Category Archive: Blog Posts

  1. Sen. Scott (R-SC) to Introduce Employee Rights Act of 2022

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    Tomorrow, Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) will introduce the Employee Rights Act (ERA) of 2022, a bill that will significantly update our out-dated labor laws for the first time in decades.

    The ERA protects workers’ rights while also reflecting major changes to our economy in recent generations. According to polling from the Center for Union Facts, the legislation’s key provisions are overwhelmingly popular with employees as well as the American public more broadly.

    You can see polling on the bill’s key provisions here. You can see a full list of the nearly 50 organizations that endorse the ERA here.

    While many of the bill’s original provisions from when it was first introduced in 2011 remain intact, the bill also includes key updates meant to address modern-day concerns such as new protections for gig workers, franchise small businesses, and more.

    The ERA’s key provisions:

    • Secret Ballot Elections: Ensure that any vote to organize a workplace or hold a strike is done via private ballot.
    • Criminalized Union Threats: Federally prohibit and criminalize coercion or threats by union officials while establishing privacy protections for employees to limit calls and other election activities outside the workplace.
    • Political Protection: Require employees to consent to their union dues being used for anything other than collective bargaining efforts.
    • Gig Worker Benefits: Allows employers to extend benefits to independent contractors without the workers having to abandon their flexibility.
    • Protection for Local Businesses: Includes the Save Local Business Act, which clarifies the joint employer standard, allowing more franchisees to own their own businesses, giving more Americans the opportunity to realize their dream of starting their own business.
    • NLRA Reform: Includes the Truth in Employment Act, which protects small businesses and employees from the coercive union tactic known as “salting.” Also codifies a 2020 rule requiring unions to adhere to enhanced reporting under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 on T-1 trusts, offering employees further transparency into their union’s operations.

    For a full overview of the ERA, visit EmployeeRightsAct.com.

    If unions don’t want to become obsolete in a modern economy that prioritizes flexibility and individual choice, they should try actually earning workers’ trust — not just legislating themselves back into power. The ERA would let workers decide if unions and their self-serving agendas really have a place in today’s workforce.

  2. New Video Highlights Union Political Advocacy Spending

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    Today, the Center for Union Facts released a new video, illustrating the scale of union political advocacy spending and explaining the Employee Rights Act’s (ERA) paycheck protection provision.

    Since 2010, labor unions have sent more than $1.3 billion in member dues to liberal advocacy groups—without prior member approval. The liberal groups include the Democratic Governors Association, Clinton Foundation, and Planned Parenthood, even though 40 percent of union household members vote Republican in any given election cycle. As the video explains, the ERA would protect union members by requiring union officials to receive opt-in approval before spending dues money on political advocacy.

    You can see the video here:

  3. Newt Gingrich: Pass the ERA

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    In a recent FoxNews.com op-ed column, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised the Employee Rights Act’s (ERA) reforms, noting their popularity across party lines. Gingrich urged Congress to pass the ERA this year. Here’s what he wrote:

    Another good legislative goal for Republicans would be passing the Employee Rights Act. This is a no-brainer for GOP candidates running in union-controlled states because–among other things–it guarantees most employees’ rights to have secret paper ballot elections, prevents unions from pressuring employers against such elections, and requires routine secret ballot referendums to let employees decide if they want to remain unionized.

    Nationally, a poll by the Opinion Research Corporation found that protecting secret-ballot elections is supported by 79 percent of union households and 81 percent of non-union households. Even 81 percent of Democrats polled agreed that most employees should have the right to secret ballot elections. The ORC poll also found that 71 percent of union households supported periodic elections to recertify unions, and 83 percent of non-union households supported these referendums.

    Importantly, these ideas polled high in some important states–Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Seventy-two percent of union households in these states supported secret ballots, and 68 percent approved of routine recertification elections.

    Republicans in right-to-work states should also support the Employee Rights Act. According to the Center for Union Facts, unions directed more than $1.1 billion in union dues to liberal political groups from 2010 to 2016. The Democratic Governors Association and Planned Parenthood were among the top ten recipients. Much of this money is being spent to strengthen union influence and bring more and more states under union control.

    The Employee Rights Act would require unions to get prior permission from workers before union dues are spent on anything other than collective bargaining. This political protection provision has resounding support–81 percent in union households, 85 percent in non-union households, and 79 percent in union homes in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

  4. ERA Enjoys Unprecedented Support

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    Labor reform is gaining steam. The Employee Rights Act (ERA) is currently supported by more than 160 members of Congress, including 25 U.S. senators. Co-sponsors are adding their names weekly, and the total number of ERA supporters is expected to hit a record high by early 2018.

