Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) made signing on as a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act one of his one of his first official acts as MN's junior senator. The EFCA will penalize employers who harass and intimidate union organizing and allow employees to choose the manner by which they vote to unionize.
Hours after he was seated, Sen. Al Franken, D-MN, let it be known that he would be sign on as a co-sponsor to the Employee Free Choice Act, the labor-backed provision that would allow unions to more easily organize, as his first legislative activity.
"I just became a cosponsor of my first bill in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act," the Minnesota Democrat declared at a gathering at the AFL-CIO on Tuesday evening.
Despite taking a backseat in terms of media attention, EFCA remains very much a hotly-debated measure within the halls of Congress. And while Franken's vote will likely boost Democratic efforts on health care and judicial nominations (he is poised to sit on the HELP and Judiciary Committees) it could be on labor matters where his voice is most felt. Certainly the union community, which is pushing for a vote on EFCA sometime this year, feels relieved that it is one senator closer to preventing a Republican filibuster on the measure.
Franken, who was officially sworn into office on Tuesday after an eight-month recount, told the AFL-CIO crowd that he shared common interests with them. According to Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the union group, Franken described the long tradition that exist in Minnesota of "having two Senators who are very pro workers and working families." "He said it was an honor to be sworn in today and walk through the aisles with Mondale and to be sworn in on Paul Wellstone's Bible," Vale recounted. "He stressed that both men were champions of the labor movement."
(Huffington Post)
It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of Erik Paulsen. He puts a friendly suburban face on the same dead-end policy positions as Michele Bachmann, only he knows slightly better than she when to keep his mouth shut.
So when I got this glossy, impressive-looking piece of franked literature in the mail yesterday, I went looking for things to find unsatisfactory. I didn't have to search very long.
One of the circled areas says "PUBLIC DOCUMENT OFFICIAL BUSINESS This mailing was prepared, published, and mailed at taxpayer expense." The other is a piece of a "public opinion survey" the Congressman is asking me to fill out and return to his office. The questions, strangely enough, start inoffensively enough and descend into pure campaign-season politics -- Do you support the $787 billion stimulus package? (inoffensive) Do you support a nationalized health care system (well, I support a system in which kids are covered no matter what and adults don't have to choose between buying food and seeing a doctor for preventative or urgent care, does that count?) The financial bailout of the "big three" auto manufacturers? (What, no question about the bailouts of the banks and investment houses which absorbed many dozens of times the bailout funds of the Big Three?)
But the big badness is right there, circled in red:
"Do you support or oppose ... union leaders taking away workers' right to vote by secret ballot in a unionization election?"
For any of you who might have forgotten the significance of the Minnesota Senate race that pitted Al Franken and Norm Coleman, I came across this tidbit. Think of all our tax dollars spent on bail-outs that are funding Norm's tilting at recount appeal windmills.
In October, three days after receiving its first bailout check for $25 billion, Bank of America hosted a conference call with at least one AIG executive for right-wing donors and activists to strategize against the Employee Free Choice Act. On that call, Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus said, "if a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Republican Senator] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out of their [expletive] jobs." Last week, Citigroup (recipient of a $50 billion bailout) hosted a similar call. Citigroup has so many corporate jets it formed its own private airline.
(OpEdNews)
When you think of former Senator Norm Coleman, think of all the AIG, Bank of America and Citigroup bail-out money flowing into his recount coffers. Think of all the hopes of the union-busters riding on that extra vote in the Senate to prevent the EFCA from passing.
Last Thursday, I ripped into Rep. John Kline (R-MN) for lying about the Employee Freedom of Choice Act in an editorial at the Moonie-owned Washington Times. Now a bastion of right wing thinking, the Wall Street Journal, has admitted that the heart of the conservatives lies about the EFCA is a bunch of bunk.
The bill doesn't remove the secret-ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act but in practice makes it a dead letter. The bill allows a union to automatically organize a worksite if more than 50% of workers simply sign an authorization card...
(my emphasis)
(Wall Street Journal, h/t PaulV at dKos)
This is Rupert Murdoch's owned Wall Street Journal. Same guy that owns Fox News. Amazing, huh?
Just to be clear, this editorial is most definitely an anti-EFCA rant, but it is interesting how the truth occasionally slips out.
Rep. John Kline (R-MN) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) wrote a commentary piece in the Moonie-owned Washington Times on the Employee Free Choice Act. Unlike the Washington Post, which used to be a respectable paper that has only recently become a right wing rag, the Washington Times has always been a right wing rag. This is the print/online equivalent of right wing talk radio or Fox News.
So it is no surprise the Kline and Price take the truth about the EFCA out for a joyride. The third to last paragraph in their editorial is the kicker:
Along with more than 100 fellow Republicans, we recently introduced the Secret Ballot Protection Act to preserve forever the fundamental right of workers to keep private their decision about joining a union.
