Yesterday morning, Jim Meffert and I were both attacked on the semi-official Republican blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed for supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.
Simply put, this legislation will make it easier for employees to come together and unionize, and it will increase penalties against employers who unlawfully stand in their way. I'm proud to support it. The right wing has chipped away at labor rights for decades. The Employee Free Choice Act will level the playing field once again.
We can't be afraid of this issue. Strong unions improve working conditions, increase the value of labor and strengthen the Middle Class. I won't back away from saying that when Erik Paulsen and his allies resort to misrepresentation, fear tactics and outright lies to try to scare working Minnesotans into believing the Republicans are looking out for the rights of labor.
Not only are Democrats right on labor issues, we're also the party that creates jobs and takes care of America's financial matters. During the 1990s, the Clinton administration helped create 22 million new jobs, greatly expanded opportunity and prosperity, balanced the budget and recorded record surpluses. In the 2000s, we watched Republicans lose American jobs, implement policies that have crippled the Middle Class and run up record deficits.
Let's be proud of who we are and honest about what we've done. If we give voters the facts, I know we'll win.
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)
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.
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.
The Minnesota DFL has now filed formal complaints against the Coalititon for a Democratic Workplace ("CDW") and Minnesotans for Employee Freedom ("MEF"). The complaints charge the groups with violating Minnesota election law, which prohibits false political and campaign material, and specifically apply to ads produced by the groups regarding The Employee Free Choice Act. The ads clearly paint U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken as anti-union, not to mention in league with the mafia, and specifically state that Franken wants to "eliminate the secret ballot for workers." Additionally, the ads, which continue to run at the time of this writing, depict U.S. Senate candidate (and incumbent) Norm Coleman as pro-union, pro-employee and pro-privacy in general.
Earlier this month, I wrote that the EFCA does not, in fact, eliminate the secret ballot and in a WCCO Reality Check, Pat Kessler reported:
"While it seems as if the ad supports unions, it's actually produced by a coalition of national business groups called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, who are lobbying to kill the bill."
The AFL-CIO writes that "Coleman Doesn't Get It" on their newsblog, and Brian Melendez, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL party stated:
"...In Minnesota, we don't tolerate intentionally false statements in paid political advertising; in fact, such statements are a crime, and rightly so. We are therefore holding legally accountable the two groups that have knowingly and intentionally spread these false statements in Minnesota. A judge will hold those groups accountable. And Minnesota voters will hold Norm Coleman accountable."
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.
With a $10- to 20-million ad campaign designed to confuse voters about the Employee Free Choice Act ("EFCA") underway, a bit of clarification is required.
During a debate on the House floor last year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had this to say (courtesy, MissLaura at DailyKos):
The Employee Free Choice Act is the most important labor law reform legislation of this generation. But this legislation is about more than labor law: it is about basic labor rights, about the rule of the majority free from intimidation, and about protecting jobs.
It is a guarantee - when a majority of workers say they want a union, they will get a union.
