U.S. Chamber Report Debunks Union Studies on Employer Coercion

'This Single Study Exposes the Lack of Credibility to Their Arguments for Overhauling Labor Laws,' Johnson says

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As Congress considers the most significant reforms to labor laws in nearly a century, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today released a study debunking the arguments behind "academic" studies used by organized labor and their allies to push for these changes.

"Proponents of EFCA repeatedly cite the same studies to support their claims for overhauling our labor laws," said Randel K. Johnson, the Chamber's senior vice president for Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits. "But this single study exposes the lack of credibility to their arguments. They say changes are needed because employer tactics create a coercive environment during organizing drives. But these studies show no pattern of employer coercion and certainly don't justify overthrowing our current system of labor laws."

With Congress debating, perhaps, the most significant labor law reform since the 1930s, this report, entitled Union Studies on Employer Coercion Lack Credibility and Integrity, provides a timely look into the union studies' self-serving research intended to support a pre-ordained result. It focuses on studies that are constantly cited by organized labor and their allies as evidence of claimed illicit behavior by employers.

"In investigating the arguments made in these studies, we found several problems that call into question the studies' credibility," Johnson said. "This includes using flawed methodologies, misusing government data, misinterpreting federal labor laws, overt bias of the groups funding the studies, and distorting statistics,"

For example, the report No Holds Barred alleged that employers fired union organizers and made illegal threats in a large number of cases. But this report reveals that the primary source of information was union organizers themselves. Likewise, the report Dropping the Axe: Illegal Firings During Union Organizing Campaigns made a number of unjustified assumptions and ignored actual data from the National Labor Relations Board that led to the report's inflated results.

The white paper from the U.S. Chamber is the fourth in a series entitled Responding to Union Rhetoric: The Reality of the American Workplace.

The U.S. Chamber is the world's largest business federation representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.

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