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The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) has a great report on PR sleaze-spreader Richard Berman, who founded the anti-union group Union Facts earlier this year.
Berman’s organization is all about distortions, never mind the facts, as is well-documented by the American Rights at Work and SourceWatch.
The WSLC, which notes Berman is operating in Washington State through the pleasantly named Evergreen Freedom Foundation, addresses an editorial by Berman in Tuesday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer. In it, Berman brags about the group getting the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal on case involving paycheck deception. Most paycheck deception initiatives take away the right of union members to use payroll deductions for political purposes, which is one of the best ways for union members to pool resources—bit by bit, through our unions. (Find out more about what paycheck deception is here.)
As the WSLC points out:
All union members in this country have the right to withdraw and pay a representation fee so that none of their dues are spent on politics.
But more importantly, they have the right—and responsibility—to participate in their union’s political process. If you don’t like the candidates your union supports, you can get involved and get your co-workers and fellow union members to change your union’s priorities and endorsements. In that way, unions are unique among most other politically active groups—they have a democratic process to determine how political money is spent, and everyone has a right to participate.
Corporations have no such democratic process. They pump far more money into political campaigns without ever seeking the input or permission of shareholders, many of whom don’t support the candidates the corporation’s executives support. So far in 2006, corporations have pumped about $817 million into this fall’s elections, and are outspending unions by more than a 17-to-1 margin. Berman argues that rank-and-file members need to be protected from the “union bosses” they elected, but he’ll never make the same argument on behalf of shareholders because the corporations are his clients.
Berman is behind ad campaigns to encourage pregnant women to eat more mercury-laden tuna and smear-tactics attacking Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Makes sense, then, that Berman would oppose workers and the strength they derive from their unions.
Read the full WSLC post here.
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