by Tula Connell, May 23, 2007

When organizations have an agenda to push that would appall the American public—like say, encouraging pregnant women to eat mercury-laden tuna—those groups don’t want to present their case straightforwardly. Instead, they form an umbrella coalition with an innocuous-sounding name, something that resounds of apple pie and the American way. That way, their real intent remains hidden.

Several such front groups have formed now in an effort to kill a bill in Congress that would enable working people to improve their wages, health coverage and retirement security. The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the House in March and now is in the Senate (S. 1041), seeks to level the playing field so workers can form unions without intimidation from employers.

One group, formed last year to spread lies about unions, now also is waging a multimillion dollar campaign to kill the Employee Free Choice Act. The so-called Center for Union Facts is run by Richard Berman, the same PR sleaze man who has operated multiple front groups, websites and think tanks to keep wages low for restaurant workers and block legislation on drunk driving and food safety—including telling pregnant women eating tuna is OK.

Another front group also recently has emerged—with the usual misleadingly all-American name: The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. The group was formed to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, which is supported by millions of U.S. workers who see the best way to address the nation’s wage stagnation and income inequality and restore America’s middle class is to have the freedom to bargain for wages and benefits. 

The coalition is made up of organizations that don’t want a level playing field at the workplace, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has fought workers and their unions from the time it opened shop, and the National Association of Manufacturers. 

As AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel writes today in a column on The Hill:

You’d think that an anti-union business coalition would be laughed out of the room for trying to pretend that its multi-million-dollar lobbying campaign against labor law reform was motivated by a concern for workplace democracy.

But for some reason, inside the Beltway this absurd notion has yet to draw so much as a snicker from the media and political establishment.

Just like the names of these groups are a big lie, so is their message. They want to portray the Employee Free Choice Act as taking away secret-ballot elections to form unions. It doesn’t. What it does, is enable workers to choose whether they want to vote on union representation through the government-supervised ballot process or designate the union as their bargaining representative by signing an authorization card, the majority sign-up process. Many workers prefer the majority verification process because unlike the lengthy government process, it doesn’t allow employers time to intimidate and harass workers to discourage them from voting for a union. Some 25 percent of private-sector employers even threaten to fire workers if they vote for a union. It’s illegal, but who wants to risk losing a job? 

If they didn’t have a sleazy agenda, these groups wouldn’t need to hide. As Samuel writes, these

lobbying groups whose name suggests the exact opposite of what they really stand for…should tell you a lot, right there. It tells you that the people behind these groups are less than proud of what they represent. 

(A good place to keep track of these front groups is at the American Rights at Work network of union-busters here.)

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