Experienced worker attorney blasts NLRB effort to rewrite the law to eliminate secret ballot votes & trap workers in unions they oppose
Washington, D.C. (May 23, 2023) – Today, National Right to Work Foundation staff attorney Aaron Solem will testify in front of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions chaired by Representative Bob Good. Solem’s testimony will highlight the growing issues with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and how the current NLRB and NLRB General Counsel are undermining the rights of workers in order to grant union bosses more coercive power.
Solem’s testimony emphasizes a growing number of NLRB failures to protect employees’ rights in the workplace, including General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo’s plan to eliminate secret ballot elections and mandate unionization based on coercive “card check.” Solem’s testimony also blasts the NLRB for attempting to repeal restrictions which make it easier for union officials to file “blocking charges,” which can delay or block decertification elections no matter how many workers have signed a petition requesting a vote and opposes the union’s so-called “representation”:
“NLRB General Counsel Abruzzo, the Biden-appointed majority on the NLRB, and even some in this Congress are attempting to undermine employee free choice by ending or limiting the secret ballot. General Counsel Abruzzo is seeking to virtually end secret ballot elections and mandate unreliable, undemocratic union card checks as the primary method of union selection. The Board is also making it harder to oust a minority union by bringing back the disreputed and heavily criticized ‘blocking charge’ policy. This policy will make it harder for individual employees to decertify unwanted unions through secret ballot elections, even if 100% of the employees no longer wish to be represented.”
After highlighting the egregious dissolution of employee rights happening under Abruzzo and the Biden Administration, Solem suggested some reforms Congress could make to strengthen the freedoms of rank-and-file workers, including those he represents in cases before the NLRB:
“Rather than ratify the Board and General Counsel’s attempts to undermine secret ballot elections and entrench unpopular unions, this Committee should look to other solutions. Those solutions should grant employees more choices—ideally, the choice not to be forced to pay dues to a union. At the very least, the solution should guarantee employees a right to vote in a secret ballot election. These are far better solutions than the divisive policies being pursued by the Biden Administration and its politically-motivated appointees to the Board.”
Solem testified alongside former NLRB Member Phil Miscimarra, small business owner Cecil Leedy, and forced union dues-funded CWA lawyer Angela Thompson.
“Union bosses should not be given the power to force workers under their so-called ‘representation’ without even a secret ballot election,” observed National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix. “More scrutiny is needed of the Biden NLRB, which time after time seems to be acting like taxpayer-funded organizing for Big Labor, rather than a neutral arbiter of a law that is supposed to protect the legal rights of workers who are opposed to unionization.”
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable organization providing free legal aid to employees whose human or civil rights have been violated by compulsory unionism abuses. The Foundation, which can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-336-3600, assists thousands of employees in about 200 cases nationwide per year.
