Washington D.C. Employment Law Update : Washington D.C. Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Littler Mendelson Law Firm : Virginia, Tyson's Corner

Tim Kane, Chief Economist of the Hudson Institute, spoke in favor of this bill. He said that the RAISE Act has the potential to remove some of the negative effects of unionization, and would have “no potential to hurt jobs or wages.” According to his productivity analysis, the legislation would result in a 10% increase in pay, and 200,000 new jobs.

The Secret Ballot Protection Act introduced last year would guarantee the right to secret ballot union representation elections. William L. Messenger, attorney with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, testified on behalf of this bill. He stated that a secret ballot election should be a condition of unionization. He claimed that employees are more apt to vote their conscience in a private voting booth, and that Congress should also improve employees’ rights to decertify a union.

Finally, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act would exempt “any enterprise or institution owned and operated by an Indian tribe and located on its Indian lands” from the NLRA’s coverage. In recent years the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has extended its jurisdiction over businesses owned and operated by Native Americans. Robert Odawi Porter, President of the Seneca Nation of Indians, said that this measure would reassert tribal sovereignty over tribal affairs.

Ranking subcommittee member Robert Andrews (D-NJ), however, took issue with the legislation discussed during the hearing. He claimed that the “record is devoid of any indication that the enactment of these bills would engender economic growth.” Andrews argued also that the hearing was premised “on a narrative that is untrue.” Specifically, he denied the contention that the Board under the current administration has hindered jobs and employee rights. According to Andrews, the current Board has issued more unanimous decisions than did the prior Board.

Union-side attorney Devki K.Virk agreed, claiming that the bills discussed during the hearing would “actively undermine” the structure of federal labor relations policy. For example, Virk argued that the RAISE Act would take the issue of wages and “shift it back to the employer.”

A complete list of the hearing witnesses, links to their testimony, and an archived webcast of the session can be found here.

This legislation would make it an unfair labor practice under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) for an employer to recognize a union that has not been selected via secret ballot. Moreover, this bill would make it unlawful for a union that has not been chosen as the employees’ exclusive representative in a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board to cause or attempt to cause an employer to recognize or bargain with it. Similar legislation had been introduced in the past three Congresses, to no avail.

This bill was clearly introduced to beat Democrats to the punch in re-introducing EFCA. Known as the “card check” bill, this act would, among other things, allow a union to be named as the employees’ exclusive bargaining representative if the union can garner sufficient support via signed authorization cards, without the holding of a secret ballot election provided for under the NLRA currently. Organized labor has made the passage of EFCA its prime legislative goal for this administration. Although President Obama had co-sponsored EFCA when it was first introduced in 2007, he has been noticeably less vocal in his support of this bill since taking office. Both organized labor and business interests have been marshaling their forces to wage public – and highly contentious – campaigns in support of/against EFCA. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) had previously intimated that EFCA in some shape or form would not be introduced until April at the earliest. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had expressed hope that the Senate would begin serious consideration of the bill by the summer. It is not known whether these plans will change now that the Republicans have made the first move.