Jeff Duncan's Amendment to Protect Secret Ballot Passes

Press Release

Thursday the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 5326 the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2013, which included an amendment offered by Congressman Jeff Duncan to defund the NLRB's lawsuit against South Carolina (and other states) for protecting worker's right to a secret ballot in union elections.

"This amendment protects against coercion and intimidation from big labor" said Duncan. "The people of South Carolina voted overwhelmingly to protect the right to a secret ballot in union certification elections, and I intend to do everything in my power to stop the federal government from undermining South Carolina law."

In an effort to curb current national labor trends showing declining membership in private section unions, the Administration's taxpayer funded voice for labor, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has filed numerous suits against right-to-work states like South Carolina that give employees the freedom to decide whether or not to join a labor union.

The NLRB's latest attempt to help unions grow involved suing two states, Arizona and South Dakota, and declaring plans to sue several others like South Carolina because of state constitutional provisions protecting the secret ballot process in labor union elections.

Bill Wilson, President of Americans for Limited Government applauded Duncan's amendment. "Thanks to Rep. Duncan's amendment to an agency appropriations bill, the NLRB will be prohibited from using any funds to litigate against any state on the question of secret ballot union elections. This is one step necessary to defang the NLRB from using the force of law to impose Big Labor's agenda on businesses and on states" said Wilson.

"This is just another example of the Obama Administration putting politics ahead of the people of South Carolina. If a secret ballot is good enough for electing our President, it's good enough for deciding whether or not to join a union. But then again, it wouldn't be the Federal Government if they weren't advocating policies that fly in the face of common sense" said Duncan.

"I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to ensure this becomes the law of the land."

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