Three leading companies in the areas of employee advocacy and innovative employment practices—Costco Wholesale Corp., Starbucks Coffee Corp. and Whole Foods Market, Inc.—today announced the formation of an ad hoc “Committee for a Level Playing Field for Union Elections.”

The group has come together to open dialogue about a “third way” approach to reform labor law. The Committee’s purpose is to offer a new solution wholly distinct from the recently-introduced and controversial “card check” bill, the Employee Free Choice Act (“EFCA”).
The founding companies that formed the Committee have consistently appeared on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. Their CEO’s—James Sinegal of Costco, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and John Mackey of Whole Foods Market—introduced a “Statement of Principles,” that, according to the Committee, would “substantially level the playing field for union organizers, improve their access to employees and provide a fair chance to make their case for a union election.”
These principles, attached below, would guarantee a fixed time period for the secret-ballot election—by eliminating delays for establishing a day for a secret ballot to certify or decertify a union. The principles also include increased penalties for serious and pervasive violations of the law by labor or management and expedited procedures to impose them.
The Committee strongly opposes EFCA in its current form, which includes the abolition of a guaranteed option for management or employees to require a secret ballot, what they call a “bedrock principle of American democracy.” The group also opposes EFCA’s provision for government-imposed mandatory arbitration dictating terms of employment, which would overturn the time-valued tradition dating back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Wagner Act of 1935 that preserves private, good faith collective bargaining, free of government intrusion or dictates.
The Committee hopes that other companies, including representatives from labor organizations and public interest groups, will support this innovative, bipartisan “third way” approach.
“We believe in and trust our employees, which is neither anti-union nor pro-status quo,” said James Sinegal of Costco. “We favor fairness and believe that the passage of a law based on these six principles will ensure a fair opportunity for workers to make an informed choice, with a secret ballot, whether they want a union or whether they wish to retain non-union status.”
Lanny J. Davis, former Clinton White House Counsel (1996-98), now an attorney with the Washington D.C. office of the global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, pointed out that, contrary to assertions made by supporters of EFCA, the card-check bill would, in fact, permit the exclusion of the secret ballot option. “It defies logic to say that once 51% of eligible voters sign the cards, the union that is entitled to automatic certification under EFCA would then ask for a secret ballot. That deprives the 49%, and perhaps some who signed the cards under pressure, the right to demand a secret ballot.”
Davis said he has discussed the Statement of Principles with the staffs of almost two dozen Democratic and Republican Senators. Most, he said, indicated the Senators for whom they worked were “positive about our third way approach, including many Democratic Senators who were co-sponsors of EFCA and had voted for the same measure last year.”
“I’m proud to call myself a pro-labor liberal Democrat who believes that reforms are needed to provide a level playing field for both labor and management, but not at the expense of a guaranteed option for a secret ballot by both workers and management and certainly not at the expense of preserving the historic process of private, voluntary collective bargaining. I consider the Committee’s third way proposal based on these six principles to be favorable to labor and fair to management,” Davis said. “If I did not, I would not have taken on this assignment.”
“Given the severe economic crisis facing America it is time to avoid the polarization that has occurred on both sides of this issue, and instead, come together to find a productive approach,” said Davis.
Statement of Principles of Reform “Third Way” Legislation:
(1) Secret Ballot. Guarantee the right of management and unions to require a secret ballot under all circumstances.
(2) Certification and Decertification Treated Equally. Permit management to initiate a decertification campaign through a secret ballot election just as employees and unions are presently able to initiate certification and decertification campaigns.
(3) Date Certain for Elections. Guarantee a fixed time period for the secret-ballot election—i.e., do not permit delays of an established day for a secret ballot to certify or decertify a union.
(4) Equal Access to Employees for Campaign Purposes. Level playing field for unions and management to access employees during non-working hours during the campaign period, e.g., permitting each to make presentations to employees at a neutral location concerning the issue of whether to form a union.
(5) Expedited Enforcement and Stricter Penalties. Expedited enforcement for serious and pervasive violations of law by labor and management and stricter penalties for serious and pervasive violations (e.g., unlawful discharges), including the penalty of mandatory injunctions when appropriate.
(6) Preserve Private Collective Bargaining. No mandatory arbitration that dictates contract terms, but stricter penalties and expedited enforcement for violations of good faith bargaining rules, including an expedited timetable to begin bargaining after union certification.