CDW: Hoffa's Card Check Gaffe Coincides With 20th Anniversary of Justice Department...

CDW: Hoffa's Card Check Gaffe Coincides With 20th Anniversary of Justice
Department Requiring Teamsters to Hold Secret Ballot Elections

New Ad Campaign Showcases Teamster Boss' Hypocrisy

WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition for a Democratic
Workplace (CDW) is launching an advertising campaign on the card check issue
this week that coincides with the 20th anniversary of the United States
Justice Department ordering the Teamsters to allow its members to vote for
their leaders by secret ballot. The Teamsters agreed to a landmark consent
decree with the federal government on March 13, 1989 to avoid prosecution on
mob-related corruption.
On March 10, 2009, James P. Hoffa, the current president of the Teamsters,
mocked the importance of the secret ballot in a press release that commended
Democratic congressional leaders for pushing forward with legislation to
eliminate the secret ballot for union organizing elections.

In a desperate attempt to shift attention away from the fact that the card
check scheme pushed by Big Labor and its allies on Capitol Hill would strip
away worker privacy and make workers vulnerable to threats of intimidation and
coercion, Mr. Hoffa, who has been elected by the Teamsters' secret ballot
system three times, asked "since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of
democracy?"

The CDW ad campaign juxtaposes Hoffa's comments on the card check debate with
the American people's overwhelming support of the secret ballot. A poll
conducted in January for CDW found that 82 percent of likely voters believe a
worker's vote in a union organizing election should be kept private; 86
percent believe a secret ballot election is the best way to protect the
individual rights of workers. Only 11 percent support the card check scheme
that would make the votes of workers public to their employers, co-workers and
union organizers.

"The Teamsters were right to agree to use the secret ballot in 1989," said
Brian Worth, with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. "It cleaned up
mob-related corruption and made the union more accountable to rank and file
workers. I'm assuming Mr. Hoffa is not in favor of taking away the secret
ballot from his members. I just don't understand how he can justify stripping
it away from the millions of American workers who don't belong to his union."

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

Rhonda Bentz or Hayden Pruett, +1-202-580-7289, both of The Coalition for a
Democratic Workplace