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Acuff: Grassroots Campaign for Employee Free Choice Is Just Beginning |
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This month, workers from around the country kicked off a national mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act—a vital bill to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain—by delivering some of the 1.5 million signatures in support of it to members of Congress. But that’s just the beginning of the broad, grassroots campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make the economy work for everyone again.
On the Huffington Post, the AFL-CIO’s Stewart Acuff says that to get past the big-dollar opposition from the corporate interests who created the economic crisis, the campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act will need to be a broad, nationwide effort.
It will take a huge demand, a million and a half voices, and the largest grassroots legislative mobilization ever, to win the Employee Free Choice Act and restore balance to an economy ruined by deregulation, obscene greed, a fetish for disastrous free market economics, and 30 years of failed, now completely discredited trickle down economics.
It’s clear that wage stagnation, economic insecurity and the decline of workers’ voice at the workplace underlie the dire economic situation in which we find ourselves—a crisis of debt, sagging demand, job loss and failures in housing and health care. To create a broadly shared prosperity and an economy that’s strong in the longer term, Acuff says, we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and restore workers’ ability to bargain for a better life.
Support for the Employee Free Choice Act ranges from the millions of rank-and-file workers who signed petitions to economic experts to community organizations and religious groups.
The broad coalition for a more just America is lining up behind the legislation and mobilizing its constituencies from the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to community organizations like ACORN to a broad spectrum of people of faith to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the NAACP and hundreds more.
The labor movement, led by the AFL-CIO, is pivoting from the million worker demand to grassroots mobilization across America determined to generate hundreds of thousands of handwritten letters, phone calls and face-to-face meetings with members of Congress.
While CEOs and high-priced lobbyists are laying out millions to mislead the public, the press and elected leaders in the hopes of maintaining the status quo, workers and their allies are demanding the change our economy desperately needs. The 1.5 million signatures are only the beginning.
Read Acuff’s full post here.
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Exposing Employee Free Choice Act Front Groups Like The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace
Who are these Front Groups Against The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) ?
Employee Freedom Action Committee/Center for Union Facts
Who They Are: These front groups, founded by lawyer/lobbyist Richard Berman, are multi-million dollar lobbying groups that do not disclose their funders. They spread disinformation about unions and advocate against the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker legislation.
Money spent on anti-worker campaign: Employee Freedom Action Committee will spend $30 million[i] on ads attacking pro-Employee Free Choice Act candidates in House and Senate races over the coming year.
“It changes the balance of power that is struck in labor law[ii].” -Richard Berman, on the Employee Free Choice Act
LEARN MORE at American Rights at Work
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/center-for-union-facts/lifting-the-veil-on-richard-berman.html
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/center-for-union-facts/
Americans for Job Security
Who They Are: According to their website, this front group “does not disclose or discuss its membership.”[iii]
Money spent on anti-worker campaign: $38 million since 1997[iv]
Alliance for Worker Freedom
Who They Are: Founded in 2003, the AWF is an arm of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that seeks to limit the federal government’s ability to protect workers and consumers and ensure economic fairness.[v]
“We’re going to crush labor as a political entity.” -Grover Norquist, founder and president of ATR[vi]
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Who They Are: The U.S. Chamber is the nation’s most powerful business lobbying organization, and aggressively promote the corporate agenda through lobbying, donations to candidates, and bankrolling front groups. Chamber president Thomas Donohue has turned the organization into a key ally of the Bush-era corporate agenda that has empowered Big Business at the expense of workers. The Chamber has made opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act its top priority.
Money spent on anti-worker campaign: To fight the Employee Free Choice Act, the Chamber will spend $20-30 million in the next year.[vii]
“It would completely change the economics of union organizing.” - Chamber President Thomas Donohue on the Employee Free Choice Act[viii]
LEARN MORE at American Rights at Work
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/chamber-of-commerce.html
Coalition for a Democratic Workplace
Who They Are: A corporate front group funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and the Wal-Mart dominated Retail Industry Leaders Association, the CDW does the dirty work for these corporate interests through TV ads and public relations campaigns meant to block the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker policies.
Money spent on the anti-worker campaign: $30 million to fight the Employee Free Choice Act over the next year.[ix]
LEARN MORE at American Rights at Work.
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/chamber-of-commerce/coalition-for-a-democratic-workplace-exposed-20080424-557-273.html
Wal-Mart
Who They Are: America’s largest retail chain is an opponent of unions and worker protections, going so far as to force managers to attend meetings against the Employee Free Choice Act and intimidating workers against voting for pro-Employee Free Choice Act candidates. Through its political activity, its pay scale and treatment of workers, and its suppression of workers’ freedom to form unions, Wal-Mart is at the forefront of the anti-worker campaign.
Money spent on anti-worker campaign: nearly $10.5 million in federal PAC spending since 2000, plus contributions to other corporate front groups[x]
“We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.” -Lee Scott, former CEO of Wal-Mart[xi]
LEARN MORE at American Rights at Work
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/wal-mart/wal-mart/wal-mart-rolling-back-workers-wages-rights-and-the-american-dream.html
Workforce Fairness Institute
Who They Are: National Journal calls them a “stealth group” that refuses to reveal their funding base. [xii] This group was formed by corporate lobbyists and public relations shills specifically to block the Employee Free Choice Act through public campaigns.
Money spent on anti-worker campaign: “One source says the WFI is trying to raise as much as $10 million for its operations.” [xiii]
Sending an SOS to Save Our Secret Ballot
Thanks to the secret ballot process, all of our other key American rights are protected.
Former Congressman Ernest Istook, Chairman
National Advisory Board
Without secret ballots, we would lose:
· Freedom from intimidation
http://www.sosballot.org/
“Law of the Lie: ” No matter how often a Lie is shown to be False, there will remain a percentage of people to be true. And the great masses of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one”
Adolf Hitler
[i] National Journal, July 26, 2008
[ii] Washington Post, Oct. 18, 2008
[iii] http://www.savejobs.org
[iv] http://www.savejobs.org/about
[v] http://www.workerfreedom.org
[vi] Reason Magazine, February 1997
[vii] National Journal, July 26, 2008
[viii] Remarks delivered to Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, July 21, 2008
[ix] National Journal, July 26, 2008
[x] http://www.opensecrets.com
[xi] BusinessWeek, Nov. 5, 2008
[xii]National Journal, “Under the Influence” blog, Oct. 27, 2008
[xiii] National Journal, “Under the Influence” blog, Oct. 27, 2008
For More Information on EFCA please visit our websites and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
Tags: The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, My Private Ballot, Employee Free Choice Act, EFCA, Card Check, Union Busting, Union Avoidance, Employee Freedom Action Committee/Center for Union Facts, Americans for Job Security, Alliance for Worker Freedom, U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
Wal-Mart, Workforce Fairness Institute, Save our Secret Ballot