Retailers Oppose 'Card-Check' Proposal for Union Elections

For Immediate Release
Contact: J. Craig Shearman
(202) 626-8134
shearmanc@nrf.com   

Retailers Oppose 'Card-Check' Proposal for Union Elections

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 6, 2007 – The National Retail Federation urged Congress to reject “card-check” legislation introduced in the House today that would take away workers’ right to secret ballots in union elections.

“The secret ballot is one of the most sacred concepts of our nation’s democracy,” NRF Vice President for Government and Political Affairs Rob Green said. “This bill says workers faced with an important decision in the workplace shouldn’t have the same rights they have in the voting booth on Election Day.”

“Changing the law from a government-supervised process that protects employees to one that takes away the right to privacy in a union election exposes workers to intimidation and coercion regardless of whether you think the pressure is going to come from a union or from management,” Green said. “NRF is working aggressively to educate Congress on how the current private ballot process protects employees from intimidation and coercion by union organizers, employers and coworkers.”

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., today introduced H.R. 800, the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation would require the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union if presented with signed authorization cards from a majority of employees the union is seeking to organize, eliminating the long-standing National Labor Relations Act requirement for secret ballots in union elections. The legislation also includes other anti-employer provisions such as compulsory arbitration of first contracts and enhanced penalties.

The Education and Labor Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions is scheduled to hold a hearing on the legislation on Thursday.

Introduction of the bill comes at a time when organized union groups have indicated that they plan to target retailers and other industries whose workforces cannot be “outsourced” overseas.

NRF is leading the retail industry’s fight against the card-check proposal. Among other activities, NRF is a member of the management committee of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, a broad-based business group formed to oppose the legislation, and co-chairs the group’s lobbying committee. In December, NRF and a dozen other business groups ran ads in Capitol Hill newspapers urging lawmakers to reject card-check legislation.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2006 sales of $4.7 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

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