Card Check Bill

Floor Speech

CARD CHECK BILL -- (House of Representatives - February 28, 2007)

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the so-called Employee Free Choice Act which provides employees anything but free choice. Contrary to its title, the bill would strip workers of their right to privacy in union organization elections by removing the option of a secret ballot.

This paradoxical bill will kill private voting rights, making workers vote publicly through a mandatory card check where union bosses gather authorization cards supposedly signed by workers expressing their desire for a union to represent them. Such mandatory card checks make workers' personal votes known to their coworkers, their union organizers and their employers, stripping workers of the right to choose freely and anonymously whether to unionize. This leaves workers vulnerable to coercion, pressure, outright intimidation and threats.

Supporters of the bill claim it is necessary to preserve workers' rights, when, in reality, this bill is not about workers at all. Rather, it is about Big Labor's last desperate attempt to retain power.

I urge my colleagues to vote for workers' rights by voting ``no'' on this bill.

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