10/28/2008
CONTACT: Gregg Thompson, 919-833-9480 or Todd Pack, 615-872-5897
Card check bill would rob North Carolina workers of their rights to secret ballot union elections
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The National Federation of Independent Business, North Carolina's leading small business group, joined other business leaders at a news conference today in Raleigh to oppose the so-called Employee Free Choice Act, also known as the card check bill.
"Just because North Carolina is a right-to-work state does not protect us from the card check bill," said Gregg Thompson, state director of NFIB/North Carolina. "The card check bill will take away workers' right to a secret ballot in union elections."
Current federal law gives workers the right to vote by private, secret ballot on whether to recognize a union in their workplace. This private ballot ensures that workers are able to make a choice without the undue influence of their union organizers, employers, colleagues and friends.
If passed, card check will undermine workers' rights. Without a secret ballot, workers will be subject to coercion and harassment, which is not what our country stands for, Thompson said.
"I employ hundreds of workers in eastern North Carolina, and I cannot stand idly by and watch their rights be stripped by this catastrophic bill," said Theron Riley, president of East Carolina Pizza Huts. "Every American deserves the right to a secret ballot and it would be a tragedy if that right is ever lost."
Joining Riley and Thompson at today's news conference: Sheila Ogle, an NFIB member and chief executive of Media Research Planning and Placement; Claude Pope, chairman of the NFIB/North Carolina Leadership Council; and Bill Brown, president of Brown & Wood Auto Dealers, chairman of the North Carolina Forum for Research and Economic Education and immediate past chairman of the North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association.
