. Our nursing director of over 20 
40 

years got fed-up and quit, because of the new administrator. It was because of new 

management who didn’t seem to care about us, that caused us to look to join a 

union. 

During our campaign to join the Service Employees International Union 1199P, 

management required all staff to attend mandatory in-service meetings. These 

meetings were held in the afternoon and all workers were required to attend, even 

on our days off or when we were not yet on shift. We have three shifts, so workers 

had to come in to attend these meeting even if they were not due to report to work 

until 11 p.m. at night. They made us come to work to hear management’s view 

about our union. We were not able to ask questions or speak, and the union was 

not allowed to attend. 

At one of these meetings a manager said we should not open our doors to SEIU, 

because while we were talking to them at our front door, someone could come in 

our back door and rob us. This was because we were doing home visits of workers, 

which is the only way we can talk to each other, without management watching. 

Management told us the union would only take our money in dues and could not 

to anything for us. 

Management also held meetings with personal care residents to scare residents, 

they told the residents their rents would go up and the union would protect bad 

workers. The administrator told one of my co-workers she would do anything to 

keep the ‘‘union out’’ even if it meant the residents harassing staff. On one occasion 

a resident began to yell at one of my co-workers that he could not afford to continue 

to live there if his rent went up. 

They told us we would never get a first contract, and if we voted for the union 

we would lose our pension plan and other benefits. They told us we would have to 

start from scratch and we would never get the things we have now in a first contract. 

My co-workers and I did not like what management was saying, but we could not 

invite the union to attend to give their side of the story. 

We were able to finally vote for the union in May 2002, but Presbyterian challenged our ballots and the Nation Labor Relations Board kept the ballots for over 

a year before we knew the results of our election. We finally found out that we won 

the election in May 2003. We have not been able to get a first contact, just as management threatened us. 

Unfortunately, our licensed practical nurses (LPNs) lost their election 7 to 5, and 

one of my LPN co-workers was pulled aside by her supervisor. The supervisor told 

her she should ‘‘keep her noise clean’’ because they knew she supported the union. 

I was disciplined and lost three (3) days pay. One of my residents is very combative. I had asked management repeatedly that I needed another worker to help 

me with this resident. But we all have 9 to 10 residents and we can’t always help 

each other. I was trying to brush this resident’s teeth and she tried to hit me in 

the face, when I ducked to avoid being hit, she hit her hand on a closet door and 

cut the back of her hand. I reported this immediately to my nurse supervisor and 

we wrote a report. No one blamed me for the resident’s injury at the time because 

everyone knew this resident could be very dangerous. 

I worked for eight (8) days after the incident, and then all of a sudden I was suspended for three days without pay. When I was called into the administrator’s office, 

she told me I should have let the resident hit me, because there is no policy against 

staff abused. I had to write letters to the administrator complaining about being disciplined for something that was not my fault. Because I don’t have a union I had 

to do this myself. If we had our own union, I would have someone to help me protect 

my rights and ensure my patients received quality care. Because we work alone, we 

are always at risk of a resident making a complaint against us. We try to care for 

our residents but, they sometimes do things that are not in their control. We can 

lose our jobs or pay as a result. Workers don’t feel secure or safe at work in these 

situations. I was finally reimbursed for two (2) days pay, but it is still in my file 

and I lost one day of pay. 

This has happened before with this resident, and no one has been disciplined. But 

because I supported the union management used me as an example. After this incident, this resident was put on a two person order, which is what should have happened all along. 

I need and want a union, so I can have a safer work place. We need more staff 

so we don’t have to care for the residents alone. 

I pay $108 every two weeks for my health insurance for my husband and myself. 

I make $9.22 per hour, because I work the evening shift and get a $.35 cents shift 

differential. Presbyterian does not provide us with uniforms, we have to buy those 

ourselves. 
41 

1 In one infamous case involving numerous unfair management practices, Catholic Healthcare West paid the Burke Group over $2.6 million to fight SEIU organizing campaigns in Sacramento 

and Los Angeles in 1998, according to the hospital chain’s own financial records. That same 

year, Catholic Healthcare West received over $40 million in state funds in the form of MediCal reimbursements. 2 ‘‘Pressures in Today’s Workplace. Oversight Hearings Before the Subcommittee on LaborManagement Relations of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor,’’ 

96th Congress (1980). 

Thank you for listening to my story. I wish all my co-workers could come here 

today and tell you their stories. We all have them. We like our jobs and our residents, but we need a union to help us. I also hope that when I go back I will have 

a job, because I came here today to testify. 

Senator SPECTER. Thank you, Ms. Ruckinger. If you don’t, call 

me. 

Ms. RUCKINGER. Thank you. 

Senator SPECTER. Ms. Connelly, you had referenced a medical 

center in Wilkes-Barre where you had used the term ‘‘union busters.’’ Factually, what happened in that situation? 

Ms. CONNELLY. There’s actually a few hospitals. The one I was 

referring to was at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. 

We’ll name the institution. And I think we organized them maybe 

in, this is 2004, it may have been, 2000, 2001. And they hired the 

Burke Group, which is the same group that is being discussed by 

the Steelworkers. 

I would like to, if I may, Senator, submit additional testimony on 

the Burke Group, to give you some further background. It just so 

happens that it’s the same company that came in and ran these 

campaigns. 

[The information follows:] 

[From the New Labor Forum, Summer 2004] 

THE FINE ART OF UNION BUSTING

(By John Logan) 

The firm that is the focus of this article is not a ‘‘Bad’’ employer in the traditional 

sense. Its clients are normally extremely satisfied with its service. Indeed, it may 

well be, as it frequently claims, the nation’s leading company providing this particular service. Among its hundreds of satisfied clients over the past two decades 

are General Electric, MCI, K-Mart, Honeywell, Coca-Cola, and several large hospital 

chains, including Catholic Healthcare West, the largest private hospital chain in 

California. According to all available information, moreover, the firm treats its employees extremely well—most are handsomely rewarded for their efforts, earning 

around $180–$250 per hour plus expenses in compensation. 

The problem with this firm is the service it provides—sophisticated and aggressive antiunion campaigns that are custom designed to undermine employees’ right 

to choose a union. While it is probably unfamiliar to many scholars of labor-management relations, the firm is intimately familiar to union organizers throughout the 

country who rank it alongside New York lawyers Jackson-Lewis as one of the most 

notorious union-busting firms in the nation. The firm has orchestrated approximately 800 antiunion campaigns since its founding in 1981, charging millions of dollars (including state and federal tax dollars from employers that receive public 

money) 1 for its services, and has been involved in dozens of organizing drives tarnished by allegations of unfair labor practices (ULPs). The name of the firm is the 

Burke Group. 

Modern day antiunion consultants have operated since the 1940s. However, the 

consultant industry expanded enormously in response to the intensification of employer opposition to unionization during that decade.2 By the 1990s, one scholar estimated, American employers were spending over $200 million per year in direct 

payments to consultants, but that the true value of the antiunion industry rose to 

over $1 billion per year when one included the cost of management and supervisor 
42 

3 John Lawler, Unionization and Deunionization (University of South Carolina Press, 1990). 

4Kate Bronfenbrenner and Rob Hickey, ‘‘Changing to Organize: A National Assessment of 

Union Organizing Strategies.’’ Paper presented at the Institute for Labor and Employment Research Conference on Union Organizing, UCLA, May 17, 2002. 5 John Logan, ‘‘Consultants, Lawyers, and the Union Free Movement in the United States 

Since the 1970s,’’ Industrial Relations Journal 33:3 (August 2002), 197–214. 6 Antiunion law firms such as Jackson-Lewis are larger than the Burke Group, but these firms 

provide a range of legal services in addition to counter-organizing campaigns, and rarely conduct 

direct persuader activity. 7Labor Information Services (a.k.a., the Burke Group) web page at www.labor 

informationservices.com/ (March 5, 2003). 8On organizing in the healthcare sector, see Paul F. Clark, ‘‘Health Care: A Growing Role 

for Collective Bargaining,’’ in Paul F. Clark, et al, eds., Collective Bargaining in the Private Sector (Industrial Relations Research Association Series, Champaign-Urbana, 2002), pp. 91–135. 9On organizing among immigrant employees, see Ruth Milkman, ed., Organizing Immigrants 

(Cornell UP, 2000). 10Labor Information Services web page at www.laborinformationservices.com/(March 5, 2003). 

