Beware of the Big Lie Bill
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Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.
Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:
The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it. The Employee Free Choice would ensure workers made the decision of whether to select a union via majority sign-up (card-check) or via ballot process. Choice is good. That’s one reason why we called it Employee Free Choice—because it would enable employees, not management, to make the decision of how to form a union.
The alleged goal of S. 478 is to:
amend the National Labor Relations Act to ensure the right of employees to a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
133,000 Ohioans Get Jobs, Despite Boehner Tantrum Over Recovery Bill
The economic recovery bill signed by President Obama this afternoon in Denver is the same bill that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) literally trashed by throwing it on the floor of the U.S. House on Friday during a debate tantrum against the bill.
His anger was directed at a bill that will create or save 133,000 jobs in Boehner’s Buckeye State, provide tax cuts for 4.5 million Ohioans and boost unemployment benefits for 666,000 jobless workers in the state. The bill has similar impacts on all states and nationally creates or saves 3.5 million jobs.
But Boehner, along with every House Republican and all but three Senate Republicans, loudly and vehemently heaped scorn on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. They obviously don’t give a whit about the tens of millions of Americans who are jobless, facing foreclosure or loss of their health care. Apparently, bipartisanship is defined as “my way or no way” in the lexicon of Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Chao’s Hubby Slows Senate Vote on Solis for Labor Secretary
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has threatened to filibuster any of President Obama’s cabinet and judicial nominees unless they meet a brand new set of conditions that McConnell laid out in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call (subscription required) reported.
These unilaterally developed “standards” from McConnell, who is married to former Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, once again have delayed action on the confirmation of Obama’s nominee for secretary of labor, Hilda Solis. The full Senate vote on her nomination, which was scheduled for today, now won’t come until after Congress returns from the Presidents Day recess.
Go for the Grinch
Bah, humbug. Forget the cute socks hanging by the fireplace and the stomach-churning eggnog. ‘Tis the season to go after the Grinch.
This year, there are many options.
First up: “The Mitch Who Stole Christmas.” The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) is running a great action featuring one of this year’s worst anti-worker lawmakers, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Most recently, McConnell killed an emergency loan bill to keep afloat the nation’s automakers, along with 3 million to 5 million U.S. jobs. Jane, Emptywheel and others have amply documented his role in quashing the bailout, a blatant attack on unions and the middle class.
Grinch McConnell Stole Autoworkers’ Christmas. Next Year, He Might Get Yours
The only items the Grinch stole from the good folks of Whoville were some jingtinglers, trumtookas and gardookas, along with their roast beast. But the Mitch who tried to steal Christmas from the autoworkers and their families was after a lot more serious loot—like health care, wages and their union cards.
In a new online campaign, “The Mitch Who Stole Christmas,” the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) says it’s time to tell Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that according to our list, all he gets for Christmas is a lump of coal. McConnell is one of the leading anti-worker lawmakers who killed an emergency loan to keep afloat the nation’s automakers, along with more than 3 million U.S. jobs.
CNA/NNOC Co-President Geri Jenkins, RN, says McConnell may have been after UAW members and their union this time,
but tomorrow it will be other working people’s wages and benefits.
