DC-Based Anti-Worker Group Attacks Montana Public Employees

by Mike Hall, Aug 23, 2006

There are the classic “cold hard facts.” Some of us may remember Dragnet’s Sgt. Joe Friday’s mantra “Just the facts.”

Then there are the so-called “Union Facts” peddled by Richard Berman.

Berman’s group, Union Facts, recently launched an anti-worker ad campaign in Montana, Oregon, Nevada and Michigan targeting public employees. Why those states? The folks at the Progressive States Network say its pretty obvious. All four have TABOR-like ballot initiatives that would restrict how states raise and spend money that would impact vital services such as law enforcement, fire protection, education and other public services.

(Click here to find out more about TABOR—so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights—and here to read about its defeat this spring in Wisconsin.)

Says former Montana State Sen. Steve Doherty, a co-chair of the Progressive States Network:

We do not need hidden outside interests coming in with inflammatory, misleading advertisements. These ads being masterminded from Washington, D.C., take cheap potshots at hardworking Montanans.

Berman is the sleaze machine behind previous PR campaigns that have gone after Mothers Against Drunk Driving on behalf of the alcohol industry and one that tried to convince pregnant women to eat more white albacore tuna despite warnings of high mercury content.

David Sirota, a Montana resident and Progressive States Network co-chairman, says “Montanans need to know more about the man and the money behind these ads.” Sirota recently authored Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government—and How We Take It Back (available at the The Union Shop Online™).

Rick Berman is not some innocent and concerned individual. He rakes in $10 million a year in money from powerful interests and devotes his life to attacking working people. He has explicitly said that his goal is to lower wages and cut health insurance benefits for American workers. That’s not an agenda that Montanans support.

Berman denied the ads were tied to the ballot initiatives. But the Associated Press reported Aug. 21 that Berman attended a weekend conference of the group Americans for Limited Government and made a presentation about the anti-union ads. The group is backing the Montana measure and those in the other states. According to a July report by the Salem, Ore., Statesman Journal  the group has funneled some $561,000 to back an Oregon TABOR-like ballot and more than $1 million for efforts in Maine, Oklahoma, Arizona and Nevada.

Says Doherty:

Make no mistake. In denying his connections with the shadowy out-of-state groups that are currently facing numerous complaints regarding violation of Montana law, Berman avoided reality. Berman, Howard Rich of Americans for Limited Government, and Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform are peas in a pod—rich East Coasters who think they can run a puppet show out here in Montana. They are in short grass with bad camouflage.

While Berman’s tentacles are slithering out beyond the Beltway, he also exerts influence in the nation’s capital. Click here to read about his connections to the Bush administration’s Department of Labor.

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