House Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. House of Representatives

With the House poised to consider the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act,” legislation to expose workers’ private votes in union organizing elections and make them completely and utterly public, proponents of the bill are mischaracterizing the proposal as a way to ease the economic squeeze on America’s middle class families.  In order to make their case, they’re not being straightforward about the intent and content of the legislation.  The following facts expose some of the most common myths propagated by those who aim to mislead the American people about this dangerous and undemocratic legislation. 

MYTH:  The “Employee Free Choice Act” maintains workers’ right to a secret ballot. 

FACT:  This is perhaps the most common myth out there.  The fact is, however, it is simply not true.  This was made clear during a U.S. House Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee hearing on February 8, 2007, when Charles I. Cohen, a former Clinton- appointed member of the National Labor Relations Board, put the myth to rest and noted there is no guarantee to a secret ballot in the legislation – through a petition or otherwise.  If the labor union conducts a card check campaign and chooses to submit authorization cards, workers would be barred from seeking a private ballot election.  

Specifically, the bill states, "If the [National Labor Relations] Board finds that a majority of the employees in a unit appropriate for bargaining has signed valid authorizations designating the individual or labor organization specified in the petition as their bargaining representative … the Board shall not direct an election but shall certify the individual or labor organization as the representative."

MYTH:  The now-infamous 2001 letter written by House Democrats to Mexican officials was not hypocritical because it was written in support of a secret ballot election between two competing unions, a process completely consistent with U.S. law. 

FACT:  In August 2001, 16 House Democrats, 11 of whom remain in the House, wrote this to Mexican – yes, Mexican – officials: “We understand that the secret ballot is allowed for, but not required by Mexican labor law.  However, we feel that the secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they may otherwise not choose.” 

Were they referring to an election between two labor unions?  Yes.  At the same time, were they explicitly saying that card checks are inherently prone to intimidation?  Most definitely.  The House Democrats’ attempt to spin this letter has fallen miserably short.

MYTH:  Bad actors in the employer community make the card check absolutely essential to level the playing field. 

FACT:  In 2005, the National Labor Relations Board found 62 companies guilty of firing workers solely for union organizing activities.  There were approximately 2,300 union certifications held in the United States that year.  62 instances are 62 too many, but secret ballot rights should not be stripped from 140 million American workers because of this handful of bad actors. 

MYTH:  The card check is the fairest way to ensure “free choice.” 

FACT:  A card check would make workers’ votes in a union organizing election completely and utterly public – to co-workers, employers, union organizers, and union bosses.  How is that “free choice?”   

Furthermore, if the card check was the singular protector of “free choice” that its backers claim it is, then why have House Democrats written to Mexican officials, indicating a card check in an election between two competing labor unions was prone to intimidation?  And why is organized labor so staunchly in favor of a secret ballot election in union decertification elections, arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that private ballots “provide the surest means for avoiding decisions which are the result of group pressures and not individual decisions?”  House Democrats are trying to be on both sides of the “free choice” issue…and they’re failing. 

MYTH:  This is a business versus labor issue. 

FACT:  Every American has the right to organize.  No one is debating that.  The right to organize is a right this nation believes in so strongly, it is codified and made it possible for workers to do in the exact same way they elect their President, their representatives to Congress, their governors, their state legislatures, and their local governments – through a private ballot.  Turning this into a business versus labor debate is a desperate tactic used by card check supporters to distract from the unprecedented attack on democracy being waged in the halls of Congress.