Carl Levin: “Woman, there are no workers in America who are ``locked into collective bargaining agreements negotiated decades…”

“Woman, there are no workers in America who are ``locked into collective bargaining agreements negotiated decades ago''--zero. What happens in our country is that workers vote to form a union in a workplace, and then they periodically negotiate contracts. Usually, contracts last 2 or 3 years, 4 or 5 years. It is usually employers who want them to last longer. And the two parties, in freedom of contract, agree on those terms. What the gentleman's amendment seeks to do is not for workers to have any rights whatsoever. Workers already have the right to decertify a union through an election. What this amendment seeks to do is to give a right to employers to destroy unions by not recognizing a union anymore under very strange circumstances. The point of the National Labor Relations Act is to protect employees' freedom to choose a union or refrain from forming a union. This amendment, however, undermines that right by allowing an employer to step in and demand a new election without any objective showing that the union no longer enjoys majority support, no objective showing whatsoever. As I said, employees already have the right to petition for another election if that is what they want. That is an existing law. It is in the PRO Act. This amendment is a backdoor to providing an employer the ability to conduct another antiunion campaign designed to sow fear and discord amongst its employees.…”