The Burke Group files financial reports under the name, Labor Information Services, Inc. 11 Charlotte Yates, ‘‘Staying the Decline in Union Membership: Union Organizing in Ontario, 

Union Busting New Labor Forum 89 1985–99,’’ Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, 

55:4, pp. 640–674. 

time off to fight unionization.3 Recent studies have demonstrated that antiunion 

consultants are now part of standard operating procedure, with three-quarters of 

employers engaging their services when confronted by an organizing drive, and that 

unions win significantly fewer National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections 

when employers engage the services of a consultant.4 Over the past three decades, 

consultant activities have transformed the character of union representation campaigns, turning them into significantly more acrimonious affairs. Prior to the 1970s, 

tactics such as captive speeches, employee interrogations, one-on-one meetings between employees and supervisors, ‘‘vote no’’ committees, antiunion videos, threats 

of plant closures, and discriminatory discharges were used sparingly by employers 

facing organizing campaigns. In recent decades, in contrast, these tactics have become commonplace, in part because of their development and promotion by consultants.5

Today, the Burke Group, headquartered in Malibu, California, perhaps best personifies the modern face of antiunion consulting. With over 60 full-time consultants, 

it is probably the nation’s largest firm specializing in counterorganizing campaigns.6

The Burke Group advises employers throughout the country on how to maintain 

their ‘‘union-free advantage’’ and operates in most sectors of the economy. The firm’s 

consultants live in 23 different states, thus allowing it to dispatch consultants 

‘‘quickly and efficiently to any trouble spot.’’ 7 In recent years, the Burke Group has 

specialized in healthcare campaigns and campaigns involving multicultural and 

multilingual workforces, both areas of significant new organizing activity. It can 

credibly claim significant expertise in healthcare labor relations. Its extensive consultant roster includes eight former healthcare industry executives, five registered 

nurses, and one former president of the California Nurses Association, Susan Harris, who led the nurses’ union for two years in the early 1980s.8

In the 1970s and 1980s, antiunion consulting was an overwhelmingly white, 

Anglophone business, and few firms employed multilingual or minority consultants. 

Since the 1990s, however, many large consultant firms have diversified their workforce, as counter-organizing campaigns involving immigrant workers have come to 

constitute a significant portion of their workload.9 The Burke Group is just one of 

a number of consultant firms in Southern California that specialize in counter-organizing campaigns involving immigrant workers. Others include Cruz & Associates, 

Labor Relations Consultants, Inc., and Hector Flores. But the Burke Group leads 

the field in diversity, with consultants fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Filipino, Creole and several dialects of Chinese. As a result, the firm assures clients 

that it can now ‘‘more effectively respond to the challenges of an increasingly diverse workforce.10

The Burke Group has sought to internationalize its operations in recent years by 

offering its services in Canada and the UK, both of which have union recognition 

systems broadly similar to that of the United States. Unions in Ontario have reported greater consultant activity since the introduction of mandatory certification 

elections in 1995.11 Burke Group clients in the U.K. include General Electric, Honeywell, Eaton Corporation, and Amazon.co.uk. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, British unionists are largely unfamiliar with antiunion consultants, and in several recent campaigns, unions have been unaware of the Burke Group’s presence, even as 

they have watched employee support for unionization hemorrhage before their eyes. 

Following a five-year campaign to organize employees at General Electric Caledo-
43 

12 Amicus official quoted in ‘‘Aerospace workers vote against union recognition,’’ The Evening 

Times (Scotland), June 4, 2002. Amicus lost the ballot, conducted by the Central Arbitration 

Committee (Britain’s NLRB), by 449–243. In the UK, the Burke Group operates under the 

name, TBG Consulting. 13 John Monks, General Secretary Trade Union Congress, letter to Keith James, Chairman, 

Eversheds, July 4, 2000. 14Trades Union Congress, ‘‘Recognition Deals Fall as U.S. Style Union-Busting Hits the UK,’’ 

Press Release, February 16, 2004. In contrast with the NLRA, the UK Employment Relations 

Act encourages voluntary agreements between unions and employers and provides for certification based on documentary evidence of union membership. Thus, there exists significantly less 

opportunity for lengthy and aggressive consultant antiunion campaigns. 15Several studies have concluded that unions are significantly less likely to secure a first contract when a consultant is present. Consultants encourage employers to believe that they 

haven’t ‘‘lost’’ an organizing campaign until they sign a contract with the union. In contrast, 

almost all unions that gain recognition as part of a ‘‘labor peace agreement’’ (limiting the conduct of both management and union during the organizing campaign) are able to negotiate first 

agreements. Richard Hurd, ‘‘Union Free Bargaining Strategies and First Contract Failures,’’ in 

P. Voos, ed., Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association (Madison, WI, 1996); Gordon Pavy, ‘‘Winning NLRB Elections and Establishing Collective Bargaining Relationships’’ in S. Friedman et al., eds., Restoring the Promise of American 

Labor Law (Cornell UP, 1994); Adrienne Eaton & Jill Kriesky, ‘‘Union Organizing Under Neutrality and Card Check Agreements,’’ Industrial & Labor Relations Review 55 (2001). 16Fred Feinstein, ‘‘The Limits of Reform at the NLRB,’’ Paper Delivered at UCLA Institute 

for Labor and Employment, November 15, 2002. 17On the obstacles faced by immigrant workers attempting to organize, see Milkman, Organizing Immigrants. 

nian, Britain’s largest private-sector union, Amicus, lost decisively a representation 

ballot in June 2002. One bewildered union official remarked after the crushing defeat: 

‘‘We have been blown out of the water. . . . The result is a huge shock. We can’t 

explain why our arguments for union recognition have been rejected. . . . It is quite 

obvious that those who said they would vote for us have changed their mind. God 

knows why.’’ 12

The GE campaign is not an isolated case. The former General Secretary of the 

Trade Union Congress, John Monks, criticized consultants for promoting a ‘‘dubious 

approach’’ to union recognition, one ‘‘far more suited to the aggressive nature of U.S. 

industrial relations.’’ 13 However, aggressive consultant activity is still relatively uncommon in Britain and it remains to be seen whether it will become a standard feature of the union recognition process.14

THE BURKE GROUP AND THE CHINESE DAILY NEWS CAMPAIGN

Perhaps the best way to examine the full impact of the Burke Group’s activities 

is through a detailed examination of its ongoing campaign at the Chinese Daily 

News (CDN) in Monterey Park, a suburb of Los Angeles. This campaign provides 

a textbook example of the strategies that have become standard features of consultant campaigns. The campaign offers additional evidence of the abject failure of the 

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to protect employees against the actions of aggressively antiunion employers. As the events at the CDN demonstrate, a firm that 

is resolutely determined to fight an organizing campaign, and possesses sufficient 

financial resources, can frustrate the democratic will of its employees for months or 

even years. Employers adeptly exploit the hearings process before the election, the 

appeals process after the election, and the NLRB’s lengthy delays (and inadequate 

penalties) in remedying unfair management practices. The CDN and countless other 

firms like it have exploited the weaknesses of the NLRA to considerable success. As 

a result of overt employer opposition that continues after an election victory, over 

one quarter of certified unions fail to secure first contracts.15 Fred Feinstein, General Counsel of the Clinton NLRB, recently warned that employees’ ability to develop a successful collective bargaining relationship is ‘‘too often undermined by the 

potential of years of litigation that can follow a vote to unionize.’’ 16 The CDN campaign provides a perfect illustration of Feinstein’s comments. More than two years 

since they voted for unionization, the CDN employees are still without independent 

representation. The tribulations of the mostly Taiwanese employees are also symptomatic of more widespread problems affecting immigrant workers. Frequently isolated by cultural and linguistic barriers, they are especially vulnerable to coercion 

by antiunion employers who would deny their legal right to choose a union.17

The Chinese Daily News is the largest Chinese language newspaper in North 

America, with over 200 employees at four locations—Los Angeles (Monterey Park), 
44 

