Employment Law Update Luncheon - Minnesota Chamber of Commerce - Remarks by Thomas J. Donohue
Remarks by
Thomas J. Donohue
President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Bloomington, Minnesota
July 21, 2008
As prepared for delivery
Introduction
Thank you for very much, David [Olson], and good morning everyone.
I'd like to thank David, his team, and our event sponsors for putting together this important forum.
For almost a year now I've been traveling around the country talking about what America must do to remain competitive in today's worldwide economy.
You know the big issues as well as I do—education, energy, infrastructure, health care, trade, and capital markets.
But there's another issue that's just as important—and that's whether we will continue to have a free and flexible workforce that can adjust to meet any economic challenge or change.
We won't have that competitive asset if a handful of national unions succeed in turning the clock back 50 years in this country.
Their goal is to unionize small and large employers, radically regulate the workplace, and dictate the business decisions of public companies.
A lot of people say Tom, why are you worried about the unions? Aren't their glory days over? Do they really pose a threat?
While it's they represent only 7.5% of the private sector workforce, their power is increasing in other ways.
For example, they are using their power to assess compulsory dues to create a huge war chest to hijack our political system.
In the past two elections, unions spent a combined $560 million to help elect anti-business candidates. That's nearly a 50% increase from the previous two campaigns. Meanwhile, from 2002-2006, corporate spending dropped about 9%.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has vowed to spend $200 million on the 2008 elections and field 200,000 volunteers. Add that to what other unions are spending, and the figure could balloon to $400-$500 million.
They are going for the trifecta—the House, the Senate, and the White House.
Why? Because they have determined their path to renewed power can only be achieved through a high-stakes, big-money gamble to elect a pro-union Congress and administration that will pass laws to achieve all of their objectives.
Can they do it? Consider this statistic: voters living in households that include a union member make up almost one-quarter of those who vote in elections!
Add to that their huge political spending and an anti-business environment, and it spells trouble.
Now, we don't dispute the unions' right to participate in the political process We don't dispute a worker's right to join—or leave—a union under fair and balanced rules
And we partner with the unions on issues of common concern, like energy and infrastructure
We acknowledge that the labor movement has made important contributions to worker safety and fair treatment in our nation's economic history
But what we strongly oppose is their agenda an agenda that's bad for business, bad for workers, and bad for the country.
They are vowing to:
- eliminate secret ballot elections for unionization votes
- mandate employer paid leave and health care regardless of ability to pay
- give teachers unions even more control over our failing educational system
- and a host of other restrictive measures that will make it difficult for American businesses to compete.
Their agenda matters to every business. Don't just sit there and say to yourself, I don't need to worry about this because I'm a small company, they'll never come after me, or because my company is already unionized.
Today I'd like to briefly discuss what this union agenda means for you, your community, and our country—and what we can do, working together, to defeat it.
Top Priority—Card Check
At the very top of big labor's agenda is passage of the deceptively named Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as card check.
The unions and their allies have already tried to push it through Congress once.
Thanks to a massive grass roots campaign by the Chamber and others, it was filibustered to death in the Senate after passing in the House.
What would it do? It would completely change the economics of union organizing. It would make it cost effective for unions to go after Main Street businesses, small retail establishments, and industries that have never experienced unionization before.
That's because card check would eliminate the expense and worker protection of secret ballot elections.
Under traditional organizing rules, unions have to gather signatures from at least 30% of workers at a facility. Then they petition the National Labor Relations Board to hold a secret ballot election—after workers have heard from both unions and employers.
If more than half the workers vote in favor, then the union is certified.
Card check would short-circuit that process and cut out workers and employers.
Once the union "persuaded" more than half the workers to sign cards, the union would automatically be certified. Workers would be members of the union if they had refused to sign the card—and it would be illegal for workers to hold a secret ballot election.
But that's not all. Under the card check bill, once the union is certified, the employer is under a strict deadline to accommodate the union's demands. If the deadline isn't met, the government appoints an arbitrator who will dictate the terms of the contract without worker or employer input!
Card check opens up the whole process to intimidation and subterfuge. Employers and workers could find themselves with a certified union before they even knew an organizing drive was going on.
The Big Labor Agenda
But card check is not the only agenda item for big labor.
Also high on the list is allowing the establishment of mini-unions. For example, let's assume your business is not unionized. They can go in and just sign up two or three people—not even a majority—and then you've got a union!
Think of it ten "mini-unions" of three employees each could be formed in your workplace. You would have to collectively bargain with each of them. They would be easy for the unions to establish, and that's what this is all about.
And there's more on the unions' ambitious agenda as well—items like:
Expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act to include paid leave, and covering smaller employers and more types of leave.
They are also pushing so-called OSHA reform, which would criminalize OSHA violations, increase fines on small business, and encourage harassment against businesses without improving safety.
