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The Senate Republican Conference held a hearing today strongly opposing the Employee Free Choice Act. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) opened by stating, “If properly labeled, the bill should be called the Employee No Choice Act, or even the Employee Forced Coercion act of 2009.” The main area of contention is the provision that Republicans say would allow for union creation without secret-ballot votes. Sen. Hatch explained, “It represents a sea-change in labor-management relations that has developed since the 1930s.... EFCA would effectively deny workers a secret ballot vote on the question of union representation, and there is no choice for workers to make in the matter.” He spoke of the economic devastation he fears would be an outcome of increased unionization: higher unemployment, outsourced jobs, and businesses which cannot compete.

Senator Bennet (R-Utah) reiterated the need to keep union votes secret, informed, and uncoerced. “When you have a secret ballot election, unions have won 68% of them, which means that by 2 to 1 circumstance, employees get what they want if they want a union.” He explained that this bill provides what union organizers want rather than what employees want.

Senator Risch (R-Idaho) expressed strong support for the current, longstanding legislation regarding employer-employee relations. “We have in place in America laws that have governed union organization and collective bargaining for many years. We have a fair system and we have a level playing field.... What we have in front of us is a bill that is unfair. It is a bill that unlevels the playing field, and it is a bill that overreaches. We don’t need this in America today.”

Testimony by lawyer Eugene Scalia raised the issue of the constitutionality of this legislation. Scalia explained that the Supreme Court recognizes a constitutional right to vote in certain circumstances, and lower courts have included in this a right to secret ballot. “I would argue that this act, given the enormous effects that it has on employee’s lives and given the state action involved through the government certification process presents concerns under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.”