CDW Thanks Rep. John Kline for Defending Employees, Employers

WASHINGTON, D.C. // OCTOBER 5, 2011 // Today, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, on behalf of hundreds of employers and associations representing millions of workplaces in every Congressional District in the nation lauded House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline’s introduction of the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act and urged the House of Representatives to immediately pass the legislation.

The bill would rein in the rogue National Labor Relations Board and address its campaign to use executive action to implement key portions of the ill-fated, ill-conceived Employee Free Choice Act. Even though Congress rightly refused to pass the job-killing legislation, the NLRB is attempting to effectively silence employers during an organizing drive–a key goal of EFCA–by reducing the amount of time they have to make their case to employees. As a result, many workers will only hear the union’s side of the story.

The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act would directly remedy these key concerns, as well as heading off swarms of “micro union” organizing drives introduced by the blatant special-interest ruling in the “Specialty Healthcare” decision. Micro-unions not only threaten to overwhelm job creators with burdens associated with negotiating with multiple bargaining units for similarly situated employees, but also allow union strategists to gerrymander representation elections, effectively disenfranchising employees that do not support unionization.

CDW chairman Geoffrey Burr said, “Employers are grateful to Chairman Kline for his leadership in introducing a bill that will ensure employers have sufficient time to talk to their employees and guarantees that employees have the chance to make an informed decision through a private-ballot process that protects them from misinformation and coercion.”

Burr concluded, “We hope Congress will immediately pass this legislation to remove a cloud of uncertainty and allow job creators to focus on hiring and helping our economy recover.”