Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2004)<\/b> \u2013 Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, a national workplace rights advocacy group, issued the following statement regarding today\u2019s House Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations hearing titled \u201cDevelopments in Labor Law: Examining Trends and Tactics in Labor Organization Campaigns\u201d:<\/p>\n
\u201cUnable to persuade employees to support unionization voluntarily, union organizers now frequently use what amounts to economic blackmail to pressure companies to sign backroom \u2018neutrality agreements\u2019 which hand a company\u2019s employees over to compulsory unionism \u2013 contrary to employees\u2019 wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese 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\u2019 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 \u2018captive audience\u2019 speeches threatening possible job loss and other retaliation if they fail to sign the cards.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cNLRB 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n