090123: Coalition Launches Campaign to Save the Secret Ballot

COALITION FOR A DEMOCRATIC WORKPLACE RELEASES NEW PRINT CAMPAIGN URGING LABOR SECRETARY NOMINEE HILDA SOLIS TO PROTECT SECRET BALLOTS

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) began a print ad campaign urging Rep. Hilda Solis to protect worker privacy and secret ballot elections. Rep. Solis has previously supported the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "card check". This undemocratic legislation will effectively remove secret ballots for workers in union organizing elections and bind employers to contracts that inhibit their ability to create much-needed new jobs.

The print advertisements also reminded President-elect Obama and Rep. Solis that they were elected by secret ballots.

Deciding whether to preserve the long-standing democratic right to a private ballot will be one of the key issues that will define the Obama Administration in the first two years. The new Administration and the new Congress will face its first true test this year with the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act. This Act, more aptly titled the Employee "Forced" Choice Act, is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on American democracy and worker privacy.

"The confirmation hearing will provide workers with an opportunity to find out whether Rep. Solis is committed to protecting secret ballots in workplace elections," said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. "We urge her to change her position and side with workers, not big labor bosses, and oppose the job-killing Employee Free Choice Act."

While rank and file union members overwhelmingly want to keep their right to secret ballot elections, during her time in Congress, Rep. Solis has sided with union bosses to effectively dismantle workplace privacy.

CDW survey data indicates that support for maintaining private ballots in union organizing cuts across party lines. By a significant majority, Democrats, Republicans and Independents support maintaining a worker's right to cast their vote in private. Even among union households, a significant majority (69%) oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. And 76% of union voters say having a federally supervised secret ballot election is the best way to protect workers' rights when organizing a union.

"Rep. Solis' role as the Labor Secretary should be to foster a climate for job creation, not promote job-killing card check legislation that will add more instability to our fragile economy," added Worth.

About the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace is made up of more than 500 associations and organizations from every state across the nation that have joined together to protect a worker's right to a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. In 2008, CDW embarked on a multi-million dollar public education campaign in key states that included polling, television, radio and internet ads and direct mail. For more information and a listing of our membership, please visit www.MyPrivateBallot.com.

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