MSCI-Supported Coalition Works To Protect Secret Ballot Union Elections

On March 14, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), which the Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) is a member of, sent a  letter to the leaders of the U.S. Senate and House the Labor and Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittees that urged them to protect secret ballot elections in union representation elections by keeping in their spending bill a bipartisan policy rider that prohibits the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from implementing electronic voting in union elections.

The letter came in response to a request by several House Democrats and President Joe Biden to eliminate the rider from the spending bill.

“Congress, the NLRB, federal courts, and stakeholders have all recognized that secret ballots in union representation elections are the best means for ensuring workers can freely vote their conscience and for guaranteeing secure and credible elections,” argued CDW Chair Kristen Swearingen in a statement released in conjunction with the letter. “Electronic voting, on the other hand, would break with NLRB precedent, increase the risk of coercion and fraud in representation elections, and waste the NLRB’s limited resources. … Congress should maintain the rider again and protect workers, election credibility, and [NLRB] resources.” The letter also asked federal lawmakers to use the annual appropriations process to rein in the NLRB’s rulemaking and to condition any increases in NLRB funding on the inclusion of additional riders that would limit the NLRB’s efforts to expand its authority.