Overview
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) allows employees to determine whether they choose to be represented by a union through secret ballot elections held by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
To ensure a fair election, free of employer and union coercion, the NLRB follows strict procedures. Under current law, employers are prohibited from making threats of reprisal or force, or promising benefits that might interfere with an election. If employers engage in such conduct and their behavior disrupts election conditions, the NLRB may order the employer to bargain with the union even if the union lost the election.
If a union enjoys a majority of employee support, current law allows employers to waive the secret ballot election requirement and recognize a union that produces signed union authorization cards from more than 50 percent of the employees.
However, union leadership now claims that secret ballot elections are an impediment to unionization, preferring a "card check" process in which employees are forced to cast their vote in front of union organizers and fellow employees who support unionization.
What Is the Card Check Bill?
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also referred to as “card check,” would fundamentally tilt the playing field in favor of union organizing.
The first section of EFCA eliminates the right of employees to a secret ballot election on the subject of unions, favoring instead a mere check of authorization cards that unions would collect from employees and submit to the NLRB. The card signing process would have none of the protections of secret ballot elections, and employees could be subjected to peer pressure and threats.
EFCA also would require newly unionized employers to submit to mandatory binding arbitration of their first union contracts, in the absence of an agreement. This would mean that, for the first time in the history of the NLRA, every aspect of private businesses’ wages and working conditions would be dictated by the federal government (through enforcement of the arbitration decision).
Finally, EFCA would impose new penalties against violators of the NLRA. Employers would be subjected to potentially crippling fines at the behest of union activists who have suffered no actual damage.
During the 111th Congress, ABC and its member companies will continue to vigorously oppose this legislation.