 Myth Vs Fact
MYTH: The Employee Free Choice Act would
eliminate secret ballot elections in union campaigns.
REALITY: The Employee Free Choice Act does
NOT get rid of secret ballot elections. Contrary to
what our opponents say, the Act has no impact on
secret ballot voting in local or international union
elections, contract ratification or any other union
vote. It allows workers to have a union once a majority of
employees in a workplace signs authorizations cards
indicating they want to form a union. Alternately, the
workers can choose an NLRB-supervised election.
Currently, the employer makes the choice. Under the
Employee Free Choice Act, the decision would be in
the hands of the employees.
—AFL-CIO, “Response to Right-Wing Attacks,” 1/09
MYTH: With majority sign-up, unions will intimidate workers into joining a union against their will.
REALITY: In elections, 46% of workers complained
of pressure from management. In contrast, during
majority sign-up campaigns, less than 5% of workers
who signed a card with a union organizer reported
that the presence of the organizer made them feel
pressured to sign the card. During election drives,
30% of employers illegally fire pro-union workers,
82% hire union-busting consultants, and 91% force
employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings
with their supervisors.
— Adrienne Eaton, Ph.D., Rutgers University, and Jill Kriesky, Wheeling Jesuit University, “Fact Over Fiction: Opposition to Card Check
Doesn’t Add Up,” 9/06, Chirag Mehta and Nick Theodore, “Undermining the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representation Campaigns,” Center for Urban Economic Development,
University of Illinois at Chicago, 12/05
MYTH: The Employee Free Choice Act will cost
jobs and hurt the economy.
REALITY: Thirty-eight leading American economists recently disputed this myth and agree that
unions would bolster the U.S. economy. A February
2009 report by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that a modest increase in unionization rates would help restore the broken link between
productivity and wage gains, pumping tens of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
— Economic Policy Institute, 2/25/09, Center for American Progress Action
Fund, “Unions Are Good for Workers and the Economy,” 2/18/09
MYTH: This legislation will force small businesses
to close.
REALITY: Small businesses are exempt from the
National Labor Relations Act and the Employee Free
Choice Act has no effect on that exemption. Retail
employers with annual sales under $500,000 and nonretail employers with annual sales under $50,000 do
not fall under the jurisdiction of the National Labor
Relations Board.
—Government Accountability Office, GAO-02-835
MYTH: The Employee Free Choice Act will undermine “right-to-work” states, and workers in those
states will find themselves forced to join a union.
REALITY: No worker in any state can be forced to
join a union. Furthermore, the Employee Free Choice
Act would not make changes to the federal law that
allows states to have “right-to-work” laws.
—American Rights at Work, “Myth vs. Reality,” 2/09
For more information, visit www.ibew.org
The Truth About the Employee Free Choice Act
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