ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Textile Rental Services Association (TRSA) today urged members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce to cosponsor H.R. 4343, the Secret Ballot Protection Act of 2004, introduced by Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA).

The bill would amend the National Labor Relations Act to ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB).

H.R. 4343 would make it an unfair labor practice for employers to recognize a labor organization unless it is selected by a majority of employees through a secret ballot conducted and overseen by the NLRB. “Secret ballot elections will provide employees the freedom to vote their conscience without fear of reprisal,” said TRSA president and CEO Roger Cocivera in his letter to the members of the House committee. “These are freedoms employees most certainly do not have using the ‘card check’ system,” which unions now employ, Cocivera said.

Under the card check system, unions simply ask employees to sign authorization cards that say they support union representation. It is difficult if not impossible to ensure that employees didn’t sign these cards due to intimidation or misrepresentation.

Moreover, the card check approach is part of a broader strategy to expand union membership through various pressure tactics, rather than simply making the case to workers that they’d be better off with a union representing them.

“Increasingly, unions are exerting external leverage rather than an internal outpouring from employees on the core issues of wages, hours and working conditions through public relations campaigns and political action to put pressure on employers and bypass employees’ free choice to obtain agreements at a company,” Cocivera said.

The Textile Rental Services Association of America (TRSA) is a national trade association representing over 1,100 company locations across the nation.  Since 1913, TRSA members have provided textile maintenance and rental services to commercial, industrial and institutional accounts-over 90 percent of TRSA member companies are small businesses.  TRSA members serve hygienically clean textile and dust control items to millions of customers in commerce, industry, and other professions, from automobile service to manufacturing, restaurants and hospitals.  The textile rental industry generates yearly sales of roughly $11 billion. U.S. linen supply and industrial laundering companies employ more than 110,000 people.