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WASHINGTON, DC- Today, Congressman Henry E. Brown Jr., as an original cosponsor and staunch supporter of worker freedoms, made the following statement after the introduction of The Secret Ballot Protection Act, legislation that would guarantee workers the right to a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board and prohibit unions from coercively subjecting employees to a card check campaign:
“As Democrats have announced their misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, better known as ‘card check’, as one of their top legislative priorities, my colleagues and I are proud to have this opportunity to support legislation protecting the secret ballot.
It is essential that the current process of secret-ballot elections in unionizing a workplace remains intact. By replacing the secret ballot system with card-checks and pressuring workers to sign cards in the open rather than voting secretly in booths, this legislation would actually strip workers of their fundamental rights and leave them more vulnerable to pressure than ever before. Even though South Carolina is a ‘right-to-work’ state, should this ‘card check’ legislation pass, workers here are just as likely to find themselves suddenly unionized and without the right to deal directly with their employer .
At a time when our nation needs to be most viable in the world market, the passage of this legislation would put more companies and their employees in a situation where they can no longer compete in the marketplace because core business decisions have been dictated to them by a union that forced its way into the workplace. This would be a sure step away from job and income growth. Most importantly, recent surveys show that 74% of Americans oppose the Democrat ‘card check’ system, a sure sign that the American people want Congress to focus on legislation that will help, not harm, the economy.
I encourage all of my colleagues to listen to the American public and support The Secret Ballot Protection Act as it preserves the sanctity of worker free choice and protects them from intimidation, threats, misinformation or coercion by a union or co-workers to sign a card and eliminates a union’s ability to pressure an employer to agree to ‘card check’ recognition.”
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