Since becoming president in 2009, President Obama aggressively
has pursued policies aimed toward making it easier for employees to
form labor unions. During 2009-10, he supported legislation that
would allow unions to use "card check" procedures rather than
secret-ballot elections. However, the so-called "card check" bill
narrowly failed to pass a Democratic-controlled Congress because of
a strong lobbying campaign to defeat the legislation and preserve
secret-ballot elections.
After Republicans took control of the House of Representatives
in the 2010 elections, effectively killing the card-check bill, the
Obama administration turned to the regulatory arena to advance its
goal of making it easier for workers to join unions. The
centerpiece of Obama's campaign to boost union organizing is a
regulation the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed in
2011 that dramatically would change union representation
procedures. Unfortunately, this regulation will erode employers'
due process rights, and NRCA
opposes it.
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