A workplace choice advocacy group released a newspaper ad Tuesday in support of a bill that would add increased scrutiny to union elections.
The Employee Rights Act (ERA) was introduced July 8 by Republicans Sen. [crscore]Orrin Hatch[/crscore] and Rep. [crscore]Tom Price[/crscore]. The measure would essentially guarantee secret ballot elections and require unions to hold re-certification votes. The Center for Union Facts (CUF) has been an adamant supporter of the proposal and promoted its benefits in an ad published in USA Today.
“Union officials have put a stranglehold on employees at the expense of democracy and individual rights,” CUF Executive Director Richard Berman said in a statement to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Employee Rights Act would hold them accountable by stopping their intimidation of members and guaranteeing employees the right to fair elections and greater control of member dues—which they lack under federal labor law.”
CUF launched a major campaign promoting the legislation last year including a commercial on the NBC and ABC D.C. affiliates. The commercial features workers who were taken advantage of by unions because of current laws.
The ERA would also strengthen the National Labor Relations Act to prohibit unions from intimidating or coercing employees and criminalize union threats. Republicans have tried before to enact the proposals only to have it fail. The measure stalled in the Senate back in 2013 when Democrats held a majority. Unions argue the measure would undermine worker rights by hindering their ability to collectively bargain.
“This is yet another in a long line of systematic attacks on working-class and middle-class Americans at the local, state and federal levels,” American Federation of Government Employees President David Cox said Feb. 4. “The sole objective of these anti-labor actions is to make it as difficult as possible for working people to join unions and to diminish basic rights and protections that all employees deserve.”
The measure would not outlaw a workplace from voting is favor of becoming unionized. Labor unions have been known to target workers that oppose being unionized because their names become public. Some unions for instance release scab lists which include every person that voted no as a means of isolating them from the rest of their colleagues.
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