Click here to send a message to your legislators and Gov. Phil Scott asking them to support the right to organize through Card Check in the public sector.
While a majority of workers in the U.S. would like to join a union, they must overcome substantial barriers to coming together and winning union certification.
In order to join a union, workers must first collect “authorization cards” from people who are in the defined bargaining unit, that state that those people want to join a union.
Once a majority of workers in the bargaining unit have signed cards indicating they want to join the union, they must prove their support a second time through an election overseen by the Labor Board. It can take many months, and sometimes even years after the union has achieved majority support, to hold the election.
During this time, the employer has free reign to use promises, threats and other means to pressure workers to abandon the union. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to have a fair election.
What is Card Check & how would it help workers
When “Card Check” is the law, once workers in a public sector bargaining unit have collected a majority of support cards from the workers in that unit, then those workers will be allowed to join the union without an election process. The union will be recognized as having achieved a majority of support through the cards being signed.
Card Check is supported by Vermont’s public-sector unions
AFT Vermont
AFSCME
IBEW Local 300
United Electrical Workers (UE)
Vermont AFL-CIO
Vermont NEA
Vermont State Employees Association