Card Check
Bill Xenia Area Chamber opposes Employee Free Choice Act Originally conceived in 2008, the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the Card Check bill, if passed would eliminate the secret ballot in union elections and expedite the organization of a union at your company and at other companies across the United States.
Under current law, if union organizers collect signatures from at least 30 percent of the employees in a bargaining unit, the federal National Labor Relations Board will hold an election to determine whether to certify the union. This process carefully balances the interests of employees, unions, and employers in order to ensure that workers can hear all sides of the union organizing argument and then make up their minds and vote in private, without intimidation or coercion.
Organized labor is seeking to change the rules and make it easier to organize a union. Instead of determining whether a union would be certified through a federally-supervised, secret ballot election, the union would be certified the moment it collected a majority (51%) of signed authorization cards. The Card Check Bill would eliminate the campaign period when employers present their rationale against union organization and when organizers present their case in favor of union organization.
A secondary purpose of the bill is to amend collective bargaining law so that when a union is recognized for the first time, government arbitrators will likely set the terms and conditions of the union contract unless the union and the employer can meet some rather unrealistic timelines. Today, the law requires that both parties bargain in good faith and recognizes that the union, representing workers, and the employer are in the best position to determine whether an agreement is acceptable and whether compromising on one goal in order to achieve another is acceptable. Under the provisions of Card Check, if the employer and union fail to reach agreement on contract terms within 120 days of the union certification date, mandatory arbitration begins.
The Advocacy Committee of the Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce has researched this issue, and the Board of Directors has taken the following position.
"It is the position of the Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce that passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as the Card Check bill, will have a detrimental impact on all businesses in the United States and in particular the Xenia business community. We believe firmly in the sanctity of the employer-employee relationship and in the sanctity of the secret ballot process. Any effort to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in the US Congress is opposed by our organization."
We encourage you to get in touch with your elected officials to be heard on this issue. According to our sources, this bill could come up for vote as early as April. Using this link, www.uschamber.com/chambers/efca_gr_toolkit, you can learn more about Card Check and if so inclined, conveniently contact your US Senators and Representatives in Washington to voice your opposition.
