Atlanta (AP) – As Georgia's billions for economic incentives for manufacturers of electric vehicles and other companies, the government's government republicans shift it to the employees in these companies to join the unions due to a violation of the current federal law.
On Thursday, the Senate voted 31-23 for a legislation supported by Governor Brian Kemp and the companies that are recognized by state incentives recognize the recognition of unions without a formal selection of secret blocks. This would prevent the unions from gaining the recognition of a company voluntarily after signing a majority of employees in a card test. Senate Bill 362 moves into the house to get more debates.
Union leaders and democrats argue that the draft law against the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 is regulated against the Union's organization against the federal law by voluntarily recognizing unions that show the support of a majority of employees.
“Ultimately, voluntary recognition is a protected right, period,” said Hannah Perkins, political director of the Georgia Afl-Cio Union Federation, who claims 500,000 members in the state. Only 4.4% of Georgia workers are trade union members, the eighth rate among states.
The National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Authority, which supervises the union matters, did not immediately answer an e -mail on Thursday that requested a comment.
Georgia's draft law is modeled on a law in Tennessee last year, but in many other countries there could be similar laws. The conservative American legislative Exchange Council promotes the idea. The national push could also be a reaction to a decision by the democratically controlled NLRB last year, which made it easier for the unions to organize cards.
Governors in other southern states that have traditionally been hostile to organized workers have spoken against unions in the past few weeks after the United Auto workers sworn a new move to organize non -union car factories after several failed attempts.
The Republican governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, said that the economic success of her state was “attacked”. Henry McMaster, the Republican governor of South Carolina, told the legislators in the state of the nation, which is less unionized, that organized workers represent such a threat that he would fight the unions “up to the gates of hell”.
The Georgia Governor Brian Kemp proclaimed his support for the invoice in a speech by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and repeated the chamber's own agenda. He said the move would protect the “right to opportunities” by the workers from President Joe Bidens Proion-Agenda and external forces “who do not want anything more than to see the free market to stand standstill”.
Alabama and South Carolina are among the five states that have passed state constitutional changes in 2010 or 2012 that guarantee access to the vocal notes of the secret union. Like Tennessee, Indiana has passed a state law. The National Labor Relations Board asked Arizona to be questioned in court, but a federal judge rejected it in 2012 to lift him and said it was too early to assess whether the state change with the federal law is conflicting.
Kemp and colleagues from Georgia Republicans argue that they protect the workers from being bullied by giving them the protection of a secret ballot.
“Why is it such a bad policy to say that if you are in the state of Georgia, you have the right to be protected, you have the right to decide whether it has been unionized union union union union union, and you will not be bullied, and you will not be blackmailed?” Asked Senator Bo Hatchett, a Republican of Cornelia, who appointed Kemp on the one hand of his soil leaders in the Senate.
However, Democrats say that the law is really about organizing the unions and accepting companies. Most employers who oppose unions require employees who vote on the organization in order to take part in the mandatory anti-union sessions before voting, which can lead to the employees against unions.
“Too often, employers participate with these campaigns with burned earth against workers,” said Senator Nikki Merritt, a Democrat of Lawreceville who said that an union contract protected them in an earlier job. Like most Senate Democrats on Thursday, Merritt wore a red headscarf as a symbol of Union solidarity.
Condition. Sen Mike Hodges, a Republican in Brunswick who sponsors the legislation, denied that he would violate the federal law.
“It does not forbid a company's employees to organize or oblige an employer to oppose the union,” said Hodges, another Kemp Floor Manager.
Hodges said he understood a number of relatives who had been union members and “understood the addition of a lifestyle that union wages”.
“If I asked this bill in any way, form or form for unions or union members, I would not wear it,” said Hodges.
However, the Democrats said that the law is an attempt to attack federal work law.
“You think you have found a gap, so you want this to be a test case,” said Senator Jason Esteves, a Democrat in Atlanta. “You want this to go to court because you hope that the Supreme Court allows you to shake away.”
