WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) filed a cloture motion to proceed to debate the Employee Free Choice Act, which critics – including NACS – say would rob American workers of their rights to a fair election, free of fraud, when determining whether or not employees want union representation. The Senate could vote on the measure, which would replace secret ballot elections with "card check" elections, as early as Thursday.

On Monday NACS sent every senator a letter [PDF] outlining its opposition to the bill. The legislation would "strip American workers of the opportunity to keep private their decision on whether or not to be represented by a union. It would virtually replace private ballots in union elections with the very public card check recognition process. With the card check process, workers are forced to vote in front of union organizers by signing or not signing an authorization card."

NACS believes secret ballots are the only way to protect workers' freedom to choose without coercion or intimidation. "Workers should not have to reveal to anyone how they voted," the letter states. "Currently, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) allows employees to decide whether they wish to be represented by a particular union through a federally supervised private ballot election process. A private ballot process protects employees from abuse because no matter what happens prior to the election, once an individual steps into a private voting booth the decision is theirs alone to make. If the union organizers are confident that the employees want to be represented by them, then they should not have a problem with a private ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board."

The letter concludes by saying, "This type of legislation runs counter to the ideals of democracy and free enterprise and NACS encourages you to oppose S.1041."