CARD-CHECK AGREEMENTS: BAD FOR EMPLOYEES AND SMALL BUSINESS

NFIB strongly opposes the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) or “card check” because it eliminates the private ballot during union organizing elections. Card check allows a workplace to be organized if 50 percent of its workers publicly sign a union card, effectively unionizing without a private ballot vote.

Without the private ballot, workers are exposed to misinformation, intimidation and coercion, and their end vote may not reflect their true wishes. Under a card-check system, a union gathers "authorization cards" signed by workers that supposedly express their desire to unionize. Employees are often pressured to sign authorization cards after a barrage of union picketing, threats or comprehensive corporate campaigns to publicly discredit or smear the employer. Workers could be asked to sign a card almost anywhere, including at their homes at night, and union organizers could continue pressuring any worker who declines to sign until they get the desired result.

A more frightening and less obvious consequence of card check is the fact that employers could face binding government arbitration contracts if benefit negotiations stall.
Under this law a business and union would only have 120 days to reach agreement on a contract before being forced into binding arbitration. Then a government arbitrator, who has no understanding of the business, would be brought in to impose a two year wage and benefit contract without any say from the employer or the employees.

Under current law, the election process is guaranteed by law and administered by the National Labor Relations Board. This system ensures that neither a union nor an employer may coerce, harass or restrain employees in exercising their right to choose whether to support unionization. Each employee's choice is made in the privacy of a voting booth with neither the employer nor the union knowing how any individual voted. This system is the best way to ensure that the rights and interests of the individual worker are protected.

The Future of Card Check

In the last 10 years there has been an increased effort by organized labor to seek union recognition outside of the protected private ballot process. The use of card check agreements has become a critical component of labor's organizing strategy since labor unions have struggled for years to win workplace elections.

On March 10, 2009, the "Employee Free Choice Act of 2009" (EFCA), S. 560/H.R. 1409 was reintroduced in the U.S. House and Senate. The bills are identical to the legislation that was passed in the House and defeated in the Senate during the 110th Congress. Supporters have pushed hard to bring the bill up for a Senate vote although it appears unlikely will gain traction during the remainder of the 111th Congress. Looking forward, NFIB will be working tirelessly to convey to lawmakers that card check is an assault on free enterprise and the rights of workers with the potential to permanently cripple our economy.

Supporting Data

“Enactment of card check will increase the unemployment rate and substantially decrease the job creation rate.”
— Anne Layne-Farrar, Law and Economics Consulting Group study, 2009

“Unions support the card-check system because it stacks the deck completely in their favor, not because they are worried about the rights of workers. Research shows that secret
ballot voting produced a union victory an average of 58 percent of the time since 2000, and the card-check system produces a union victory 90 percent of the time.”