Minority Business Owners Give Card Check Another Kick in the Head

The Employee Free Choice Act, or "card check" legislation, will decimate minority-owned small businesses, minority business leaders argued Monday

Speaking at the National Press Club, the group said the bill, which will eliminate secret ballots for workers voting on organizing union shops, will cause job losses and is "un-American."

"This piece of legislation will cost us 600,000 jobs," said Andy Ingraham of the National Association of Black Hotel Owners.

"It takes away the private ballot, that's un-American, if they did that during the last election we wouldn't have the president we have today," Ingraham said.

Ingraham was citing a study by Anne Layne-Farrar, a anti-trust specialist at LECG, a global expert services and consulting firm, who testified last month in the Senate. Layne-Farrar found that for every three workers cajoled into joining a union because of the open ballot system, one union job will be eliminated. She said based on numbers provided by supporters of check card, she tallied that to total 600,000 lay-offs.

"It is extremely wrong for a government-appointed arbitrator to decide how an American runs his business," added Ash Patel of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association.

Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce said the business leaders are not going to rest despite claims that the bill does not have the support it needs to pass on Capitol Hill.

Two past supporters of a similar bill -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. -- both said last week they would not vote for the legislation in its current form, cutting out critical backing needed for passage.

"We're not going to go to sleep on it. They've got big bucks," he said of the bill's backers, which includes many of the nation's largest unions. "We will not compromise disaster. This is war ... We're going to fight this."

FOX News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.