WASHINGTON The National Restaurant Association praised the U.S. Senate for rejecting a measure that would have allowed labor unions to organize in restaurants and other workplaces without holding secret ballot elections.
Proponents of the bill were unable to get the 60 votes necessary to force the Senate to consider the Employee Free Choice Act, which had been championed by organized labor and which sought to replace federally supervised secret ballot elections with a “card-check” process. The final vote was 51 to 48.
The Senate measure would have allowed activists to unionize a workplace by convincing most employees to sign a card stating that the union was their bargaining representative.
A similar bill already has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. Brendan Flanagan, vice president of federal relations for the NRA, said, “Card-check is undemocratic and infringes on employees’ rights to a secret ballot. The only way to protect employees from fraud, intimidation and coercion from union organizers or employers is through the continued use of a federally supervised secret ballot.”