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Fight for Employee Free Choice Continues Despite Specter’s Flip |
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Even though he was a sponsor of the original Employee Free Choice Act in 2003, supported the bill again in 2005 and voted against a Republican filibuster of it in 2007, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced today that he would support a filibuster this year in an attempt to block the legislation from coming to a Senate floor vote.
Specter made a statement today about the failures of America’s labor laws—failures that make the Employee Free Choice Act necessary—but he also advanced falsehoods spread by corporate front groups. The statement shows that he’s listening not to his constituents, but to the big-money interests who are hoping to prevent workers from exercising their basic freedom to form unions and bargain.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says that while Specter’s cave-in to corporate lobbyists is disappointing, it won’t blunt the momentum behind this critical bill to protect worker’s freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Today’s announcement by Sen. Specter—a sponsor of the original Employee Free Choice Act who voted for cloture in 2007—is frankly a disappointment and a rebuke to working people, to his own constituents in Pennsylvania and working families around the country.
The fact is the Employee Free Choice Act has more support than ever—large majorities in both houses of Congress, the president and vice president, 73 percent of the public. We will continue to work with Democrats and a number of Republicans to create common-sense solutions to the decades of corporate power.
We do not plan to let a hardball campaign from Big Business derail the Employee Free Choice Act or the dreams of workers.
There are deep flaws in our labor laws, as Sen. Specter acknowledged today. The freedom to join together and bargain with employers for fair wages and better benefits is critical to rebuilding our middle class—and now is exactly the time to do it, as we begin to revive our economy in a way that works for everyone. In the coming weeks, we will be escalating our campaign and finding the best ways forward to a balanced, strong economy.
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No Surrender No Retreat!
The Specter announcement today that he would support a filibuster this year in an attempt to block the legislation from coming to a Senate floor vote only shows you WHY we need the Employee Free Choice Act Now more then ever.
In Union Busting Campaigns workers who SUPPORTED Unions are suddenly Pressured by an Employers once they start their Anti-Union Busting FEAR, Coercion and Intimidation Campaign.
As in the case of Specter who was a sponsor of the original Employee Free Choice Act in 2003, supported the bill again in 2005 and voted against a Republican filibuster of it in 2007, now suddenly under FEAR Intimidation and pressure by Corporate Front Groups such as The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and Chamber of Commerce Specter has decided to change his support.
For more information on Employer FEAR, Coercion and Intimidation Union Busting Tactics Press Below
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/02/just-say-no-to-employee-free-choice-act.html
For More Information on EFCA please visit our websites and blog
http://www.TheTruthAboutEFCA.Org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
All the locals got letters to give money to the campaign and yes!!! We will and must. So let’s turn it up a notch and win this fight of our lives. And have the Afl-Cio lead us in asking all our local members to give at least a dollar for their Family’s financial future, health, retirement and bargaining future. The American workers demand their rights and respect for their hard labor Now!!!!!!!!Employee Free Choice Now!!!!
This is a disappointment, but then again; are any of the politicans really the “friend” of the working person? I know many of them claim that, but in reality many have sided with business interests over the workers.
When this comes to vote, how many dems will side with business interests? I believe we should all remember these folks at election time.
Further, labor needs to boycott all services and products of any district, region or state where the politicans fail in their obligations to the working public. Let some of them start feeling the economic wrath of labor as well as the political wrath at election time .
Unfortunately you can stick most of them in a bag and shake them up and they are all the same when you dump them out…WHOREs of money. Why should they represent working class people…they are getting health insurance and a pension for life. Plus the kicker…you get to be a lobbyist when you retire, get voted out or get caught having improper sexual liasons with staff, pages or hookers. Spector your just another scumbag.
Senator Specter’s flip-flop on the EFCA is typical of him.No one knows where he stands on any piece of legislation at any given time.He is a guy who always has his finger to the wind.
Ironically,were it not for the support of some unions,Arlen Specter would have gone down to defeat in his reelection effort in 1990.This was the election following Specter’s vicious attack on Anita Hill during her testimony about Clarence Thomas’ sexual harrassment.Ms.Hill made this charge during Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
In a very close election,Specter defeated a strong woman candidate, Lynn Yeakel–but barely.Too bad.The labor movement could have counted on Lynn Yeakel.Arlen Specter has only one interest:Remaining a Uited States Senator.He votes based solely on that interest.
