ENZI SOUNDLY REJECTS DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAY TO BIG LABOR; PLEDGES TO SUPPORT THE RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS IN THE WORKPLACE

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today reiterated his strong opposition to a Democrat-proposed bill that would eliminate a worker’s right to cast a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union, and would expose workers to pressure, intimidation and coercion by co-workers and labor union leaders. “There’s nothing ‘free’ about taking away the right of an employee to make a private choice without fear and intimidation,” Enzi cautioned. “The cost is the loss of majority rule, free speech, and the use of the private ballot box – important principles that should not be thrown away to satisfy special interest groups. No matter how this legislation is packaged, at its core, it simply takes away an individual’s right to vote. That is a dangerous road we shouldn’t travel.” “Americans get a private ballot when they choose their President, their Congressmen, their local councilmen, even their PTA leaders – why should they not have the same right in the workplace when they decide whether they want a union to become their exclusive, legal representative in their workplace? Free, fair, and private elections are a fundamental principle of American democracy.” The misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act,” would also radically alter the longstanding process of collective-bargaining and set aside traditional methods used to resolve differences between workers and employers guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act. The Free Choice Act, by setting aside those methods, would require mandatory, binding interest arbitration in all first time collective bargaining agreements that are not finalized within 90 days. This would place all decisions that cannot be resolved quickly into the hands of a third party. “No Member would allow differences in the Senate to be resolved by an outside party,” Enzi said. “We should not impose such a requirement on others that must negotiate agreements.” The bill also would end standards in place for over 70 years used to compensate parties who suffer a loss as a result of wrongful acts, by imposing unreasonable penalties on employers, while leaving penalties for union violations of employees’ rights at current levels – despite the fact that there is an average of nearly 6,000 charges of harassment, intimidation, and coercion against unions each year. In the past 15 years, union leaders have seen their numbers decline rapidly, falling 25 percent from 1990 to 2006. Private sector membership is at an all-time low of 7.4 percent. Elections held to determine whether to form a union, governed by the National Labor Relations Board, actually favor unions, with unions winning a record 61 percent of elections nationally in 2005. However, fewer and fewer elections are being held each year. Organized labor claims this is because the system is unfair. That argument does not hold water: the law and the system for organizing and holding elections have been unchanged for decades. Both were the same in the 1970s and 1980s, when NLRB elections were at 3 or 4 times the current rate, and when private sector union membership was its highest. “The fact is that for the last decade unions have been winning a steadily increasing number of the NLRB certification elections,” Enzi said. “In fact, in FY 2005 unions won over 61 percent of the time – a rate as high as it has ever been. When you are shooting better than 61 percent from the three point line, it’s a little difficult to claim that the game is unfair, or that you need to have the line moved closer to the basket.” ####