Lawmakers give preliminary OK to anti-union measure – Day 2

The Senate and the House gave preliminary approval Aug. 10 to a measure seeking to guarantee the right of a secret ballot in union elections.

Both chambers are expected to give final approval to the measure Aug. 11.

Democrats tried to amend the anti-union legislation but were unsuccessful.

The proposal expected to be on the Nov. 2 ballot as Proposition 113 is meant to be a preemptive strike against possible federal legislation that would make it easier for organizers to form unions.

The federal legislation, also known as the “card-check” bill, would require employers to recognize a union if majority of workers signed a petition card saying they wanted to form one.

Currently, employers are not bound to recognize a card-check petition and can require a vote by secret ballot, which anti-union groups believe shields employees from being coerced into joining a union.

The Legislature passed a similar referral last year, but the courts ruled that it violated the state constitution’s requirement that a ballot measure be limited to only one subject. That proposal would have guaranteed secret-ballot votes for both public and union elections.

The Republican-led Legislature will fix the wording by dropping the part about public office elections.

In the House, Rep. Daniel Patterson, a Tucson Democrat, attempted in vain to amend the measure twice.

One amendment would have extended the right of secret balloting to the selection of corporate management, while another would have officially named the ballot measure the “Anti-Arizona Worker Amendment.”

Patterson said it would be the fair thing to do.
In the Senate, Republicans also rejected an amendment that would have given an employee the right to have another person present in any meeting with an employer about forming a union.

Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill, the Tempe Democrat who offered the amendment, said the change would help protect workers from intimidation from management.

“See, we’re not really doing this bill (SCR1001) to protect employees,” she said, adding those who signed in to support the bill during the Judiciary Committee hearing were from management.

But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Gray noted that Proposition 108, the original ballot measure, was removed from the ballot because of the court ruled it violated the state constitution’s single-subject requirement.

The Burton-Cahill amendment, if adopted, would add another subject to SCR1001, he said.

“(It would) therefore put our bill in jeopardy,” he said.

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Jim Small contributed to this report