18 In recent years, the Burke Group has developed a subspecialty in counter-organizing campaigns in the newspaper industry, which has been characterized by acrimonious labor-management relations. In addition to the Chinese Daily News, the Burke Group orchestrated pressroom 

campaigns at the LA Times and Orange County Register in 2002. 19Other companies that are unionized at home, but have hired the Burke Group in an effort 

to remain union free in their U.S. operations include the auto companies Daewoo Motors (unionized in Korea) and SAAB (unionized in Sweden). On the antiunion practices of foreign employers 

operating in the U.S., see William Cooke, ‘‘Union Avoidance and Foreign Direct Investment in 

the USA,’’ Employee Relations, 23:6 (2001), 558–580. 20The Chinese Daily News is currently under investigation by the California Department of 

Labor’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for alleged violations of state and federal wage 

and hour laws. CDN employees reported being cheated out of state-mandated overtime payments and instructed to falsify documents for inspectors. 21 Chinese Daily News, ‘‘Fair is Fair’’ (no date). 22Larry Wong joined the Burke Group in 1985 after working in human resources in the banking and insurance industries. The Burke Group’s consultant list states that Wong ‘‘has become 

increasingly involved in providing third party persuader services to companies with ethnically 

diverse work forces, particularly when the workforce has a large percentage of Asian/Pacific Islanders.’’ ‘‘Burke Group Consultant Listing’’ (no date). 23Most antiunion campaigns are run entirely by consultants and select groups of top management. According to one leading practitioner, decisions made by these groups are ‘‘vitally important’’ and thus there is a ‘‘compelling need for secrecy.’’ Russell J. Thomas, ‘‘A Managers Guide 

to Union Avoidance: Executive Summary.’’ Available at: www.paradine.us/rjtlaborlaw/union.html 

(last visited September 5, 2002). 24Delaying the representation process is a standard consultant tactic. Consultants tell employers that time is on their side and recommend filing frivolous complaints with the NLRB that 

delay the election and prevent the expeditious enforcement of the law. One prominent ‘‘union 

avoidance’’ law firm recently advised that an employer should view the hearings process as ‘‘an 

opportunity for the heat of the union’s message to chill prior to the election.’’ Jackson-Lewis, 

‘‘Time is on Your Side,’’ union kNOw, Summer 2001. 

San Francisco, New York, and Toronto.18 For the past quarter century, it has published a daily newspaper in Mandarin, which has a circulation of over 100,000. The 

newspaper’s parent company, Taiwan’s United Daily News, is fully unionized at 

home.19 In October 2000, the paper’s 152 employees at Monterey Park started an 

organizing campaign with The Newspapers Guild Communication Workers of America (TNGCWA) after management announced that, as part of a financial restructuring program, it would rescind a scheduled pay increase and require all employees 

to sign an ‘‘employment at will’’ declaration, allowing the paper to terminate their 

positions at any time. But employees’ grievances predated the restructuring program. Employees complained that, for many years, management had forced them 

to work long hours with no overtime pay,20 and had funded bonuses for top performers through reductions in pay for other workers. However, most employees believed that their noncitizenship status and limited command of English would prevent them from obtaining alternative employment. Normally reluctant to disobey 

their managers, 95 percent of the employees broke with cultural tradition and 

signed union authorization cards within a month of the start of the campaign. The 

union then requested that the company grant recognition based on the authorization 

cards, but management refused, stating that a secret ballot election was the only 

proper method of disclosing the true wishes of the employees. The newspaper’s parent company appointed a new manager at the Monterey Park facility, and assured 

employees that he would deal with their grievances. Thus, management argued, the 

union had ‘‘already reached its goal.’’ 21 In addition to addressing certain workplace 

problems, however, the new manager recruited the services of Burke Group consultant Larry Wong, who specializes in counter-organizing campaigns involving predominantly Asian or Pacific Island employees.22 In a clear indication of who would 

be running the antiunion campaign, the new manager provided Wong with a ‘‘luxury suite’’ inside the newspaper building.23 Although controlling overall strategy 

and conducting limited direct persuader activity (consultant-employee contact), 

Wong and other consultants have largely remained in the background, running the 

campaign through local management and supervisors. 

Management immediately initiated an aggressive antiunion campaign. In an effort to exploit the cultural sensitivities of the workforce, the company publicly humiliated several union activists and interrogated employees about their loyalty to 

the company. The newspaper’s attorneys delayed the representation proceedings at 

every opportunity, with the bargaining unit hearings alone taking over three 

months to complete.24 Among other delaying tactics, management told the board 

that one quarter of the employees were in fact supervisors (and therefore excluded 

from the bargaining unit), thereby forcing vulnerable employees to testify about 

their work. It also argued that the Monterey Park workforce should be split into 
45 

25One-on-one meetings between supervisors and employees are probably management’s most 

effective method of conveying its antiunion message, and because there are no witnesses to 

these meetings, it is difficult for the union to establish violations of the law, such as threats 

of reprisal or promises of benefit. 26Goldberg quoted in ‘‘Chinese Workers Rally Support,’’ The Guild Reporter, April 26, 2002. 

Other politicians who have criticized the CDN campaign include Congressman Sherrod Brown, 

90 New Labor Forum J. Logan Congresswoman Hilda Solis, State Senator Gloria Romero and 

Monterey Park Councilwoman (now State Assemblywoman) Judy Chu. In May 2002, the California State Assembly’s Asian Pacific Islander Caucus and Labor Committee held hearings on 

the violation of immigrant workers’ rights, including those at the Chinese Daily News. 27 Chinese Daily News, ‘‘Fair is Fair,’’ (no date). 28 Ibid. 29 Chinese Daily News, ‘‘Let Truth Speak,’’ April 4, 2002; Chinese Daily News, ‘‘Fair is Fair,’’ 

(no date). 30 Although it expected a larger margin of victory, the union attributed the narrowness of the 

vote largely to the intensive antiunion campaign and believes that few of the employees are 

ideologically opposed to unionization. 31Lien-Yi Wang, quoted in ‘‘TNG Gain First Chinese-Speaking Unite,’’ The Guild Reporter, 

April 20, 2001. 32The union has remained committed to the campaign because it represents one of its first 

successes in the ‘‘ethnic media,’’ an increasingly important sector of U.S. media industry. TNG– 

CWA already represents workers in several Yiddish- and Spanish-language publications. The 

Continued 

seven separate bargaining units. The NLRB rejected management’s arguments, and, 

in February 2001, finally set an election date, which would be held one month later. 

The company then intensified its antiunion strategy. Management told employees 

that, if the union won, they would lose wage increases and that the plant might be 

forced to relocate to Taiwan. Managers and supervisors held captive group and oneon-one meetings with employees at all times of day and night, questioning them 

about their union sympathies and warning of dire repercussions, for both individual 

employees and the company as a whole, if the union were to prevail.25 Management 

offered pay increases or promotions to employees who agreed to campaign against 

the union, and distributed negatives stories about TNG-CWA, while telling employees that it was illegal for them to discuss unionization at work. After the employees 

enlisted the support of local, state and national politicians, the paper’s attorneys 

threatened to sue for slander lawmakers who had criticized its antiunion conduct. 

State Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, commented on the management’s activities: 

‘‘In its editorials, the newspaper says it supports America—but you cannot support 

America while violating its laws.’’ 26

The company’s antiunion literature has stressed issues that have become standard features of consultant campaigns. It has accused the union of intimidating and 

lying to employees, injecting unnecessary confrontation into the workplace, and 

threatening the financial well being of the company and the job security of employees. In addition to these long-established consultant themes, CDN management has 

used culturally specific threats and appeals in its attempt to discourage employees 

from unionizing. Throughout the campaign, management has sought to exploit employees’ loyalty to the paper and their concern for its reputation in a non-Asian community. It has publicly excoriated union supporters in company newsletters, and accused them of introducing confrontation that threatens to ‘‘destroy what we have 

achieved against insurmountable difficulties and is now proudly displayed in front 

of all other ethnic groups.’’ 27 Management compared the union with China under 

Chairman Mao, and stated that visitors from China had commented on the organizing drive: ‘‘We saw these happenings so many times during the Cultural Revolution. This is just the same!’’ It accused organizers of attempting to silence 

procompany employees: ‘‘None of us wants to live under ‘denouncement’ as if we 

were in Mainland China. . . . How sad indeed for one to be in the United States, 

a free society and not dare to speak for oneself.’’ 28 At one mandatory meeting, the 

firm’s CEO, Duncan Wang, asked rhetorically, why would employees at a Chinese 

newspaper want to bring in American outsiders in the form of the union? 29

But the company’s thinly veiled threats did not produce the desired result. After 

a five-month long antiunion campaign orchestrated by Burke consultants, CDN employees voted 78–63 in favor of union representation, on March 19, 2001.30 CWA officials stated that by supporting unionization the CDN employees had surmounted 

tremendous cultural and psychological barriers. Prior to the campaign, few employees had experience with unionization, and deference to managerial authority was 

deeply ingrained among the workforce. One reporter explained: ‘‘Culturally, the employer is perceived as a father who takes care of you.’’ 31 The result is also noteworthy because the CDN employees are the first Chinese-language media employees 

in the country to vote to unionize.32 Since the election, however, the company has 
46 

CWA’s broadcasting wing (NABET) has won organizing victories in outlets of Spanish-language 

TV giant Univision and at a Korean language radio station. The campaign also marks the first 

time that the TNG–CWA has hired a Chinesespeaking organizer—a former CDN reporter. Although the ethnic media is as profitable as other sections of the media, employees in this rapidly 

growing sector are often paid significantly less and labor under worse conditions than other 

media employees. International Year Book: The Encyclopedia of the Newspaper Industry: Part 

Two—Weeklies (Editor & Publisher, 2000). 33The union claims that the small number of contested votes would not affect the outcome 

of the election. However, management maintains that, given the strong respect for authority in 

Chinese culture, the open support for unionization among supervisory personnel made a fair 

election impossible. Allegations that supervisors voted, or otherwise improperly participated, in 

NLRB elections are standard features of consultant campaigns in which unions win the ballot. 34The union has conducted a vigorous international campaign in support of the workers’ freedom of association. In July 2002, the TNG–CWA led a delegation of CDN employees and leaders 

from the Asian-American labor community to meet with lawmakers and union leaders in Taiwan. As a result of these meetings, legislators and labor leaders in Taiwan have criticized the 

United Daily News. The campaign has also become a cause ce ́le ́bre for journalists unions around 

the globe and has attracted support from Union Network International and the International 

Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The TNG–CWA has also organized a worldwide e-mail 

campaign to protest the company’s refusal to recognize the election result. 35Steven D. Atkinson, Atkinson, Adelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo (CDN lawyers), Re: Chinese 

Daily News (no date). In recent decades, employers that lose at the NLRB have demonstrated 

an increasing disinclination to accept NLRB decisions as the ‘‘final word’’ on election disputes, 

believing, quite correctly, that they have a greater likelihood of success at the federal courts. 

See James Brudney and Deborah J. Merritt, ‘‘The Influence of Appellate Judges’ Social Backgrounds When Reviewing NLRB Decisions,’’ 2 Employee Rights Quarterly 13 (Spring 2002). 36Quoted in Ji Hyun Lim, ‘‘Chinese American Newspaper Disputes Unionization,’’ Asian 

Week, January 10, 2003. Available at www.asian week.com/2003l01l10/baylnewspaper.html 

(last visited May 5, 2003). 

steadfastly refused to recognize the union. Undaunted by its election defeat, management appealed the result to the NLRB, claiming that at least one supervisor had 

made known her support for unionization, while management had ‘‘remained neutral’’ throughout the campaign. As a result, it argued, employees had gained the 

false impression that the company favored unionization.33 At the same time that it 

professed neutrality to the NLRB, the company told employees that it was prepared 

to spend $1 million to avoid signing a contract with the CWA. To achieve this end, 

it has used every legal mechanism at its disposal to stall bargaining with the union 

for years, if necessary. 

In June 2001, the company initiated a campaign of retaliation, eliminating the 

jobs of several prounion employees. In response, TNG–CWA has filed over 20 unfair 

labor complaints accusing management of coercive conduct. The company also filed 

objections to the legality of the election, and its attorneys ensured that NLRB hearings on its objections lasted for as long as possible. In August 2001, the regional 

NLRB upheld the election result, but the newspaper appealed its decision to the national labor board. Management accused the union of using a coercive corporate 

campaign to force the paper to cease contesting the validity of the outcome,34 but 

warned that it ‘‘does not intend to be intimidated into giving up the legal right of 

its employees to a fair election.’’ However, its determination to overturn the result 

did not end with the NLRB. The company announced that, if the board were to uphold the result, it would ‘‘proceed to the Court of Appeals for an ultimate determination on the validity of the election,’’ thereby prolonging the process for several more 

months or years.35 In July 2002, the regional labor board postponed hearings on 

several ULP complaints until after the national NLRB ruled on the legality of the 

election. At the time of writing, the national board has yet to announce its decision. 

Even if the NLRB were to uphold the result, however, management will likely continue its campaign of delay, intimidation and harassment. After leaving her position 

at the newspaper, CDN reporter Hsiao-tse Chao described the intensity of the Burke 

Group campaign: 

‘‘It was political terror. . . . The majority of the employees thought that their 

phones were tapped. They talked about hidden cameras in the corners. I thought 

this was a democratic country. You [should be able] to exercise the right to organize—successful or not.’’ 36

In November 2002, shortly before awarding employees’ annual bonus (which can 

account for up to 10 percent of their total salary), management circulated a petition 

stating that employees no longer desired unionization. Not surprisingly, having witnessed the victimization of union activists, and having lost confidence in the ability 

of the NLRB to protect their freedom of association, three-quarters of the employees 

signed the employer petition. CDN management then submitted the petition to the 

board, asking it to dismiss the CWA’s request for certification. 
47 

37 Consultant reporting forms required under the 1959 Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LM20s and LM21s) are now available on-line at the Department of Labor’s web 

pages: www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/olms/rrlo/lmrda.htm. 38The Burke Group conducts its direct persuader activity under the name Labor Information 

Services, Inc. (LIS). This allows the firm to avoid reporting all other nonpersuader activity conducted under the name the Burke Group. The initial filing with the Department of Labor by 

LIS (LM 20, dated March 30, 2001) stated that its campaign at Chinese Daily News would commence on November 13, 2000 and that it had ‘‘no written agreement’’ with the company as to 

a ‘‘maximum billable amount.’’ 39The NLRB claims that its ‘‘actual median time’’ from petition to certification was 54 days 

in 2001 and 53 days in 2002. National Labor Relations Board, Fiscal Year 2004 Annual Program 

Performance Plan and Fiscal Year 2002 Annual Performance Report, Government Performance 

and Results Act of 1993 (March 2003), pp. 18–19. 40 In 2001, the AFL–CIO estimates, only 18 percent of new union members in AFL–CIO affiliated unions joined through NLRB elections. Most of the remaining 82 percent joined as a result 

of card check recognition, though some joined as a result of mergers between affiliated and nonaffiliated organizations, new affiliations and extension of existing collective agreements to newly 

expanded facilities. Jonathan Hiatt, General Counsel, AFL–CIO, comments at AFL–CIO Lawyers Conference, New Orleans, April 2003. 