    According to national and regional polls, roughly 80 percent of Americans—including those in union households—support the bill’s key provisions. And more than 50 free-market organizations, including the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity, have endorsed the ERA. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board is also supportive, claiming the ERA will “protect worker rights from union coercion.”

    The Employee Rights Act is an idea whose time has come.

  5. ERA Reintroduction Brings Glowing Endorsements

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    Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN) recently reintroduced the Employee Rights Act (ERA), the most comprehensive update to American labor law since the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947. Last session, 170 members of Congress co-sponsored the ERA, including 33 U.S. senators. Roughly 80 percent of Americans—including those in union households—support the bill’s key provisions.

    They’re not the only ones. In the last week alone, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, Workforce Fairness Institute, and Freedom Foundation have all endorsed the ERA. Heritage Action argued that the bill “would help restore a balance of power in the workplace.” Americans for Prosperity described it as an “opportunity to extended worker freedom to every American,” while the Workforce Fairness Institute called the ERA a “top priority for America’s employees.” Scott Roberts, Vice President of Strategy at the Freedom Foundation, went so far as to say that the ERA’s key reforms are “fundamental to democracy.”

    Workplace democracy is long overdue. Let’s turn the Employee Rights Act into law.

  6. Why Congress Should Pass the Employee Rights Act

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    From LaborPains.org:

    Now the onus is on Congress to pass the Employee Rights Act (ERA), which would update federal labor law to protect employees nationwide. A package of eight pro-employee reforms, the ERA would guarantee secret ballot union elections and require labor officials to obtain opt-in permission before spending dues dollars on politics. Among other provisions, the bill would also mandate periodic recertification votes when a workplace has experienced substantial turnover, allowing employees to put union bosses up for a re-vote.

    Less than 10 percent of American employees ever voted for the union currently “representing” them. The ERA democratizes the workplace and extends labor reform to all 50 states.

  8. Orrin Hatch Makes the Case for the ERA

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    In a recent Washington Examiner op-ed column, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) explained why he introduced the Employee Rights Act (ERA):

    I want to empower America’s workers with the freedoms they deserve. That’s why I have introduced the Employee Rights Act, a pro-growth, worker-centered reform that brings much-needed change to the workplace by making unions more democratic. My bill takes several critical steps to protect the rights of America’s work force.

    Among these is the guarantee of a secret ballot election. Labor organizers can scrap the democratic process altogether in favor of public card signatures—the NLRB reports that “card checks,” publicly staged to supplant a private vote, are used by labor organizers in almost 40 percent of union recognition procedures. Secret ballot elections are essential to ending the questionable practices that many unions have long used against workers to intimidate and bully them into submission,” Sen. Hatch explains, “The abusive tactic known as ‘card check’ illustrates why secret ballots are so necessary.”

    The ERA would also “[make] labor organizations more accountable to their members by requiring unions to hold recertification elections when companies experience significant turnover.” Government data shows that less than 10 percent of union members ever voted for the union currently “representing” them, showing the need for periodic referendums on union representation.

    This—along with paycheck protection and other pro-employee provisions—is why the ERA has gained so much popularity. More than 165 members of Congress co-sponsor the legislation, while 80 percent of Americans support its key reforms.

    The ERA is an idea whose time has come.

  9. ERA Co-Sponsorship Tops 160 Members of Congress

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    The Employee Rights Act (ERA) has given popularity a new name. The bill—America’s most comprehensive piece of labor legislation—is now co-sponsored by more than 160 members of Congress, including 30 senators. In the last week alone, Representative Ken Calvert from California and Representative Patrick McHenry from North Carolina have come on board as co-sponsors, bringing the grand total to 164 supporters of labor reform on Capitol Hill.

    The ERA’s pro-employee provisions are also supported by 80 percent of Americans, including union and nonunion households.

    The Employee Rights Act is an idea whose time has come.

  10. ERA Attracts Record Number of Co-Sponsors

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    The Employee Rights Act (ERA) is now co-sponsored by 140 members of the 114th Congress, including 29 senators. That surpasses the previous high of 137 co-sponsors when the bill was reintroduced in the 113th Congress.

    And the ERA’s support extends beyond Capitol Hill. About 80 percent of Americans support the bill’s key provisions—which include guaranteed secret ballot union elections, periodic recertification votes, and employee privacy protections. The ERA is popular among union and nonunion households, as well as self-identified Democrats, Republicans, and independents.

    In recognition of the bill’s broad-based appeal, the Center for Union Facts recently ran an advertisement in USA Today:

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