Another New, Cleverly-Named Attack On Unions

Republicans, led by the senior member of the Senate, Utah’s Orrin Hatch, announced Monday that they will make another attempt to pass the anti-union “Employee Rights Act,” which has failed in previous attempts due to Democratic control of the Senate.  If passed, the bill would be the first major reform of federal labor law in over 60 years and include changes that would cripple unions.  The “Employee Rights Act” has 16 co-sponsors in the Senate and 31 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, all of whom are Republicans.
The bill would force new requirements on workers seeking to organize a union; make it easier for unions to disband; and limit political contributions from unions.
Workers would have to vote to reaffirm that the union stay in place once a company’s turnover reaches 50 percent.  The legislation would also require a secret ballot election before organizing and before authorizing a strike.  Card check and pre-hire agreements would both be eliminated.
In addition, the bill would naturally also strike down recent changes made by the NLRB which allow unions to hold elections within 11 days of initially announcing intent.
Groups helping push this badly crafted legislation include the Koch-funded Tea Party and Union Facts which has been pushing an uncited claim that 7 percent of American workers have ever voted for a union in their workplace.  Tis would assume that every American worker has had the chance to vote in a union election, when sadly, that chance has been denied to millions who would look positively on forming a union at their workplace.