Washington, April 21, 2009 – With Congress poised to consider legislation making it easier to form unions in retail stores, a new poll conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch shows that four out of five people surveyed support secret ballots in union organizing elections, and that support is even stronger among union members.

The nationwide survey of 8,667 U.S. adults was conducted March 31 through April 7 and found that 81.8 percent of those polled believe a vote should be kept secret whenever an individual has the right to vote on something.

When asked about legislation pending in Congress that would effectively take away the right to a secret ballot in union organizing elections, 81.4 percent said votes on whether to join a union should be kept secret. Among non-union individuals surveyed, 81.3 percent said such votes should be kept secret, while 83.9 percent of those in union households felt the same.

“These numbers tell us the vast majority of Americans believe the secret ballot is a cornerstone of democracy and is just as important in a union election as it is when voters chose a president or member of Congress,” NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin said. “What’s especially revealing is that union members hold that belief even more strongly than people who don’t belong to a union. Union leadership might want to do away with the secret ballot, but rank-and-file workers want their votes kept private.”

The survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent, was conducted as Congress is preparing to debate the Employee Free Choice Act.

EFCA would eliminate the decades-old National Labor Relations Act requirement that union representation be decided in secret ballot elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, the NLRB would be required to recognize a union if presented with signed authorization cards from a majority of workers. Under the legislation, union organizers – not the federal government – would oversee the process, effectively eliminating the employer from the election proceedings.

“Replacing the secret ballot with a process where a union can be formed simply by signing membership cards would subject workers to intimidation and coercion on an unprecedented scale,” Mullin said. “The only way to guarantee workers a truly free choice on whether to join a union is to continue letting them make that decision in a voting booth and not with someone looking over their shoulders to see whether they sign a union card.”

“Many retailers and retail workers don’t think this legislation affects them because their stores aren’t unionized,” Mullin said. “But card check is a shortcut to forming unions where they haven’t existed before, and this bill is a top priority for organized labor as they try to boost sagging membership. They are targeting retail and other traditionally non-union industries, and whether you like unions or not, our industry simply can’t afford the increased costs and rigid work rules that come with unionization, especially in the middle of the worst economic climate in decades. Passage of this legislation would drive up costs for retailers, and that would mean higher costs for consumers.”

The legislation would also automatically cut off negotiations over first union contracts if an agreement had not been reached in 120 days, instead requiring the parties to engage in binding interest arbitration. For the first time, employers and employees would be taken out of the negotiation process and government officials with no expertise in the retail industry would be given power to set wages and employment conditions.

On that issue, the survey found that 62.2 percent believe a company and union should be allowed to negotiate over a contract until an agreement is reached, while only 5 percent believe the government should decide if the company and union can’t reach an agreement. The sentiment was significantly stronger among those in union households, with 74.5 percent saying the company and union should be allowed to take as long as necessary and 4.6 percent saying the government should step in. Among non-union members, 60.3 percent said the company and union should be allowed to continue to negotiate, while 4.9 percent supported government intervention.

“The last people Americans want making decisions about how businesses are run are government bureaucrats,” BIGresearch Executive Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Phil Rist said.

NRF is leading the retail industry’s fight against the legislation. In 2007, NRF and other business groups formed the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to coordinate efforts to educate the public and lawmakers about the measure, and NRF heads the coalition’s lobbying committee. In addition, NRF last year launched the Private Ballot Resource Center at www.nrf.com/PrivateBallot to provide information about the bill and its impact on the retail industry.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm providing unique consumer insights gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch’s syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 8,000 consumers each month to empower clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2008 sales of $4.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

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