Card Check Not Dead

 

Labor unions have redoubled their efforts to pass the deceptively titled Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would all but eliminate secret ballot elections in union organizing campaigns in favor of a card check process. Unions are using the Internet to mobilize their members and lobby key senators. They have launched a hard-hitting campaign to discredit the National Labor Relations Board-the federal agency that oversees secret ballot elections in union organizing drives. And they are getting ready to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2008 elections in hopes of electing a president who will sign card check legislation into law. Card check legislation is organized labor's top legislative priority.

 

This legislation is harmful to businesses. First, it would expose employees to the potential of union intimidation.

 

Second, it would dramatically increase the number of unionized workplaces-particularly among small businesses-and transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from workers to union coffers through mandatory union dues. Card check would enable unions to organize large numbers of businesses that they had not pursued previously, especially small service and retail establishments. This would vastly expand union financial, political, and economic clout.

 

Third, card check legislation would require employers to negotiate a union contract in just four months after a union is certified through card check or be forced into binding arbitration. It would also impose substantial new penalties on employers-but not on unions-for even technical labor law violations.

 

Contact your representatives in Congress-through letters, phone calls, and office visits-to let them know you oppose any effort to take away workers' and employers' rights through card check. E-mail freeworkplace@chamber.com or visit www.uschamber.com/cardcheck to learn more.