NFIB: Senate Conducts Card Check Hearings

Washington, DC, March 28, 2007--The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing Tuesday examining the House's misnamed "Employee Free Choice Act," commonly referred to as "card-check" legislation. The National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's leading small-business advocacy group, strongly opposes card-check legislation and continues to work to protect the democratic rights of small-business owners and their employees.

The Senate is likely to consider card-check legislation, which is expected to be the same as or include most of the provisions in H.R. 800. This legislation would replace democratic private-ballot union elections with a card-check system, allowing unions to organize simply if a majority of workers sign cards.

"Eliminating the secret-ballot process opens up small-business employees to union intimidation and excludes small-business owners from the decisions affecting their business and employees," said Dan Danner, executive vice president of NFIB. "Small businesses will be one of the most targeted – and harmed – groups in this last-ditch effort by unions to reverse the trends of their decreasing membership."

Small businesses are especially vulnerable to well-financed union organizers. Election statistics from the National Labor Relations Board suggest that the bulk of card-check unionization campaigns will unfairly target small businesses. Of the more than 2,600 representation elections conducted by the NLRB in 2005, 70 percent involved bargaining units of fewer than 50 employees. In addition to being a significant target by union organizers, small businesses are also the most vulnerable to tactics associated with union authorization cards, since they often are less likely to have appropriate information or labor counsel, and are more susceptible to complicated legal restrictions.

Compulsory, binding arbitration would also be mandated in this card-check legislation. This means that a small-business owner who finds himself organized by card check would be forced to recognize the first contract presented by a union within 120 days. If an agreement cannot be reached, a third-party government arbitrator would intervene and make labor contract decisions concerning wages and benefits.

"Allowing a government official to be the primary decision maker when it comes to the wages and benefits of a small business' employees is unacceptable to our members," said Danner. "NFIB will continue to oppose legislation that compromises the rights of small-business owners to establish workplace policies and benefit plans that best suit their business and their employees."