We will see how well Mr.Specter fares in the 2010 Republican primary against a right-wing opponent,perhaps the same one he barely defeated in 2004,Toomey.In the 2004 primary,Specter had the active support of then-President Bush and then-Senator Santorum.
Above all,I hope the Democrats come up with a strong,viable,well-financed candidate to run against Specter,AND NO MORE LABOR SUPPORT FOR THIS GUY!
There’s an old saying,”When you lay down with dogs,you get up with fleas!”
All of these are just amazing ideas: union interests are much more important than the national interest!
Senator Specter noted that in this economy where we need jobs - we can’t force employers overseas. Seems reasonable considering the Detroit experience.
In this economy AMERICANS need jobs that support the middle class.
Your parroting of wingnut talking points is wasted here, or did you mistakenly think you were on free republic?
The wingnuts want to make this bill about Union “Bosses”, but it’s not. It’s about AMERICAN WORKERS.
The wingnuts want to make this bill about “protecting” workers rights. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE wants to PROTECT workers rights?
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHAHAHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!
THAT’S A GOOD ONE!!!!!
About your perception of “the Detroit experience”….
Think government can’t fix the auto industry? Then how did it manage to fix the railroad industry………….twice?
Maybe the “government” didn’t want to, under repukelican rule?
Maybe it had something to do with UNIONBUSTING?
Just another Republican cronie ( Specter) who lacks conviction and courage. Or to put it more succinctly, he probably had no intiention of voting for the EFCA in th first place.
Well I hope this is a wake up call for PA AFL -CIO Pres. Bill George and the AFL-CIO. Specter has decided to bow down to the all mighty dollar and the big business. Labor has got Specter elected, so lets help him get unelected, if he can win the primary. So lets write him off and have a labor friendly candidate run against him. Send Specter to the place where Labor sent Sanitarium, sorry, Santorum. The unemployment line.
Labor needs to put a full court press on and have two Democrats in the Senate to represent the working people in PA.
Agree with the comments about voting Specter out. That is what we are supposed to do in a democracy. We need to get rid of the majority of the Republicans who are blocking everything Pres. Obama tries to do. Unions, besides the nurses’ unions, need to support single payer national health care and not continue to fight for health coverage as a benefit of employment. It was good for a long time but look where we are concerning health care access for all in this country. Fight for the employee free choice act and decent wages and safe working conditions but think again about health benefits and many other things and perhaps employers will stay in the USA.
To those concerned about unions driving firms overseas please refer to the recent study by the Economic Policy Institute that concludes there is no correlation between unions and firms closing and reopening operations overseas.
The outsourcing of jobs and the “race to the bottom” for workers around the world is a result of NAFTA and the WTO, both of which make it IMPOSSIBLE to place taxes or tariffs on outsourced work. NAFTA, CAFTA,WTO, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas must be replaced with Fair Trade policies in which bilateral trade agreements are negotiated to provide for living wages for workers and environmental safeguards. Canceling NAFTA and the WTO will enable the U.S. to protect high-tech jobs from outsourcing. This, plus careful monitoring of H-1B visa practices, will slow the tide of outsourcing.
According to the February edition of Wired Magazine, the typical salary for an American programmer is $70,000 a year. The typical salary for a programmer in India is $8,000 a year. U.S. companies are expected to ship 200,000 jobs a year to India in the near future, in pursuit of these lower wages, and we have already lost TOO MANY of our manufacturing jobs to countries overseas.
Here is a reply to a letter sent to Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming that was in support of the Employee free choise act. As you can see Mike is no friend of labor.
Dear Philip:
I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of the Secret Ballot Protection Act, as I have been in previous years. Working Americans deserve to choose what’s right for themselves without fear, coercion, or pressure, and without having to publicly disclose or defend their views to hostile organizers. You can rest assured that I will fight any attempt to eliminate the ability of an employee to vote by secret ballot.
Americans get a secret ballot when they choose their President, their Congressmen, their local councilmen, and even their PTA leaders. The secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of our democracy and this attempt to eliminate it is simply unacceptable. Despite its deceptive title, the Employee Free Choice Act does not protect employees or their rights. This bill would strip employees of their most fundamental democratic right - the right to decide issues of importance in a government-supervised, secret ballot election. In addition, if this bill was adopted, labor and management would no longer negotiate new contracts if they could not come to an agreement within 90 days. Rather, a third party, designated by Washington bureaucrats, would decide important issues such as pay, hours, benefits, and working conditions.
Sincerely,
Michael B. Enzi
United States Senator