The immediate financial costs of the newspaper’s antiworker campaign have been 

considerable, especially when one considers the small size of the CDN workforce. In 

2001, the CDN paid Burke consultants at least $221,737, with Larry Wong alone 

receiving $132,150 for his services. In 2002, the CDN paid Wong at least a further 

$83,900, according to records filed with the Department of Labor (DOL).37 However, 

the true cost of the campaign is likely to be much higher if one includes other costs, 

including management’s and supervisors’ time off to meet with consultants and to 

conduct captive group and one-on-one meetings with employees, employee time off 

to attend captive meetings, and the cost of legal counsel—a vital service considering 

the number ULP complaints in the campaign. Thus, the total cost of the antiworker 

campaign is likely to be several times higher than the $305,637 reported to date 

(the campaign is on-going) to the DOL.38 At this rate, the CDN is well on its way 

to spending the $1 million it promised for its campaign to undermine the democratic 

choice of its employees. The average salary of CDN employees, most of whom are 

Taiwanese immigrants with approximately 10 years service, is $24,000. Over two 

years after they voted to unionize, CDN employees at Monterey Park are still without independent representation. 

The second anniversary of the union ‘‘victory’’ brought further bad press for the 

newspaper. On March 19, 2003, Representative Sherrod Brown (D-OH) praised the 

‘‘American struggle’’ of the CDN’s immigrant employees in the official publication 

of the U.S. legislature, the Congressional Record. He commended their ‘‘tireless efforts as they continue to wrestle with the overwhelming resources of a foreign employer committed to silencing their voices and thwarting their right to organize 

under U.S. labor law . . .’’ Also, on the two-year anniversary of the vote, several 

CDN employees met with officials at NLRB Region 21 to insist that the board process their ULP complaints without further delay. The employees believed that a faceto-face meeting would stir the board to action. So far, however, neither the regional 

labor board nor the national NLRB has shown any signs of movement and have instead blamed the continuing delays on inadequate staffing levels and high caseloads. Claiming that it was ‘‘sensitive to the need to expeditiously resolve representation disputes,’’ the NLRB recently established a goal of certifying the results of 

recognition elections within 60 days of the union’s initial petition for an election.39

The TNG–CWA petitioned for an election at the Chinese Daily News in November 

2000—more than 1,000 days ago, as of November 2003. 

The CDN campaign could well serve as a poster child for the dysfunctional nature 

of the contentious NLRB election system, and an advertisement for the democratic 

advantages of card check recognition.40 It also demonstrates the often poisonous impact of anti-union consultants. The campaign at Monterey Park is striking in its 

contrast with simultaneous organizing drives at the newspaper’s New York and San 

Francisco offices, where management ran a determined ‘‘vote no’’ campaign and 

hired a law firm to oppose unionization, but did not recruit the services of antiunion 

consultants. In significantly less acrimonious campaigns at New York and San 

Francisco, employees voted for union representation, and the company recognized 

the outcome. And the differences do not end with the election campaigns. Management is bargaining hard at both locations, but it is not attempting to circumvent 

employees’ democratic choice through delays, retaliatory acts, legal maneuvering, 

and pronouncements that it would never recognize the union, let alone negotiate a 
48 

41The union has now successfully negotiated its first contract at the New York facility, where 

the paper is known as the World Journal. The New York and San Francisco units are substantially smaller than that at Monterey Park, and are composed exclusively of advertising-sales employees. At Monterey Park, the union represents a ‘‘wall-to-wall’’ unit covering all departments, 

from editorial to ad sales to production. 42 Richard Freeman and Joel Rogers, What Workers Want (Cornell University Press, 1999). 43The Burke Group, www.tbglabor.com/press6.htm (May 5, 2003); Labor Relations Services, 

Inc. www.proemployer.net/aboutllaborlrelations.htm (last visited May 5, 2003). 44The absurdly mistitled ‘‘Workers’ Bill of Rights’’ was cosponsored by, among others, the Majority Leader in the House, Tom DeLay (R-Texas). 45David Hart Associates poll on union attitudes reported in Kent Hoover, ‘‘Labor unions aim 

to capitalize on public anti-corporate attitude,’’ Houston Business Journal, September 9, 2002. 46 In its first major policy action in the arena of labor-management relations, the Bush Department of Labor rescinded new financial reporting requirements for antiunion consultants enacted in the dying days of the Clinton Administration. Employer groups had lobbied vigorously 

against the Clinton rules, which narrowed the so-called ‘‘advice exemption’’ to the LMRDA, arguing that they would discourage employers from engaging the services of consultants and supply unions with a powerful organizing tool, i.e., more precise information on how much employers spend on antiunion activities. 

contract with it.41 Whatever else distinguished the Monterey Park campaign from 

those in New York and San Francisco, there seems little doubt that the Burke 

Group’s activities have played a central role in transforming a 95 percent display 

in favor of unionization into a destructive pitched battle designed to intimidate employees against exercising their right to form a union. 

SUBVERTING WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES

For the past three decades, consultants such as the Burke Group have been at 

the epicenter of a sustained and largely successful campaign to undermine workplace democracy in the United States. Consultants’ antiunion campaigns are now 

more intensive, sophisticated, and expensive than at any time during the past half 

century. As a result, there now exists an enormous and growing democratic deficit 

in the American workplace: over 40 million private-sector employees would like 

union representation but are unlikely to get it under the current system of NLRB 

elections.42 Through their web pages, newsletters, videos, and face-to-face contacts, 

consultants have also played an important role in the dissemination of extreme 

antiunion attitudes among American management, advising clients to fight organizing campaigns to the bitter end and to disregard their employees’ desires for 

independent representation. Consultants encourage employers to view attempts by 

their employees to exercise their legal right to choose a union as an ‘‘attack on their 

company,’’ and tell them that they have a right to operate union free.43 They tell 

their clients to consider the representation process as a decision on unionization 

that is taken by them, rather than by their employees, thereby inverting the entire 

objective of federal labor policy. 

In 2002, U.S. House member Charlie Norwood (R-GA) introduced a bill (H.R. 

4636) designed to outlaw card certifications, thereby making NLRB elections the exclusive route to union certification.44 The antiunion Labor Policy Association and 

other supporters of the Norwood bill claim that union organizers coerce and mislead 

unwitting employees into signing authorization cards. But the Chinese Daily News 

campaign provides a stark illustration of the real reason why a growing number of 

unions have turned to card certification: their desire to circumvent employers’ 

lengthy, aggressive and illegal antiunion campaigns. Card check recognition is a 

vastly more democratic system than NLRB elections. According to one recent poll, 

the number of nonunion employees who desire union representation is currently 

higher than at any time since the early 1980s.45 If Congress were serious about uphold ing the sanctity of what Representative Norwood called a ‘‘fundamental American right’’ (the free election) it could do worse than start by increasing the virtually 

nonexistent regulation of an industry that profits from the destruction of that 

right.46 After that, it might turn its attention to the sclerotic and moribund system 

of union certification that has allowed the Chinese Daily News and countless other 

employers to break the law with impunity, thereby making a mockery of the democratic choice of their employees. The Bush Administration is keen to export democratic institutions throughout the globe. But how about a little bit more democracy 

in the American workplace? 
49 

APPENDIX: BURKE GROUP CAMPAIGNS COSTING OVER $40,000, 1995–2002 

Employer Location Year Reported 

cost 1

Circus Circus ....................................................... Robinsonville, MS ................................................ 1995 $40,086 

SAMCO .................................................................. San Fernando, CA ................................................ 1995 126,663 

Reno Hilton Hotel ................................................. Reno, NV .............................................................. 1995 61,972 

Tomatek, Inc. ....................................................... Firebough, CA ...................................................... 1995 118,594 

Weyerhaeuser ....................................................... Yuma, AZ ............................................................. 1995 43,053 

K-Mart Corporation .............................................. Troy, MI 2 ............................................................. 1996 163,028 

Precision Castparts Corp. .................................... Portland, OR ........................................................ 1996 63,436 

TAWA Companies ................................................. Buena Park, CA ................................................... 1996 44,928 

C.J. Coakley .......................................................... Merrifield, VA ....................................................... 1997 50,277 

Grimmway Farms ................................................. Bakersfield, CA .................................................... 1997 239,970 

Precision Castparts Corp. .................................... Portland, OR ........................................................ 1997 395,626 

