McConnell: “Employee ‘No Choice’ Act is undemocratic”
March 11, 2009
‘Republicans will oppose any legislation which attempts to undermine our economic health and job creation, and we will oppose the effort to take away a worker’s right to a secret ballot’
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act:
“I’d like to address the so-called ‘Card Check’ legislation which was introduced in both the House and Senate yesterday.
“This legislation goes against the fundamental right of political expression without fear of coercion.
“As Americans, we expect to be able to vote on everything from high school class president to the President of the United States in private. Workers expect the same right in union elections.
“To put it simply, the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act is undemocratic. To approve it would be to subvert the right to bargain freely over working terms and conditions. It would also strip members of a newly recognized union of their right to accept or reject a contract. In addition, this bill ushers in a new scheme of penalties which are anti-worker and which apply only to employers and not unions.
“Even though we have regarded secret ballot elections as a fundamental right for more than a century, some Democrats still seem determined to strip that right away from American workers.
“If this weren’t bad enough, a study released last week by economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar showed that, if enacted, Card Check legislation could cost 600,000 American jobs each year. At a time when all of us are looking to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work, we threaten to undermine those efforts with this job-killing bill.
“Republicans will oppose any legislation which attempts to undermine our economic health and job creation, and we will oppose the effort to take away a worker’s right to a secret ballot.”
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WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday regarding the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act:
“I’d like to address the so-called ‘Card Check’ legislation which was introduced in both the House and Senate yesterday.
“This legislation goes against the fundamental right of political expression without fear of coercion.
“As Americans, we expect to be able to vote on everything from high school class president to the President of the United States in private. Workers expect the same right in union elections.
“To put it simply, the Employee ‘No Choice’ Act is undemocratic. To approve it would be to subvert the right to bargain freely over working terms and conditions. It would also strip members of a newly recognized union of their right to accept or reject a contract. In addition, this bill ushers in a new scheme of penalties which are anti-worker and which apply only to employers and not unions.
“Even though we have regarded secret ballot elections as a fundamental right for more than a century, some Democrats still seem determined to strip that right away from American workers.
“If this weren’t bad enough, a study released last week by economist Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar showed that, if enacted, Card Check legislation could cost 600,000 American jobs each year. At a time when all of us are looking to stimulate the economy and put Americans back to work, we threaten to undermine those efforts with this job-killing bill.
“Republicans will oppose any legislation which attempts to undermine our economic health and job creation, and we will oppose the effort to take away a worker’s right to a secret ballot.”
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