Workers’ Rights
12.07.2009
I support the "Employee Free Choice Act" as a means to make a secret ballot vote on collective bargaining the choice of the workers and not the as a stall tactic of some employers who would use it to deny employees collective bargaining rights.
As the state official responsible for free, fair, open and honest elections, I understand that the secret ballot elections forced by employers under current law do not meet the standards of publicly held elections, nor are they required to. I also understand that one worker is fired or disciplined every 187 minutes for union activity and that between 1938 and 1997, there has been less than one case per year of union coercion.
The Employee Free Choice Act is bipartisan legislation that passed the U.S. House in 2007 but was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. I support the Employee Free Choice Act because it strengthens the middle class. Allowing employees to bargain collectively with their employers without impediment, along with the use of labor-management committees in the workplace, can foster labor and management cooperation and a sharing of the social responsibility for fair wages and working hours, health care and retirement, promoting financially stable families and communities and furthering our nation's economic recovery.
Please also read my press release:
Brunner Demands Reforms to Safeguard Retiree Pensions; Renews Calls for Passage of EFCA
