GOP pushes through another bill to weaken the middle class by rolling back workers’ rights
WASHINGTON – House Republicans pushed through special-interest legislation today designed to dramatically weaken workers’ right to a free and fair union representation election. H.R. 3094, more aptly named the “Election Prevention Act” would weaken the middle class by frustrating the ability of workers to band together and bargain for more of the wealth they create.
“For more than 75 years, the ultimate decision to form or belong to a union belonged to the workers themselves. And the exercise of these rights has served this country well: They built the middle class and helped to ensure the prospect that our children could build an even better life than our own,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “However, this bill is just one part of a systematic effort to take away the rights of workers in America. It's about stealing from the American worker and not giving them a right to continue to bargain for the benefit of their families and their community.”
The “Election Prevention Act” denies workers’ right to a free and fair election administered by the National Labor Relations Board in three key ways:
· The bill mandates delay, rather than minimizing undue delay in elections. The bill’s overarching concern is that workers’ choice be postponed with mandatory and arbitrary waiting periods. For instance, no election may occur sooner than 35 days after the filing of a petition. However, there is no limit on how long an election may be delayed. Delay gives unscrupulous employers more time to use any means, legal or illegal, to pressure employees into abandoning their organizing efforts.
· Rather than discouraging frivolous litigation, the bill encourages it. The bill incentivizes a mountain of litigation for the sole purpose of gumming up the election process and stalling any vote. This will create a massive backlog of cases, including frivolous ones, on the taxpayer’s dime. Republicans rejected an amendment by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) to sanction parties who file frivolous appeals and claims.
· The bill manipulates the procedure for deciding who is in a bargaining unit. Employers would get an edge in preventing an election from ever being triggered by gerrymandering elections through stuffing the voter lists with those who were never engaged by the organizing drive. And, although employers already have the information, this bill would require that voter information be hidden from those supporting a union until right before the election.
This bill is just the latest attack by Republicans and special interest groups against workers’ rights and the agency that enforces those rights since the beginning of the year. Republicans have tried to defund the agency, passed legislation to take away any effective sanctions the NLRB can use to enforce laws protecting workers from retaliation, and interfered with ongoing enforcement actions. Only the NLRB can enforce workers’ and employers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
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