On Oct. 5, the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, John Kline (R-Minn.), introduced the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act. The bill would rein in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and disallow the NLRB to use executive action to implement key portions of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Despite Congress’s refusal to pass EFCA, the NLRB is attempting to effectively silence employers by reducing the amount of time an employer can address their employees before a vote during an organizing drive. As a result, many workers will only hear the union’s side.
The Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act (H.R. 3094) will:
- Ensure employers are able to participate in a fair union election process;
- Guarantee workers have the ability to make a fully informed decision in a union election;
- Reinstate the traditional standard for determining which employees will vote in the union election; and
- Safeguard privacy by allowing workers to decide the type of personal information provided to a union.