MCI ....................................................................... Washington, DC ................................................... 1997 56,406 

Reno Hilton Hotel ................................................. Reno, NV .............................................................. 1997 88,163 

Welcome Market, Inc ............................................ Hayward, CA ........................................................ 1997 69,981 

President Casino .................................................. St. Louis, MO ....................................................... 1997 45,237 

Relay America ...................................................... Riverbank, CA ...................................................... 1997 65,052 

Catholic Healthcare West .................................... Sacramento/LA, CA .............................................. 1998 2,626,514 

C.J. Coakley .......................................................... Merrifield, VA ....................................................... 1998 64,325 

Mercy Healthcare ................................................. Phoenix, AZ .......................................................... 1998 196,791 

Ready Pac ............................................................ Irwindale, CA ....................................................... 1998 143,174 

Reno Hilton Hotel ................................................. Reno, NV .............................................................. 1998 351,995 

Service Corp. International .................................. Houston, TX ......................................................... 1998 154,896 

Mercy Healthcare ................................................. Whittier, CA ......................................................... 1998 42,521 

UCSF Stanford ...................................................... San Francisco/Palo Alto, CA ................................ 1998 115, 625 

K-Mart Corporation .............................................. Troy, MI 2 ............................................................. 1999 416,305 

Long Beach Medical Center ................................. Long Beach, CA ................................................... 1999 48,133 

Reno Hilton Hotel ................................................. Reno, NV .............................................................. 1999 109,440 

Warsaw Healthcare Center .................................. Warsaw, VA .......................................................... 1999 52,747 

PECO Energy ........................................................ Philadelphia, PA .................................................. 1999 51,187 

CPL Subacute, LLC .............................................. Middletown, CT .................................................... 2000 47,201 

Children’s Hospital .............................................. San Diego, CA ..................................................... 2000 43,204 

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital ......................... Santa Barbara, CA .............................................. 2000 99,445 

Enloe Medical Center ........................................... Chico, CA ............................................................. 2000 76,011 

Francis Schervier Hospital ................................... Bronx, NY ............................................................. 2000 126,138 

Good Samaritan Hospital ..................................... Los Angeles, CA ................................................... 2000 131,145 

Grove Worldwide ................................................... Shady Grove, PA .................................................. 2000 98,604 

Long Beach Medical Center ................................. Long Beach, CA ................................................... 2000 235,985 

Somers Manor Nursing Home .............................. Somers, NY .......................................................... 2000 50,000 

Distribution and Auto Services ............................ Wilmington, CA .................................................... 2001 47,153 

Bruce Hardware Floors ......................................... Addison, TX .......................................................... 2001 48,836 

CHE—Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital ......................... Darby, PA ............................................................. 2001 79,911 

CHE—Holy Cross Hospital ................................... Fort Lauderdale, FL ............................................. 2001 65,396 

Chinese Daily News ............................................. Monterey Park, CA ............................................... 2001 221,737 

Albert Einstein Medical Center ............................ Philadelphia, PA .................................................. 2001 102,142 

Arden Hill Hospital ............................................... Goshen, NY .......................................................... 2001 74, 401 

Constellation Energy (BGE) .................................. Baltimore, MD ...................................................... 2001 252,036 

BHC—Pacific Gateway ........................................ Portland, OR ........................................................ 2001 42,117 

Jefferson Market ................................................... New York City, NY ............................................... 2001 45,750 

JLG, Inc. ............................................................... Mechanicsburg, PA .............................................. 2001 58,902 

Kmart Corporation—Canton ................................ Troy, MI ................................................................ 2001 167,301 

Magee Rehabilitation ........................................... Philadelphia, PA .................................................. 2001 95,906 

Mandalay Bay—Luxor .......................................... Las Vegas, NV ..................................................... 2001 76,860 

Robert Wilson, Sr. ................................................ Anaheim, CA ........................................................ 2001 53,829 

Columbia Beverage Co. ....................................... Olympia, WA ........................................................ 2001 81,629 

Excalibur Hotel ..................................................... Las Vegas, NV ..................................................... 2001 69,923 

Peak Oil ................................................................ Anchorage, AK ..................................................... 2001 50,618 

Terra Industries .................................................... Sergeants Bluff, IA .............................................. 2001 57,639 

Universal Molding Extrusion ................................ Downey, CA .......................................................... 2001 74,386 

Wilkes-Barre General Hospital ............................. Wilkes-Barre, PA .................................................. 2001 75,101 

CHE—Brightside F & C ....................................... West Springfield, MA ........................................... 2001 73,003 

Rockaway Bedding ............................................... Randolph, NJ ....................................................... 2001 49,044 

Orange County Register ....................................... Santa Ana, CA ..................................................... 2001 176,314 

CHE—Lourdes (Rancocas) .................................. Camden, NJ ......................................................... 2002 109,675 
50 

APPENDIX: BURKE GROUP CAMPAIGNS COSTING OVER $40,000, 1995–2002—Continued 

Employer Location Year Reported 

cost 1

CHE—Mercy Fitzgerald ........................................ Darby, PA ............................................................. 2002 52,901 

Faurecia ............................................................... Toledo, OH ........................................................... 2002 134,306 

Magee Rehabilitation ........................................... Philadelphia, PA .................................................. 2002 80,087 

Michael Anthony Jewelers .................................... Mt. Vernon, NY .................................................... 2002 57,693 

Milestone Power Station ...................................... Waterford, CT ....................................................... 2002 728,148 

Mission Linen Supply ........................................... Santa Barbara, CA .............................................. 2002 117,438 

National Refrigeration & Air Conditioning, Inc. .. Bensalem, PA ...................................................... 2002 52,866 88 

Chinese Daily News ............................................. Monterey Park, CA ............................................... 2002 83,900 

Orange County Register ....................................... Santa Ana, CA ..................................................... 2002 94,817 

Robert Wood University Hospital ......................... New Brunswick, NJ .............................................. 2002 47,845 

St. Mary’s Medical Center ................................... Apple Valley, CA .................................................. 2002 62,876 

1 Note.—These amoiunts are taken from LM20 and LM21 forms (Receipts and Disbursement Reports) filed by Burke Group (under the name, 

Labor Information Services, Inc.) with the Department of Labor, required under the 1959 LMRDA. Campaigns that did not involve direct persuader activities are not reported and thus not listed. In the case of Catholic Healthcare West, the amount reportedly paid to the Burke Group 

($2,626,514) is taken from Schedule A (Form 990) [Organization Exempt Under Section 501©(3)] filed by the employer (a financial report required by nonprofit healthcare organizations). As a result, unlike the other reported costs, that amount is likely to accurately represent the 

total cost of the consultant campaign. 2 Troy, Michigan is the location of the K-Mart’s corporate headquarters. The actual counterorganizing activity at K-Mart was carried out at 

several different locations across the country, including Oakland and San Jose, California. Several other locations may also refer to the corporate HQ rather than the location of the counter-organizing campaign. 

Ms. CONNELLY. The union actually won that election by a very 

small vote. We do have a contract there. But they did a lot of what 

was described in this situation, although not quite as long. There 

was a stipulation to an election, so we didn’t have to go through 

a lot of delay with the Labor Board, but in the 2 months, 21⁄2

months up to the election, they did a lot of one-on-one meetings inside. They’d actually bring somebody in and hire them so that they 

lived inside the hospital for a while, and a lot of literature. And we 

beat them and I actually went and bargained that first contract. 

So what the Attorney General found—the reports don’t come 

out—and some of this is described in the additional material on 

Burke that I submitted. The reports, of course, don’t come out until 

1 year or 2 later in terms of what is being spent on these kind of 

union, anti-union campaigns, and there’s even different filings you 

have to look at, whether it’s an L&Q from the hospital or the 990 

from the company, you have to put it all together. 

I think in that campaign with SEIU, they spent like a quarter 

of a million dollars, which is Medicare/Medicaid money, health care 

dollars which was spent. And that’s what Attorney General Casey 

found, that the moneys were being spent illegally to fight the 

union. But nothing was ever done, because there was really no penalty. I can get you additional information on that if you want. 

