Press Releases

On Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 a.m., the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), will hold a legislative hearing on the Secret Ballot Protection Act (H.R. 2346) and the Representation Fairness Restoration Act (H.R. 2347). The hearing will take place in room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Introduced by Rep. Roe, the Secret Ballot Protection Act would ensure no one – not a union representative or company official – can deny workers the right to vote by secret ballot in union elections. The secret ballot is a hallmark of a democratic society, guaranteeing individuals can vote their conscience without fear of pressure or coercion. Rather than subjecting workers to intimidation and possible retribution inherent in a public card check scheme, H.R. 2346 requires questions of union representation be resolved with the protections of a secret ballot.

The Representation Fairness Restoration Act would roll back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) micro-union policy. In its 2011 Specialty Healthcare decision, the board overturned decades of labor policy and imposed a new standard for determining the group or ‘unit’ of employees appropriate for collective bargaining. As a result of its decision, the NLRB will approve virtually every unit of employees picked by the union and “micro-unions” will proliferate across the workforce. Introduced by Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), H.R. 2347 would reinstate the traditional standard for determining the group of employees that will vote in a union election; replacing the board’s micro-union decision with policies that encourage unity and harmony in the workplace.

Both bills are part of an ongoing effort to protect the rights of workers and job creators. Wednesday’s hearing will provide members an opportunity to examine these legislative proposals and discuss how the bills could affect the American workforce. To learn more about this hearing, visit www.republicans-edlabor.house.gov/hearings.

For more information on the Secret Ballot Protection Act, visit republicans-edlabor.house.gov/SecretBallot.

For more information about the Representation Fairness Restoration Act, visit republicans-edlabor.house.gov/HR2347.

 

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WITNESS LIST

Jerry H. Hunter
Partner
Bryan Cave LLP
St. Louis, MO

Eric H. Oppenheim
Chief Operating Officer
Republic Foods, Inc.
Rockville, MD
Testifying on behalf of Society for Human Resource Management.

Mr. Fred Feinstein
Senior Fellow
University of Maryland
Takoma Park, MD

Marlene Felter
Employee
Chapman Medical Center
Costa Mesa, CA

Glenn Taubman
Staff Attorney
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
Springfield, VA