Washington, DC (June 23, 2010) \u2013 The National Right to Work Foundation, a charitable organization that provides free legal aid to employees across the country, has submitted comments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opposing any attempt to implement \u201celectronic voting\u201d in union organizing drives. The Foundation\u2019s comments detail how electronic voting poses major risks to the integrity of unionization elections and threatens to reproduce the problems of coercive \u201ccard check\u201d organizing drives. <\/p>\n
In early June, the National Labor Relations Board requested information on the feasibility of electronic voting during unionization drives. Drawing on National Right to Work attorneys\u2019 experience representing thousands of employees, Foundation Legal Director Ray LaJeunesse, Jr., responded by citing numerous concerns about the reliability of electronic ballots and the potential for intimidation or harassment of employees who submit ballots remotely.<\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s comments note that under an electronic voting scheme, it would be even easier for workers to be threatened, coerced or bribed by aggressive union organizers with access to portable electronic devices like laptops or cell phones. Compared to an NLRB-supervised unionization election, the potential for abuse during a union organizing drive conducted via electronic voting is clearly higher.<\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s comments also note that remote voting would make it difficult to verify the identity of workers submitting electronic ballots, opening the door to voter fraud and abuse. Moreover, electronically-submitted votes could be monitored or altered by hackers or system administrators, leaving workers vulnerable to retaliation and vote-stealing after they\u2019ve submitted their ballots.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough their efforts to bypass the secret ballot through coercive card check legislation have stalled, Big Labor could be handed another tool to undermine workplace elections if the NLRB moves to adopt electronic voting,\u201d said Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Foundation. \u201cMuch like card check organizing, electronic voting leaves the door open to coercion and identity theft, and will be used by aggressive union organizers to impose forced unionism on more workers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington, DC (June 23, 2010) \u2013 The National Right to Work Foundation, a charitable organization that provides free legal aid to employees across the country, has submitted comments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) opposing any attempt to implement \u201celectronic voting\u201d in union organizing drives. The Foundation\u2019s comments detail how electronic voting poses major risks to the integrity of unionization elections and threatens to reproduce the problems of coercive \u201ccard check\u201d organizing drives. <\/p>\n
In early June, the National Labor Relations Board requested information on the feasibility of electronic voting during unionization drives. Drawing on National Right to Work attorneys\u2019 experience representing thousands of employees, Foundation Legal Director Ray LaJeunesse, Jr., responded by citing numerous concerns about the reliability of electronic ballots and the potential for intimidation or harassment of employees who submit ballots remotely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[888],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n