Senator SPECTER. Did you make complaints about that to the 

NLRB? 

Ms. CONNELLY. On the use of dollars? 

Senator SPECTER. On the coercive tactics which you’ve described, 

the union busting and the intimidation. Do you get a hearing from 

the NLRB or any results when unfair labor practices are shown? 

Ms. CONNELLY. I don’t believe that we filed objections. If it happens after the election, we would file objections to the election. Oftentimes we file charges leading up to the election. We’ve filed so 

many of those, I lose count. And a lot of times we will file objections to an election if we lose the election. 

Then I mean I was in a situation, this is back in the mid 1980s, 

it was against Beverly Enterprises, we lost the first election, filed 
51 

objections, went back 6 months—because the Board ordered a new 

election, went back 6 months later. We won that election. No, we 

won the first one, the employer filed objections, we lost the second 

one. And then the third one we finally won. 

It took like 3 years just going through elections before we actually got the union. They still have the union there today. But we 

constantly file objections and charges and most often they’re 

upheld. 

Senator SPECTER. Mr. Cohen, as a former member of the NLRB, 

listening to allegations and evidence on both sides, how would you 

recommend sorting out the testimony we’ve heard today where Ms. 

Atherholt specifies multiple visits, signing cards to, as she put it, 

get rid of a person, contrasted with what Ms. Brockel testifies to 

coercive tactics, and you heard Ms. Ruckinger testify about her own 

discipline. 

I’m not inexperienced in evidentiary hearings, listening to conflicting testimony, but how would you recommend sorting it out? 

Mr. COHEN. Well, without having personal knowledge, of course, 

of any of those situations—— 

Senator SPECTER. I don’t, either. I’m just listening to testimony. 

But firsthand personal experience, this is all concrete evidence. It’s 

not hearsay. This is what people have been through, but it’s on 

both sides. 

Mr. COHEN. Sure. What came through to me would be to recognize that coercive conduct either by employers or by unions is prohibited under extant law. And undoubtedly there are circumstances 

where union coercion occurs, there are instances where employer 

coercion occurs. The NLRB has mechanisms. Both Ms. Fox and I 

and Mr. Higgins passed on hundreds of cases during our tenures 

as Board members. 

Senator SPECTER. Yes, but you’re not there now and things have 

slowed up since you left. 

Mr. COHEN. Let’s analyze that for a moment, if we can. With respect to representation cases, Mr. Higgins said that the median 

time is 40 days to an election, and that is an accurate figure from 

everything that I know. And the reason for that is that over 90 percent of the time employers stipulate to the holding of an election, 

and they cannot get more than 42 days for the holding of that election. That takes care of the great overwhelming majority. 

The remaining less than 10 percent go to hearing. That adds 

more time. But it still provides the 56 day median overall with respect to 90 percent of the elections. Where the problem can come 

in is on those cases where the Board actually grants review—it’s 

like a certiorari proceeding. Where the Board actually grants review, it can take a great deal of time to actually get that decision 

out. 

As Mr. Higgins noted, the Board has not been at full strength 

for the overwhelming majority of time. They’ve been plagued by recess appointments and being short-staffed at the top decision-making level. And to be sure, that should be corrected. 

With respect to unfair labor practice cases, the Board investigates those, they prioritize them, they have a triage system. The 

serious and significant ones and those involving union organizing 

situations go to the top of the pile. They do, in my judgment, an 
52 

excellent job of investigating those cases and taking action to issue 

a complaint or not issue a complaint and then go to a hearing before an administrative law judge. So I think the system is already 

in place which deals with the overwhelming majority of the cases. 

Senator SPECTER. Ms. Fox, you testified that in 1996, there was 

a shift in procedures where, as I think you put it, the employers 

insisted on elections. 

Ms. FOX. It was actually 1966, Senator. 

Senator SPECTER. 1966. But prior to that time, the practice had 

been for employers to accept evidence that was put on cards or 

other evidence without the insistence on elections? 

Ms. FOX. Right. Employers still today can accept evidence on a 

card as a basis for recognizing a union, but prior to 1966, they were 

required to unless they had a good faith doubt that they were, in 

fact, valid expressions of employee sentiment. 

Senator SPECTER. So it was not a shift in position by employers, 

it was a shift in the law? 

Ms. FOX. A shift in the law brought about by changes by the 

Board, not by a Congressional change. 

Senator SPECTER. Not by statute, by the Board? 

Ms. FOX. By the Board, yes. 

Senator SPECTER. The Board handed that down as a Board ruling? 

Ms. FOX. Yes. 

Senator SPECTER. Well, I was impressed with what you said, especially about withdrawal by a majority on the petitions, that you 

can’t get a certification of the union by a majority, but you can get 

a withdrawal by a majority on the petition. Is that your understanding as well, Mr. Cohen? 

Mr. COHEN. The situation is, unfortunately, a little bit more complicated than that. For 50 years the law had been that an employer 

could withdraw recognition based on a good faith doubt of majority 

status. 

That was changed within the last 5 years to require actual loss 

of majority status. So that under extant law, if an employer has actual knowledge of loss of majority status, it may withdraw recognition without an election. And I think it’s particularly interesting to 

note that—— 

Senator SPECTER. Well, how do they determine the actual loss? 

Ms. FOX. By signatures on a petition. 

Mr. COHEN. Which can be subject to a litigated proceeding, an 

evidentiary proceeding to see if the employer is wrong. 

Senator SPECTER. But if they aren’t, they can have a withdrawal, 

which is the equivalent of a card withdrawal? 

Mr. COHEN. That is correct. I think it’s particularly interesting 

to note that in that very case the AFL–CIO filed a brief saying that 

the only effective barometer of employee support should be a Board 

secret ballot election. And I find it very difficult to square that position with the advocacy for the subject legislation. 

Senator SPECTER. Well, can you square the position on permitting withdrawal on cards without an election whereas you won’t 

allow certification unless there’s an election? 

Mr. COHEN. I can, and it’s important to understand the timing 

of it. When a union comes in and reaches a collective bargaining 
53 

agreement, there is a document known as the contract bar doctrine 

which for 3 years bars any attempt at decertification or withdrawal 

of recognition by the employees during that period of time. 

There is a limited window between 60 and 90 days before the 

contract expires and then if the contract expires without being renewed where the employees can express this desire to disaffiliate 

from the union relationship. And in that limited context, the employee wishes can be honored without an election. 

Senator SPECTER. I think we’re at a substantial disadvantage in 

the Senate, not having any former NLRB members. I think we’re 

going to have to elect some of you folks to the Senate, maybe even 

from New Jersey, to move ahead. 

Ms. CONNELLY. No, thank you. 

Senator SPECTER. I’m going to blame it on you, Eileen, when I 

talk to Lautenberg. 

Mr. Taubman, you’ve painted a little different picture. You’re 

having a plague on both their houses. Here you have the employers 

and employees get together to engage in coercive tactics against individuals who don’t want to join the union and they’re being put 

upon on both sides. What would you recommend as giving fairness 

to your clientele? 

Mr. TAUBMAN. Well, what I would say is I agree with Mr. 

Cohen’s point that the law has remedies for coercive conduct, 

whether it’s employer coercive conduct or union coercive conduct, 

and I’m not here to defend any of that. 

My point today is none of this is solved by taking away the secret 

ballot, by mandating that there can be no secret ballots, because 

it is just fundamentally unfair and unAmerican and to not get dramatic, we have troops fighting all over the world to spread American values and I find it unbelievable to think that we have to defend the notion of secret ballot election in the United States. 

Senator SPECTER. Ms. Atherholt, did any of those folks come to 

your house four times to—— 

Ms. ATHERHOLT. No, they did not, for the simple fact that they 

knew exactly where I stood with them right from day one. They 

were standing at the end of our driveways as we went into work, 

and after I got some fliers made up like they had fliers made up, 

I just stood right out there with them and passed mine out, too. 

