FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Isakson Denounces Legislation to Eliminate Workers’ Rights to Secret Ballot in Choosing Whether to Unionize
‘Workers Must Have the Protection of the Secret Ballot’

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today strongly criticized legislation that would strip workers of their right to a secret ballot when deciding whether to unionize. The Democratic leader is expected to try to bring the legislation to a vote on the Senate floor this week.

“We must continue to see to it that the employees have a free choice and have a private choice to work in a country with the greatest worker protections of any nation in the world,” Isakson said on the Senate floor. “I think this is one time where we ought to ratify what is right with America, honor the ills that we corrected and honor the employees that make America work.”

The so-called Employee Free Choice Act, H.R.800, would eliminate the rights of workers to participate in a secret-ballot election in order to certify the creation of a union. Instead, the legislation would force employees to make a public declaration of their preference by allowing union organizers to bypass elections if a majority of employees sign cards authorizing a union.

Isakson believes the current system, which allows employees to use a secret ballot in choosing whether they want a union to become their exclusive representative in the workplace, has worked well because it neither advocates nor discourages unionization.

Isakson blamed declining union membership as the motive behind the legislation, which did not receive committee consideration. Union membership among private sector employees is at its lowest level in decades.

“This legislation creates a situation of intimidation all for the sake of trying to save a movement that won't save itself. Management must have the same rights as the workers and the workers must have the protection of the secret ballot,” Isakson said.

The legislation would also require a federal mediator to write the first contract for a newly unionized workplace. The current system requires the parties who must live by the contract to make the contract. Isakson argued that the government should not intrude on the private negotiations between an employer and local union leaders.

Isakson stated he believes a majority of Americans are opposed to the Employee Free Choice Act, which is endorsed by the Communist Party, USA. A recent poll by McLaughlin & Associates found that 79 percent of respondents oppose the bill.

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