WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today voted against legislation to reverse employee protections, like secret balloting, established in 1947 to prevent intimidation by both unions and employers when voting to unionize.

"I believe the secret-ballot is essential in protecting employees from intimidation from both employers and unions," Senator Roberts said. "In fact, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reports that only about 1% of secret-ballots have been re-run due to allegations of misconduct. Simply put, the secret ballot works."

The card check measure of the bill, the Employee Free Choice Act, would replace private, secret-ballot elections—the preferred and statutorily provided method for determining whether employees want a union to represent them. Under the card check process, employees would indicate their choice of whether to join a union by signing a card in front of their co-workers, employers and union organizers.

Under current law, to organize a union requires a majority of employees to sign cards requesting to organize. The employer then has the option of requiring a secret ballot election of all employees to ensure they are voting for organization free of intimidation and peer pressure from labor organizers.

Senator Roberts said, "The folks at the Tyson’s plant in Holcomb, Kansas recently put the card check method to the test. After union organizers were successful in submitting enough signed cards to the NLRB, they requested a secret ballot vote. Workers overwhelmingly rejected the effort to unionize at the plant by a three to one vote. Out of 2466 workers, 1610 voted in a democratic and private way to reject unionization. It is clear that from these results, employees who had initially signed cards in front of union organizers, changed their minds once in the privacy of an election booth. If the Employee Free Choice Act was in place, 1610 employees would be represented by a union against their wishes."

Senator Roberts also opposed provisions in the bill to demand government arbitration if a contract is not successfully negotiated in a certain amount of time. Instead of the employers and unions working together to reach an agreement, government arbitrators with limited knowledge of the company or the employees, would be making binding contract decisions.

"No one – employers or union organizers – should fear an election conducted by secret ballot. It is the only way to protect an individual’s freedom to choose without subtle or overt coercion," Senator Roberts said.

Senator Roberts is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.