Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2004) – Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a national workplace rights advocacy group, issued the following statement regarding today’s House Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations hearing titled “Developments in Labor Law: Examining Trends and Tactics in Labor Organization Campaigns”:

“Unable to persuade employees to support unionization voluntarily, union organizers now frequently use what amounts to economic blackmail to pressure companies to sign backroom ‘neutrality agreements’ which hand a company’s employees over to compulsory unionism – contrary to employees’ wishes.

“These often coerced deals strip workers of the opportunity to vote in a secret ballot election, grant union operatives sweeping access to the workplace (as well as employees’ confidential personal information), and enable union organizers to make unwelcome home-visits and use other pressure tactics to elicit signatures on union authorization cards. Employees are also often subjected to mandatory ‘captive audience’ speeches threatening possible job loss and other retaliation if they fail to sign the cards.

“Despite more than a dozen formal allegations of abuse by workers across the country challenging the validity and implementation of these coercive agreements, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) bureaucracy has so far failed to take action.

“NLRB General Counsel Arthur Rosenfeld has the power to ameliorate this problem by issuing complaints, but regrettably, he has not been called to testify today. Without immediate action by the NLRB, American workers stand to lose what few rights they currently enjoy under federal labor law to determine their own union status.

“While we certainly welcome any effort to bring attention to this important issue, Congress should hold additional hearings that lay bare the ugly realities of top-down organizing, call Mr. Rosenfeld to explain the NLRB’s refusal to act, and receive testimony from several of the countless thousands of rank-and-file employees who have had their rights trampled upon by top-down organizing tactics.”

Click here [1] to read the testimony that National Right to Work Foundation Staff Attorney Glenn Taubman gave to the Subcommittee.