Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (the Board) Chairman Lauren McFerran in opposition to the Board’s proposed rule which weakens employees’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), makes the interests of unions a priority, and strips employees of vital protections.
In the letter, Foxx writes:“The proposed rule flips the NLRA on its head by empowering unions to entrench themselves as employee representatives regardless of worker preference. Codifying the proposed rule would contradict one of the principal protections of the NLRA that ‘the employees pick the union; the union does not pick the employees.’”
Foxx continues: “The NLRA is intended to protect the right of workers to organize or refrain from doing so in conditions free of interference, not to permit an employer to anoint a union as the employee representative. History and experience have shown that the secret ballot election is the most reliable method of assessing whether a majority of employees support union representation, while the card check process is notorious for its lack of privacy and invites intimidation and coercion of workers.”
Foxx concludes: “The right to organize does not take away the right of workers to choose freely whether or not to be represented by a union, and this right should be protected and respected. Employers and unions should not be given the unliteral authority to assume workers’ interests. …I urge the Board to withdraw the proposed rule.”
