LabourStart: TNG-CWA on the Future of Journalism
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At today’s LabourStart conference, the writers and union communicators present got to hear from The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) about how the union is responding to the crisis facing the newspaper industry.
In the lunchtime discussion, TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said the union is working hard to try and protect the journalism that’s critical to America and reach out to blogs and new media. Lunzer said the challenge is not to try and preserve print as a format in and of itself, but to preserve the craft of journalism and the vital function of newspapers in society:
If you don’t have an informed society, you can’t have a functioning democracy.
The First 100 Days: Media Attacks on Employee Free Choice
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The folks at the watchdog group Media Matters have been taking a close look at media attacks on President Obama and his policy proposals in the opening months of his administration, and they’ve found many examples of media fear-mongering, disinformation and just plain weirdness in the first 100 days.
One of the worst is this piece of rot from Rush Limbaugh, who attacks Obama for his support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Apparently, Limbaugh gets his information about how union formation works not from workers who’ve tried to form unions, but from fictional TV shows. He thinks that bus drivers like Theresa Gares, nurses like Kelly Beringer or casino dealers like Aneil Patel are lead-pipe-toting cartoon mobsters. Limbaugh will say anything to keep workers from having a voice on the job.
The team at Media Matters has picked a dozen of the most outlandish moments of unfair attacks and unhinged rhetoric, and they’re holding a contest to determine which is the “Worst Media Moment” of Obama’s first 100 days. Limbaugh’s attack on workers’ freedom to form unions is our choice for the worse.
Trumka and Economist Schmitt Explain the Need for Employee Free Choice
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and economist John Schmitt appeared last week on Building Bridges Radio, a nationally syndicated radio show, to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act.
Cutting through misleading corporate rhetoric, Trumka explained what the Employee Free Choice Act does and why it’s needed to restore fairness in the workplace for workers who want to exercise their right to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions.
The Employee Free Choice Act puts the choice of how to form a union in the hands of workers. Currently, it’s in the hands of employers, and they like it that way.
The elections that they talk about may sound like the most democratic approach, but the NLRB process is nothing like democratic elections in our society, like presidential elections, for example. Here, one side has all the power—the employer controls the voters’ paychecks, their livelihood, has unlimited access to speak against a union in the workplace while restricting pro-union speech and has the freedom to intimidate and coerce the voters…and they use that freely.
WSJ: Employee Free Choice Does NOT Eliminate Secret Ballots
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A striking concession today from the hard-right, corporate-friendly editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: In the midst of an angry editorial against the Employee Free Choice Act, the authors undermine years of messaging by anti-worker corporate groups by acknowledging:
The bill doesn’t remove the secret ballot option from the National Labor Relations Act….
However, the Journal writes erroneously that the bill makes secret ballots a “dead letter.” But as we’ve pointed out many times, the Employee Free Choice Act puts the choice of majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election in the hands of the workers who want to form a union, rather than leaving workers at the mercy of management in that decision.
Employee Free Choice on the Move
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Thanks to a strong pro-worker majority in Congress, the support of President Obama and a unified movement of union members and grassroots allies, the Employee Free Choice Act is closer to becoming a reality than ever.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is the latest to throw his support behind the bill. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, was one of 38 leading American economists who endorsed the bill last week.
Annie Hill, CWA executive vice president, says:
If we want to turn around our economy, if we want to counteract some of the worst income inequality our nation has seen, Employee Free Choice is the way to do it. Despite unsourced rumors in the press, we are confident that Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, are going to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make real bargaining rights a reality for millions of American workers.
Media Matters Turns Its Lens on Media’s Portrayal of Labor, Economy
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The non-profit Media Matters for America has earned a nationwide reputation for tracking media integrity on a variety of issues, earning the wrath of Rush Limbaugh and others along the way. Now it will apply its same scrutiny of reporters, pundits and self-proclaimed “experts” on cable talk shows to determine how they portray unions, wages and the Employee Free Choice Act.
The organization’s newly launched American Workforce and Labor project is aimed at cutting through dishonest or misinformed spin and getting out the facts about the critical economic issues facing the country.
Obama Reaffirms Support for Employee Free Choice Act
In an Oval Office interview with major newspapers yesterday, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his strong support for the freedom to form unions and bargain.
The Detroit Free Press and the Philadelphia Inquirer were among the papers that got a chance to talk to Obama about the challenges facing our economy, and Obama once again offered his support for the Employee Free Choice Act.
According to the Inquirer, Obama discounted the corporate community’s argument that workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain would be bad for the economy. The president said that, indeed, workers’ freedom to bargain was good for the long-term health of the economy.
New Ad Refutes the Myths About Employee Free Choice
Today, American Rights at Work, the national workers’ advocacy group, launches a new ad campaign to cut through the dishonest spin about the Employee Free Choice Act, a vital bill to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain and make the economy work for everyone.
The broadcast and print ads, set to launch Sunday, will push back on a massive and misleading corporate campaign, in which anti-worker front groups are blanketing politicians, journalists and the public with falsehoods about the Employee Free Choice Act.
Noting the connection between corporate greed, the stagnation of workers’ benefits and wages and the economic crisis, the new ad exposes the corporate disinformation campaign for what it is: a desperate attempt to maintain control and prevent workers from having the freedom to bargain.
On Fox News, Acuff Cuts Through the Spin About Employee Free Choice
Here’s a delightful surprise from, of all places, Fox News. When Neil Cavuto interviewed Stewart Acuff, special assistant to the president at the AFL-CIO, about the Employee Free Choice Act, he was pleasantly surprised to find that, contrary to corporate spin, the Employee Free Choice Act does not take away the secret ballot process.
Acuff appeared Friday on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” to bust some of the myths and disinformation that has run rampant about the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill vital to restoring the right to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Cavuto—clearly going on what he’s heard from the corporate shills and political spinners who hope to block the Employee Free Choice Act—asked Acuff whether the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process for joining a union would be made illegal or eliminated under the Employee Free Choice Act. Cavuto was shocked when Acuff replied that it wouldn’t. In fact, the only change the Employee Free Choice Act makes is that it puts the decision of whether to use a ballot or majority sign-up in the hands of the workers, not their boss.
NYT: We Must Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
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In today’s New York Times, the editorial board makes a strong, clearly argued and unambiguous case that President-elect Obama needs to strengthen working families by pushing for a quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and giving his Labor Secretary-designate, Rep. Hilda Solis, the power she needs to protect workers.
The editorial lays out several challenges ahead for Obama, Solis and the fight to defend workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. Giving workers the power to improve their own lives and the support they need in the administration must be a top priority if we are to restore an economy that works for everyone.
Here’s what the Times has to say about the Employee Free Choice Act, which Obama and Solis both co-sponsored in Congress:
The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay.
