Print Ads Underscore Importance of Elections By Secret Ballot; Issue First Test of New Administration

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today publicly congratulated President-elect Obama on his historic election. In the new print ad campaign, CDW calls on the president-elect to not deny secret ballot elections to America's workers.

Deciding whether to preserve the long-standing democratic right to a private ballot will be one of the key issues that will define an Obama Administration in the first two years. The new Administration and the new Congress will face its first true test early next year in the form of the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act - that allows unionization without secret ballots for workers. This Act, more aptly titled the Employee "Forced" Choice Act, is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on American democracy and worker privacy. Backed by union special interests and their Congressional allies, the anti-worker bill would effectively strip employees of the right to vote in private when deciding whether or not to join a union.

"President-Elect Obama has pledged to be a new kind of Democrat. We hope that means he'll stand up to the forced choice agenda of union bosses and side with workers in protecting their right to secret ballots in union organizing elections," said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. "The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace looks forward to working with the new President and the new Congress to ensure that the democratic process of secret ballot elections is maintained and the anti-worker privacy Employee Free Choice Act is defeated."

CDW survey data indicates that support for maintaining private ballots in union organizing cuts across party lines. By a significant majority, Democrats, Republicans and Independents support maintaining a worker's right to cast his or her vote in private. Even among union households, a significant majority (69%) oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. And 76% of union voters say having a federally supervised secret ballot election is the best way to protect workers' rights when organizing a union.

The print ad will begin running the week of November 17th in DC-based publications.

About the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace is made up of more than 500 associations and organizations from every state across the nation that have joined together to protect a worker's right to a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. In 2008, CDW embarked on a multi-million dollar public education campaign in key states that included polling, television, radio and internet ads and direct mail. For more information and a listing of our membership, please visit www.MyPrivateBallot.com.

SOURCE The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace