The Big Lie About the Employee Free Choice Act

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscmeblog.org/2009/03/05/the-big-lie-about-the-employee-free-choice-act/?__utma=1.2346843193277722000.1237762290.1237762290.1237762290.1&__utmb=1.5.10.1237762290&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1237762290.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=120244360

March 5th, 2009

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

America’s top CEOs — the clueless millionaires whose greed, ignorance and arrogance drove our economy off a cliff — have declared their top legislative priority for 2009. It isn’t the president’s budget. It’s not promoting jobs or health care for their workers. And it’s certainly not limits on CEO pay.

Instead, they’ve launched an all out campaign to scuttle bi-partisan legislation that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. The legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, fixes a broken system and would restore the promise of the American Dream for working Americans. It must be a key component of our efforts to rebuild the middle class, promote economic growth and create an economy that works for all Americans.

America’s CEOs have made the defeat of this bill their biggest goal in 2009. To spearhead their campaign, they’ve hired Rick Berman, a shadowy P.R. man who has spent his career attacking nonprofits, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, through phony front groups and misleading advertisements. Berman made a name for himself by winning huge fees working for clients including the tobacco and alcohol industries, mounting campaigns to defeat or weaken drunk driving laws, quieting concerns about cigarettes, and blocking increases in the minimum wage.

Berman specializes in Big Lie campaigns. That’s why the CEOs have hired him. The Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and other front organizations for the CEOs have decided that they can’t oppose the Employee Free Choice Act on the merits, so they’ll create a Big Lie to raise concerns about the bill. The lie they’re promoting is that the bill would eliminate secret ballots for workers forming a union.

The claim is simply not true. The bill gives workers, not their employer, the choice in how they choose to form unions: either after a majority of workers sign a card in support of the union or through a secret ballot election. Workers could choose elections, but the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act don’t care about the truth. They’ve already begun spending $200 million to spread the lie that the bill eliminates secret ballots, hoping that enough people will believe it to kill the bill. That’s why we need to call them on their lie.

FULL story at link.

[tritsofme]

1. What is the likelihood that the secret ballot would be utilized?

It doesn't seem like it would ever be in the union's interest to pursue a secret ballot if the union can be instituted solely by card check.

I have heard moderate Democrats in Congress speak of compromises where secret ballot elections are mandated within two weeks, and greater regulation over employer intimidation is still instituted.

I think that sounds reasonable.