Senator SPECTER. So it is possible for someone in your position 

to be sufficiently resolute and give off the signs that nobody’s going 

to annoy you? 

Ms. ATHERHOLT. That is correct. 

Senator SPECTER. Is it your visor that gives you strength? 

Ms. ATHERHOLT. Well, I don’t know. It’s just kind of become my 

trademark, I guess. I’ve worn it for years. 

Senator SPECTER. Ms. Brockel, you had mentioned that charges 

were filed with the NLRB. How did all that work out? 

Ms. BROCKEL. The charges were all filed. The charges were justified charges and they were presented. 

Senator SPECTER. Did the N LRB uphold them? 

Ms. BROCKEL. They allowed us to file the charges. 

Senator SPECTER. Did they? 

Ms. BROCKEL. Yes, they did. They were substantiated. 
54 

Senator SPECTER. Ms. Ruckinger, I want to again tell you that 

if anybody disciplines you for coming to this hearing, you contact 

me. 

Ms. RUCKINGER. Thank you. 

Senator SPECTER. People have a right to speak up in our society 

without fear of intimidation on any side. 

Ms. RUCKINGER. Thank you. 

Senator SPECTER. You can’t discharge someone or discipline 

someone for exercising First Amendment rights, you cannot do 

that. A Senator may be in a position to help you out. 

Ms. RUCKINGER. Thank you, Senator. 

Senator SPECTER. This is a very complex subject, ladies and gentlemen, as we see, and we will be studying the testimony very 

closely. It seems to me that it requires a lot of expertise and we 

intend to spend the time to make a determination. I talked about 

these hearings with a number of my colleagues and there’s a lot of 

interest in this subject. 

We could go on and explore this at some additional considerable 

length. We had to restrict the hearing today, because my chief of 

staff passed away on Wednesday. Carey Lackman Slease. And we 

had to delay the hearing by an hour, as you know, at the beginning 

of the meeting, but I did not want to postpone the hearing. These 

are issues we’re taking up. We go out of session at the end of next 

week and I would not be able to reschedule until sometime in the 

fall and I wanted to have the hearing. So we postponed it for the 

hour, and because we squeezed the schedule, we can’t go on now. 

I think we have the essence of it, and it’s not easy. These are 

evidentiary matters. We’ll take a look at the formal statements 

which have been filed and we may well call on you for additional 

comments. We appreciate your coming and providing the testimony. 

This is a better attended hearing than any we have in the United 

States Senate ordinarily unless we have a celebrity. If Michael J. 

Fox comes in, we have a lot of people. If Elizabeth Taylor comes 

in, we have a lot of people. But if just Senator Specter comes in, 

it’s usually very sparse. 

PREPARED STATEMENT RECEIVED

We have received the prepared statement of the United Food and 

Commercial Workers Local 1776 which will be placed in the record. 

[The statement follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE UNITED FOOD AND COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL

1776 

The Employee Free Choice Act, S 1925 is, without exaggeration, one of the most 

important pieces of legislation to labor to be introduced since the National Labor 

Relations Act (NLRA) itself. 

For years, the Labor Movement in the United States has been losing membership. 

This is a trend that continues despite nearly every AFL–CIO Labor Union turning 

its focus to Organizing the Unorganized. Tremendous resources, time, staff and financial, have been poured into Organizing departments across the nation. 

Our experience, at United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776 is 

very typical of what we face today. In just about every Union election, employers 

have broken the law, almost without sanction. For a case and point, Local 1776’s 

efforts to organize Sunoco mini-market workers in Philadelphia can be examined. 

Prior to the election date of (DATE), the employer issued repeated threats to close 

particular locations, directly in violation of the NLRA. When these threats were not 
55 

enough, the company would conduct polling activities after repeated captive-audience and one-on-ones with management. They repeatedly threatened to fire workers 

who expressed positive feelings towards Unionization. 

Finally, on the date of the election, despite clear language in the NLRA, managers 

for Sunoco mini-marts were standing outside the polling places and asking workers 

how they voted. 

This says nothing about Wal-Mart, the largest employer in Pennsylvania, the 

United States and in the world. Their anti-Union tactics are both ruthless and legendary. Articles too numerous to mention have discussed their illegal efforts to remain union-free. Workers are fired under the lamest pretenses for working with, 

even for being seen with Union Organizers. Workers are kept under constant threat 

of discipline if they are seen talking, even with other co-workers. The Wal-Mart 

managers manual has a special number for store managers to call if they even think 

that a Union is in their store. 

We are sure that other individuals have testified about some of these difficulties 

bringing new members into the Union. We will be happy to amplify and add to this 

testimony at any time. 

The usual recourse for all these illegal actions and tactics is to file charges with 

the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NLRB is made up of political appointees, generally from the ranks of anti-Union law firms, with little or no representation from Organized Labor. How can a board rule and pass judgment on the 

actions of Labor, without someone from Labor there to help explain things? 

The Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1925) is simplicity in itself. It simply says that 

if a Union gets more than half of the workers in a potential bargaining unit to sign 

cards authorizing the Union to be their sole representative for collective bargaining, 

then that unit becomes part of the Union. 

The Employee Free Choice Act further puts serious punishments for violations of 

the NLRA and enforces a time-frame for bargaining a first contract. As the law currently stands, the punishments for illegally firing pro-union workers are so light 

that it’s worthwhile for employers to do so. The amount of time that it takes to get 

a hearing before the NLRB and have them determine an illegal firing almost guarantees that the employee will not be reinstated until after a Union election takes 

place. 

Because the penalties for these illegal firings and illegal tactics are so minor, companies violate them with impunity. The combination of all these illegal actions 

shows employees that the company will do whatever it takes to keep a Union out, 

and makes it even more difficult, in most cases, to win a second attempt at a Union 

election. 

In conjunction with the ‘‘card-check’’ and first contract provisions in the Employee 

Free Choice Act, there are sections that institute real penalties for violating the National Labor Relations Act. 

The middle class in the United States was built by Union members. Many benefits that an average worker, with or without a union in their workplace, takes for 

granted are benefits that people in the labor movement have fought, and sometimes 

died, to win for all. 

The absolute worst thing that can happen to the United States is for us to lose 

that middle class, and the labor unions that built it. 

The United States has about 13 percent of its workforce as members of labor 

unions. The vast majority of those workers earn a living wage, and have some benefits, including some form of health coverage, vacations and other benefits that 

strengthen individual families. In Canada, which had a structure for organizing 

similar to that under the Employee Free Choice Act, 35 percent of the workforce 

is unionized. 

A study by Kate Bronfenbrenner, Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility 

on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing, showed some shocking statistics. There 

are as many as 42 million workers in the United States who say that they want 

to belong to a Union. Since Unions are out organizing all the time, and currently 

only have about 12 percent of the workforce as members, the reason for the disparity must be the unfairness of the NLRB election process. About 47 percent of the 

workforce would join a union if there were no interference in that decisionmaking 

process. 

In the retail food industry, Local 1776’s core, union workers make, on average, 

33 percent more than non-Union workers. When comparisons are made directly between this Local and workers at big box retail stores, the differences are even more 

dramatic. 

An average retail food member of Local 1776 earns about $12 an hour. An average 

worker at a big box store earns $8. The benefits that this local offers are second 

to none in the nation. Our members have earned their health coverage, including 
56 

dental, vision, mental health care and several other health benefits. They have 

earned their pensions, after years of contributions. They have earned the awardwinning education benefit, the child care benefit, and everything else that is negotiated in their contracts. 

Please, I urge you to allow other workers to be able to enjoy the fruits of their 

hard work, while having the benefits of a legally-binding contract. Become a cosponsor of S. 1925, the Employee Free Choice Act, and, once again, demonstrate 

your strength and your care for working families. 

Thank you for your attention to this vital bill, and to our thoughts on it. 

CONCLUSION OF HEARING

Senator SPECTER. Thank you all very much for being here. That 

concludes our hearing. 

[Whereupon, at 3:20 p.m., Friday, July 16, the hearing was concluded, and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to 

the call of the Chair.] 

Æ