State Sen. Arthur Orr says his bill intends to ‘prevent coercion’ in Alabama unionization votes

State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said he’s not against Alabama workers organizing — he just wants to make sure it’s done through a secret ballot.

Orr’s proposal would condition an employer’s eligibility for economic development incentives if the employer voluntarily grants recognition rights for the employees solely and exclusively on the basis of signed labor organization authorization cards. Instead, the vote to unionize would have to be done by a secret ballot.

Members of the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee approved the bill on Wednesday.

Orr discussed the legislation Friday on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show.”

“[P]art of the requirement that if you take a lot of taxpayer dollars, you just need to have a union vote and that vote needs to be about a secret ballot,” Orr explained. “That’s all it says. It doesn’t say you can’t unionize. And you can’t go down that road. It just says you got to have a vote and it’s got to be by secret ballot. And I don’t really see the big problem with that.”

State Sen. Orr believes this will prevent companies and union leaders from being able to pressure employees.

“It would prevent any coercion on behalf of the employer who’s trying to coerce employees not to support a union,” he argued. “And it would prevent coercion by the union of trying to get the employees to vote for the Union. So let people make their decisions. And let them make it by secret ballot as opposed to a much more public vote through the card check system where they know who’s with them and who ain’t, and it becomes a real tug of war in the workplace environment.”

Orr also said he’s worried of the economic consequence on Alabama if the unionization efforts are successful.

“If Alabama becomes known as a high union state,” he said. “I think it will impact future job locations here or corporately a location so expansions, etcetera, companies choosing Alabama to put down their manufacturing sites if we become the Michigan of the South as far as unionization is concerned.”

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee