Saxman fights for right-to-work status

Del. Chris Saxman said Monday he will introduce a constitutional amendment in next month’s General Assembly to protect the state’s right-to-work law.

The Staunton delegate’s anxiety about Virginia’s right-to-work status is in part motivated by pending federal card check legislation.

The legislation, known as the Employee Free Choice Act, was stalled in the 110th Congress, but is expected to be reintroduced in the 111th Congress next year.

If the legislation is passed, it would eliminate secret ballots by workers when unions are formed in the workplace, and would replace collective bargaining with binding arbitration when contract negotiations stall.

All ballots would be cast in full view of union organizers, leading to what Saxman fears would be coercion of the workers and irreparable damage to Virginia’s right-to-work law.

The delegate also fears that the loss of right-to-work status in Virginia would deter companies from locating in the state.

“The first thing companies ask when looking to relocate is, ‘Are [you] a right-to-work state?’ They also ask that when expanding,” Saxman said.

Virginia is one of 22 right-to-work states, defined as states that prohibit unions and employers from making payment of union dues a condition of employment.

Assaults on right-to-work laws are especially ill-conceived with the country mired in recession, Saxman said.

“It’s the worst time to take on that legislation with the economy the way it is,” he said. “It’s a bad signal for business.”

Virginia union representatives say the Employee Free Choice Act would provide a fairer process for workers minus the interference of employers.

Jim Flickinger is president of the Local 381 of the International Brotherhood of DuPont Workers, a union that represents Waynesboro Invista employees.

Flickinger said, under the current union organizing system, there can be a lag of three months between the time the National Labor Relations Board certifies a union election and one occurs.

In other states where he has helped organize unions, Flickinger said employers would hold meetings and show videos of union strikes and other negative union activities during the time leading up to the union election.

“There is no greater coercion than that,” he said.

With the Free Choice Act, Flickinger said a union could be organized without that lag time if a majority of the employees sign the card.

James Farkas, of Sandston, a member of the Virginia AFL-CIO Executive Council, said Virginia’s right-to-work law and others like it across the country are designed “to keep unions out” of the workplace.

And he said unions have helped build the country and assure everything from 40-hour work weeks to insurance and vacation benefits.

Flickinger said he has no objection to Virginia’s right-to-work law.

For Saxman’s amendment to pass, it would need two years of successful votes in the General Assembly and the passage of a statewide referendum on the Virginia ballot in 2010.

The delegate said he will release a list of Virginia House patrons to his legislation in the next couple of weeks. He said there is support in both the Virginia House and Senate for his amendment.

Julia Hammond, the Virginia director of the National Federation of Independent Business, said Saxman’s legislation is vital to Virginia remaining a right-to-work state.

“The legislation safeguards an employee from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment,” Hammond said.

Also lobbying against the card check legislation is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In a study released earlier this year, the Chamber concluded that “the secret ballot election is recognized by federal courts as the best vehicle for employees to render an uncoerced decision about union representation. Anything short of that will send the process of card signing into the back alleys of unregulated, uncontrolled, and un-remediable coercion and intimidation by both sides.”