Take Action Now Before Vote on Pro-Union Bill in U.S. House
Union Bill is Serious Threat to
Our State’s Competitive Position

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on an extremely important piece of legislation for North Carolina businesses this week. H.R. 800, termed the “Employee Free Choice Act," will harm both union and non-union businesses. Because of the legislation’s foreseen harmful consequences, our Chamber opposes this piece of legislation and asks its members to take action to defeat H.R. 800.

You may take action to help defeat this pro-union, anti-jobs legislation by visiting the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace website at www.myprivateballot.com, or at VoteForBusiness.com at http://www.voteforbusiness.com/capconn/alertdetail.aspx?AlertID=414.

Or call your members of Congress and ask them to save the secret ballot for union organizing elections.   Use the U.S. Chamber’s toll-free Legislative Hotline: 1-866-346-VOTE (8683), and enter PIN 47800.

Background:

The legislation will harm union business employees as it will take away an employee’s access to a federally supervised private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. It would replace the private ballot with a “card check” system that allows a union to organize if a majority of employees simply sign a card. Under this system, employees’ signatures are made public to their employer, union organizers and co-workers. As John Raudabaugh, former member of the National Labor Relations Board testified: “Very few points of labor law are black and white. This is one of those few. Courts, agencies, experts, lawmakers and the most important, American workers, recognize that the secret ballot election process is the only way to ensure that workers are given true choice in determining whether to form and join a union.”

In addition, H.R. 800 imposes binding arbitration on first contracts for private, unionized employers. Under the legislation, if you and your unionized workforce cannot come to terms on a collective bargaining agreement within 90 days, the dispute will be referred to a federal mediator, who has 30 days to settle the dispute. If the mediator cannot secure an agreement from the union and management, the federal government would set terms and conditions on your company and workforce for the next two years, and there would be no opportunity for appeal. It is extremely important to protect the notion that the parties, not the government, should determine the applicable terms and conditions of employment.

The legislation will additionally harm non-union businesses as it will have a wide-sweeping effect for the union movement in this country and in North Carolina. North Carolina is a right-to-work state, which means our state prohibits unions from effectively forcing its employers to make their employees either join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. It is vital for North Carolina to retain its ranking as one of the least unionized states in the country to enable our state to remain competitive nationally—and globally. Several reliable business studies have shown that right-to-work states have a significant economic and employment growth advantage as more jobs are created in these states.

The House of Representatives will likely vote on H.R. 800 this week as it passed the House Education Committee on February 14th with a vote of 26-19. In committee, even amendments that asked for protective devices to prevent harassment and coercion of employees during the card check system were struck down.

With nearly half of North Carolina’s representatives co-sponsoring this piece of legislation it is imperative that we advocate that the remainder of our representatives prevent this bill from passing the House this week. The North Carolina representatives currently co-sponsoring this bill are: Rep. Butterfield (D-1); Rep. Etheridge (D-2); Rep. Miller (D-13); Rep. Price (D-4); Rep. Watt (D-12); and Rep. Shuler (D-11). The North Carolina representatives that are not yet affiliated with this bill are: Rep. Hayes (D-8); Rep. McHenry (D-10); Rep. Coble (D-6); Rep. Foxx (D-5); Rep. Jones (D-3); Rep. McIntyre (D-7); and Rep. Myrick (D-9).

As North Carolina businesses and Chamber members committed to making sure our state is—and remains—the best in America in which to do business, we need to deliver a clear message to our North Carolina representatives that this bill is not in the best interest of North Carolina’s economy. We need to ensure that our representatives know that North Carolina wishes to remain fiercely competitive in the world and therefore does not support any such legislation that would negatively impact our state’s competitive position and cost us jobs. Please contact your representatives to relay the message of opposition to H.R. 800. Contact information is provided below.

U.S. Chamber Legislative Hotline
1-866-346-VOTE (8683): Pin # 47800

Capitol Switchboard
(202) 224-3121

G. K. Butterfield
North Carolina-1st, Democrat
413 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3301
Phone: (202) 225-3101

Bob Etheridge
North Carolina-2nd, Democrat
1533 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3302
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Walter B. Jones
North Carolina-3rd, Republican
2333 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3303
Phone: (202) 225-3415

David E. Price
North Carolina-4th, Democrat
2162 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3304
Phone: (202) 225-1784

Virginia Foxx
North Carolina-5th, Republican
430 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3305
Phone: (202) 225-2071

Howard Coble
North Carolina-6th, Republican
2468 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3306
Phone: (202) 225-3065

Mike McIntyre
North Carolina-7th, Democrat
2437 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3307
Phone: (202) 225-2731

Robin Hayes
North Carolina-8th, Republican
130 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3308
Phone: (202) 225-3715

Sue Wilkins Myrick
North Carolina-9th, Republican
230 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3309
Phone: (202) 225-1976

Patrick T. McHenry
North Carolina-10th, Republican
224 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3310
Phone: (202) 225-2576

Heath Shuler
North Carolina-11th, Democrat
512 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3311
Phone: (202) 225-6401

Melvin L. Watt
North Carolina-12th, Democrat
2236 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3312
Phone: (202) 225-1510

Brad Miller
North Carolina-13th, Democrat
1722 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515-3313
Phone: (202) 225-3032