Ellison touts labor reform

A forum held Saturday hosted by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., championed legislation and a renewed push that supporters say would make organizing unions easier.

Speakers, including Ellison, praised the Employee Free Choice Act, to a crowd in the CWA Local 7200 Hall in Minneapolis, boasting the bill’s streamlining of the union certification process.

But because the bill eliminates the necessity of holding secret ballots, opponents are concerned workers will be coerced into joining unions.

Under the bill, a union would be recognized after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing a labor organization to represent them, possibly eliminating the current practice of holding secret ballots.

Also, the bill has a provision that creates a government-run arbitration board to meditate between a union and a company that haven’t reached a contract, something opponents say is too much government control.

Ellison said the arguments regarding the elimination of the secret ballot are untrue because union organizers can conduct secret ballots later in the process.

“There is nothing in the Employee Free Choice Act that deprives workers of the right to a secret ballot,” Ellison said. “It’s just not in the law. It’s not true; it’s a scare tactic.”

John Budd , a professor in the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, said supporters of the bill argue the removal of the secret ballot process would reduce an employer’s ability to campaign against unionizing activity.

James Sherk , the Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation , says the bill’s removal of the secret ballot, and reliance on union petitioner’s card checks, would coerce workers to side with the union.

“The only reason to take away a secret ballot is so that you can pressure workers,” Sherk said. “They’ll have a number of workers signing who don’t truly support the union.”

Sherk also said imposing a contract on workers and companies through an arbitration board would have negative effects.

“It’s government micromanaging of businesses,” Sherk said. “These government-appointed bureaucrats don’t know what it takes to run a company effectively.”

Ellison disagrees, saying government assistance that strengthens union organization will lead to higher wages for middle class workers.

“These union-busting companies have weakened and stifled our right to organize,” Ellison said. “The middle class has been sliding ever since the right to organize has been weakened.”

Union members at the forum, like pipefitter Stan Hornbeck of the United Association, agreed with Ellison.

“I think it’s a good bill,” Hornbeck said. “It just levels the playing field, gives [workers] an opportunity to sign up and be in a union.”

Budd, from CSOM , said the bill has support in the House and is likely to pass, but faces stronger opposition in the Senate.

“It’ll be interesting when action really starts heating up in Congress,” he said.