They admit that they are really writing this editorial to pimp their anti-union bill.
I don't know Rep. Price, but Kline's concern for workers is a lie. Kline has done nothing in his political career that benefits workers. He supports free trade agreements that have allowed employers to outsource American jobs. He receives vast sums of campaign contributions from corporations for supporting their union-busting agenda.
Kline is simply twisting the truth about the EFCA to further his corporate funder's agendas.
For decades, the power of organized labor has been waning. Membership is at historic lows as American workers have increasingly used the secret ballot to vote against unionization. Yet these personal decisions by American workers have not sat well with Big Labor and their political allies in Congress. So it would appear desperate times call for desperate measures.
There are two true facts in the above paragraph. Union membership is waning and somebody is desperate. Union-busting right wingers are particularly desparate ... the EFCA would make it much easier for unions to organize and would enact severe penalties for the harrassment and intimidation that companies frequently use to quash unionizing efforts. Preventing these penalties is their real agenda, not protecting secret voting.
A stock analyst actually downgraded Wal Mart stock from Buy to Hold because of the chance that EFCA might pass.
Union membership is at historic lows because our government turns a blind eye to union-busting activities. Harassment and intimidation are commonplace. Wal Mart, as an example, will simply shut down a store if unionization seems to be going well. The union-busters have stacked the deck in their favor.
Rep. Keith Ellison (DFL-MN05) had yet another moment in the limelight when he got to ask an executive one of those tough questions they haven't had to answer in a long, long time: "Have any of the TARP funds you've been given been used to lobby?" In particular Keith is concerned that companies that received this free money are using it to try and prevent the Employee Free Choice Act from getting passed.
Then Keith has a few follow up questions.
Hat tip to Crooks and Liars. They have a great discussion here.
In Minnesota's tight race for the Senate, Norm Coleman is depending on millions of dollars from CEOs and wealthy business interests to fund his campaign. CEOs of Target, Supervalu, Best Buy, 3M, General Mills, and Pepsi all flooded Coleman's campaign with cash. Meanwhile, his challenger Al Franken maintains a healthy base of support from in and out of the state, without receiving a dime from Minnesota's CEOs.
It looks like the Twin Cities business community wants to give Sen. Norm Coleman a second term, at least if campaign contributions are any indication.
The Republican incumbent has drawn far more financial support from local executives than Democratic challenger Al Franken has, according to campaign finance records. In fact, CEOs from the state's 50 largest public and 50 largest private companies combined to donate more than $100,000 to Coleman and not a penny to Franken [...]
Business political action committees (PACs) also overwhelmingly supported Coleman. These groups gave $2.5 million to Coleman and just $15,000 to Franken.
Why the disparity between CEOs support for this Senate seat? It turns out CEOs are banking on Coleman to protect their veto powers in the workplace, while Franken supports rebuilding the middle class.
In what seems like every election, the Republican machine tries to build its boogeymen -- issues or people they think can be used to scare independent mid-to-low-info voters into checking the box next to the (R) in November.
In 2004 it was teh gayz, as Republican leaders around the country succeeded in getting anti-gay-marriage initiatives on the ballot to scare up fear of homosexuals. In 2006 their only hope was to instill fear of a Democratic House Majority including Speaker Pelosi, to little effect.
In 2008 it looks like Republican forces are focused on a strategy of suppressing Democratic base votes instead of scaring up conservative votes (which aren't likely to appear in droves for John McCain anyway): organizations like the "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace", "Minnesotans for Employee Freedom" and the other folks behind Laborpains.org are focused on ginning up opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, and pinning it to rock-solid pro-labor candidates like Ashwin Madia. Their trackers have been following Madia around like loyal little hounds and trying to catch him in a contradiction about the EFCA, and Madia has done the right thing and ignored them.
Let's not mince words about these organizations' talking points about the EFCA: they are lying. So said Pat Kessler of WCCO's Reality Check several weeks ago when CDW went on TV to attack Al Franken on the issue.
For those of us in the middle class who work for corporations small and large, we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Labor movement. The five-day work week, the minimum wage, and a host of other workplace features we consider standard today were the result of unions fighting tooth and nail against corporate exploitation across this country.
The Employee Free Choice Act would make organizing unions easier by providing more ways to take a unionizing vote. It would not remove any existing options. What it would do is enable more workers to organize against the kind of exploitation companies like WalMart regularly use to lower their bottom line. Coincidentally, these are the same companies that regularly and successfully lobby Republican congressional leaders for corporate tax breaks and other perks of putting in effort on K Street.
So which is more likely: that these organizations are standing up for the little guy by attacking Democratic candidates who support the EFCA, or being sneaky and trying desperately to protect their corporate and political (cough Republicans) supporters against a good ole' fashioned electoral whoopin'? As Ockham said, all things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.
