The bill, which applies to workplaces that receive economic incentives from the state, means that employees will get to decide in private whether they want union representation. And their decision won’t be used against them in the workplace.
It’s a bold step toward curbing worker intimidation.
Absent a secret-ballot election, employees can face a very different situation. Labor unions prefer an organizing approach known as card check. This petition process sets union organizers out to collect the requisite number of signatures needed to unionize the workplace.
In their pursuit of signatures, union organizers can be deceptive and relentless. They may call workers’ personal cell phones, pressure them in front of their coworkers, and even show up at workers’ homes while they’re spending time with family.
That’s hardly the informed decision-making process that workers deserve.
Tennessee’s bill will shield some workers from coercive union tactics. Beyond the Volunteer State, however, workers everywhere deserve those same safeguards.
It also secures workers’ privacy, giving them a choice about what information is shared with a union. For example, instead of workers having all their personal information—their cell phone number, their home address, and personal email—handed over to the union, workers can select a single piece of information to share.
The Employee Rights Act protects entrepreneurs by standardizing the federal definition of independent workers. This safeguards workers from being treated as employees for the purpose of unionization.
Other policies have tried to make small business owners “joint employers” with distant corporations, turning these owners into corporate managers and jeopardizing their livelihood. The Employee Rights Act would protect franchisees and small business owners, ensuring that a job creator can work directly with his or her own employees.
Today’s 21st-century workers expect to choose for themselves how they work—and for whom. They expect to decide independently whether a labor union represents them and to have that decision respected.
By following Tennessee’s lead, Congress can now offer these workers election rights, personal privacy protections, and policy as modern as they are.