Whatever other points Jonathan Cutler makes [CTOpinion, March 15, "'Free Choice' Must Mean Switching Unions, Too"], he is flat-out wrong when he asserts that the Employee Free Choice Act "would ... replace the secret ballot union election with a proposed 'card check' system." There is no "loss of the secret ballot," as Cutler maintains.

The Employee Free Choice Act lets employees -- not employers -- decide how to express their choice to organize, either by balloting or by majority sign-up, meaning that if a majority of the employees sign union-authorization cards, validated by the National Labor Relations Board, a company must recognize the union.

Both of these provisions -- majority sign-up or an election -- are currently on the books but leave the power to determine which method is used in the hands of the employer. The act simply will allow the employees to decide which method they will choose.

America's working people are struggling to make ends meet. CEOs have all the power and our middle class is disappearing. The best opportunity to get ahead is by uniting with co-workers to bargain with employers for better wages and benefits.

The Employee Free Choice Act -- with employees deciding how to gain union recognition -- offers the way.

Win HeimerWest Hartford

Vice President, Greater Hartford Central Labor Council