Rep. Howard P. “Buck" McKeon (R-CA), the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, today denounced the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, legislation introduced by congressional Democrats that would deny workers the right to secret ballots in union organizing elections. The bill is a job killer, putting an estimated 600,000 American jobs at risk in just the first year after its enactment, and would wreak havoc on an already reeling economy, McKeon noted.
The Employee Free Choice Act is more widely known as “card check" legislation because it would replace federally-supervised secret ballot elections with a public authorization card sign-up process. The Democrats’ proposed legislation makes it clear that a union would be certified as soon as organizers secure a simple majority of signed authorization cards, giving workers no recourse to demand a secret ballot election on whether they actually wish to join the union. The card check process is notoriously unreliable, Republicans have pointed out, opening workers up to intimidation and coercion, and the threat of retribution based on whether or not they choose to publicly sign a card.
“The American economy is in real trouble. Americans are losing their jobs and their homes. The notion that Congress would take up an anti-worker, special interest payback like this one - particularly at a time like this, with the economic challenges we face - is unconscionable," said McKeon. “The Employee Free Choice Act is an affront to basic democratic rights, and it must be defeated. The sooner we dispense with this misguided legislation, the sooner we can get back to solving the real problems facing American families."