They are even trying to revive the previous administration's ergonomics standard that would impose billions of dollars of new costs on companies with no proven benefit.
And not just big companies, but small community businesses. It would require nearly every single business to redesign their workplace.
And if that's not enough they are advancing a dangerous agenda that would undermine American competitiveness, dramatically expand government, and ruin some of our best companies.
They want to kill free trade agreements and isolate this country from the rest of the world they want to increase taxes they want a government takeover of American health care.
The unions want as big and active a government as possible. Why? Because it's a growth industry for them it's where they are getting most of their new members.
Thirty-six percent of public sector workers are unionized, with large concentrations of state and local government employees.
That in itself poses a significant threat to our competitiveness. We all know big government means less economic freedom and more taxes!
In addition, they have engaged in underhanded tactics to bend corporations to their will.
They have refined the art of the corporate campaign, which is a concerted attack by a union on a company's reputation, its customer base, and its ability to conduct routine business. The goal is to generate so much pressure on the target that it will give into union demands.
More and more, we are seeing some unions leverage the power of union-controlled pension funds to pressure companies into adopting the unions' social and political agendas.
And they've partnered with a diverse mix of special interest allies, such as the class action trial lawyers, to increase their power and reach.
Add these policies together and what do you see? You see a labor market and workplace rules that the Europeans would be proud of!
Countries like France and Germany have been suffering double digit unemployment for years. Nearly all the experts agree that a prime reason was their straightjacket approach to labor regulations.
On the other hand, the United States has been a growth and productivity leader because of our labor flexibility.
In the final analysis, the labor unions' legislative and political agendas—and the tactics they're employing to achieve them—pose a major challenge to businesses of all sizes and to the competitiveness of the nation.
But you can't say the unions don't appreciate irony. Last week, one of the nation's largest unions held a global rally railing against our current system of free markets and capital investment. They called it the "Take Back Our Economy" rally.
Well, if they manage to push through this radical agenda, what they will do is "take down our economy"—to a place where it will take decades to recover.
What the U.S. Chamber is Doing—Workforce Free Initiative
So what are we doing about this agenda?
The U.S. Chamber recently launched the Workforce Freedom Initiative, a comprehensive grassroots and education program to stop card check and defeat labor's anti-growth, anti-competitive agenda.
We are rallying state and local chambers in key areas
We are holding fly-ins, meetings, and conferences around the country—about two a week
We're conducting critical research that will build the case against card check and other union-backed measures that would hurt businesses
We are doing paid and earned media to educate lawmakers and the public about what's at stake
And as part of our national political program, the U.S. Chamber is building a political and grassroots system in 144 key congressional districts across the country.
We are targeting key House and Senate races that could make all the difference in building a firewall in the next Congress ... a firewall that stops the worst ideas and advances positive proposals for a competitive American economy.
Here in Minnesota, we have endorsed Norm Coleman for reelection—and so have many state and local chambers, including the St. Paul, Burnsville, Dakota County, River Heights, and St. Cloud chambers.
Senator Coleman's vote to sustain the filibuster and block card check legislation factored prominently in our decision making. His likely opponent strongly supports card check.
Surveys say 85% of Minnesotans support the fundamental worker protection of secret ballot elections.
Dave Olson and Doug Loon of our Midwest Regional Office here in the Twin Cities have worked together and done an outstanding job building a grass roots army in this state.
This state will be a major battleground, and we need to be prepared.
Conclusion—What You Can Do
So what can you do?
Keep informed and participate in these events.
Let elected officials know how you feel. Write them a letter, but also go and visit their district offices. We've provided you with a list of the addresses and phone numbers of the district offices of the entire Minnesota delegation to make it easy.
And vote.
The card check issue and the unions' agenda really symbolizes the decision before the American people in this election—are we going to choose a new government that understands and believes in the principles of free enterprise and small business?
Or, are we going to cry in our soup and believe that we cannot compete globally because America has had its day and just try to get what we can?
The business community must vigorously advance our positive course of action rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reforming health care, strengthening our capital markets, uniting behind a commonsense energy strategy, and getting the workers we need.
People follow positive. We need to take our ideas, our energy, and our passion to the political battlefield—that's where it's at right now.
If you stay at home, if you sulk, if you don't think we can win, then we won't.
Why should we let a handful of large labor unions and certain environment groups and anti-trade people and trial lawyers run this country?
It won't happen if every small business made its voice heard loud and clear.
So when Dave or Doug Loon or U.S. Chamber folks ask you to get involved, drop whatever you're doing and help. Make a difference.
2008 will be a watershed year for the future of organized labor—they can sense it, and I think you do as well.
They are not playing around, and neither can we.
Thank you very much and I'd be happy to take any questions.