Utah's senators join in bashing bill on union voting rules

GOP senators joined an invited panel of witnesses in lambasting a bill aiming to ease rules that regulate union organization at a Republican Policy Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Both Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch, who chaired the meeting, and Bob Bennett weighed in against the Employment Free Choice Act which, among other things, creates a new "card-sign" method for union certification and enacts a mandatory arbitration requirement for initial contract negotiations that exceed a 120-day window.

Hatch called the proposal the "most radical overhaul of labor legislation" in his 30-plus years in the Senate and said it would undermine the efforts now being made by U.S. companies to survive the current economic turmoil.

"EFCA is simply wrong, and it's the wrong time for this country," Hatch said. "Businesses large and small tell us it will make them uncompetitive. It is an economically devastating bill."

Under the card-sign process, a labor organization can obtain federal certification if 50 percent of eligible employees, plus one, sign cards distributed by a union. Current rules call for a secret-ballot election after at least 30 percent of employees sign cards. The new statutes also remove the ability of an employer to demand a secret-ballot vote for union ratification.

Bennett also criticized the bill, saying it "does not respond to the issues of what employees want, it responds to the issue of what union organizers want."

"I have heard from small business owners in Utah that say this bill would force them to send jobs overseas or face closing their doors," Bennett said. "This is bad legislation that would damage the vitality of business across the country."

A previous version of the bill passed the House in 2007 but ran into trouble in the Senate. In this session, it was introduced earlier this month simultaneously in the House and Senate.

The latest effort to change federal labor organization was very much on the radar of Utah legislators in their just-completed session. A resolution proposing a state constitutional amendment that would make secret ballot elections a requirement passed both the House and Senate with the necessary two-thirds majorities to put the issue before voters in the 2010 general election. House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, said during House floor debate on the bill that it was "one of the most important policy decisions we will make in this legislative session."

Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. has also voiced his support for requiring a secret ballot vote on union organization efforts.

"It is ever important for Utahns to have the right to vote their conscience in areas that are critical to their democratic representation and the representation within their employment with the fear of retribution or persecution," Huntsman said. "This constitutional amendment would ensure that individuals will be constitutionally guaranteed the right to a secret ballot for these types of important elections."

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