WCCO's Pat Kessler has reality-checked the claims of the Coleman campaign and their toadie organizations, but this one takes the cake: as the Mayor of St. Paul, Coleman supported the main thrust of the EFCA:
"Don't make any mistake. It's not 'all but called him a liar'. I am calling him a liar,'" said Brian Melendez of the Minnesota DFL Party at a news conference Wednesday.
Now, it turns out that Coleman once supported the idea.
As the Republican Mayor of St. Paul, Coleman signed a unanimous city council resolution asking businesses to stay out of union elections and allow unions to form by signing union cards.
The Coleman campaign said signing a resolution doesn't mean Coleman supported putting it in federal law.
"The issue is whether or not workers have the right to organize and he's always been a strong supporter of that. He doesn't support the federal legislation -- the card check legislation," said Cullen Sheehan, Coleman's Campaign Manager.
Al Franken, who is caricatured in the pro-business ad, is unconvinced.
"He simply is shameless and he will say whatever he thinks people want to hear at the time and he doesn't believe it. He will say anything. You can't trust the man," said Franken.
As a political haymaker, count this one as a win for Franken. As the old adage goes, if you're explainin', you ain't winning, and Coleman is spending a lot of time explaining himself about his supposed opposition to and statements about the Employee Free Choice Act, which would be a fantastic thing for the American middle class.
The DFL held a press conference today at which they gave Norm Coleman a firm whack to the rhetorical head over his falsehoods regarding the Employee Free Choice Act.
July 12, 2008: Coleman Said EFCA Is "About Taking Away The Right To A Secret Ballot." At a campaign event on July 12, 2008 in Maple Grove, Coleman said, "And the idea, and, and have no doubt about it, this as a quote "Employee Free Choice Act," is an Orwellian phrase; what it's about it taking away the right to a secret ballot in a union election."
July 14, 2008: Coleman Spokesman: "The Intent Of The Bill Is To Take Away An individual Employee's Right To A Secret Ballot." On July 14, 2008, the Star Tribune reported, "'While we are not responsible for this ad, the facts are indisputable,' said Coleman campaign spokesman Luke Friedrich. 'Al Franken and those who support the misleadingly-named Employee Free Choice Act support the intent of the bill to take away an individual employee's right to a secret ballot.'"
It's not coordination with the misleadingly-named Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, but the goal is clearly the same: make labor unions the enemy of the common man, instead of what they are: simply put, the reason we have things like a five-day, forty-hour work week, prevailing wages, and a middle class.
The same thing can be said of organizations like the similarly misleadlingly-named Center for Union Facts and the Employee Freedom Action Committee, which are behind the laborpains.org/ attack blog that's been attempting to stick EFCA to Ash Madia. These organizations aren't about truth at all -- they're about divide-and-conquer politics, nothing more.
The Employee Free Choice Act does not remove the secret ballot. It makes joining a union easier with more options for workers, not fewer. Norm Coleman and the rest of his Republican colleagues in the Senate stood firmly in the way of that bill.
Hear ye, hear ye! Let it be known that the first outright lies of the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign were put on TV by an organization allied with Norm Coleman's reelection bid.
The ad creates a distorted stereotype of the mafia and of labor unions as tools of organized crime, and it misrepresents legislation that makes it easier for workers to organize unions.
...
Since 1948 employers have had the right to demand a secret ballot when workers want to organize a union. It's an election that's overseen by the National Labor Relations Board. This bill adds another option to the secret ballot -- it allows workers to sign up publicly to start a union.
...
[clip of the ad saying Franken wants to eliminate the secret ballot]
That's false. The bill that Franken supports does not eliminate the secret ballot election. Workers still have the right to hold one, but labor unions say this new option gives employers less control. In fact, you can agree or disagree with the motive of this bill, but it's effect is that it would be much easier to form a union, and that's why labor unions want this so badly. Union membership is plummeting.
There are many factors behind that long-term drop in union membership, but one is the conduct of groups like the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is actually an organization of business groups looking to destroy this bill before it hits President Obama's desk.
But the CDW and their allies in Congress know that large majorities of the American people know where the benefits they hold dear came from -- the efforts of unions to stand up for workers and their rights. Thus, those same large majorities support the right of workers to organize even if they themselves aren't affected by the decision. The EFCA is a great thing for the American middle class, and a terrible thing for the Republican Party and its biggest backers.
That doesn't mean they're allowed to attack Al Franken with lies. Despite getting pounded for much of the second quarter by attacks from both the Coleman campaign and its allies in the Star Tribune's editorial staff, Franken still managed to raise $2.26 million in Q2. Pretty good haul for a guy who's not taking money from the corporate special interests that helped produce this false attack ad.
