Did Opponents of Employee Free Choice Break the Law?
Last year, major opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act took part in a conference call, organized by a giant banking institution that was set to receive taxpayer bailout funds, in which they insisted that CEOs and industry contribute to anti-Employee Free Choice Act candidates for public office. That violates the law, says a complaint filed this morning by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.
The complaint against the Center for Union Facts and the Marcus Foundation alleges that their leaders, Richard Berman and Bernie Marcus, took part in the call organized by Bank of America last year. Marcus and Berman were organizing corporate donors to fight the Employee Free Choice Act and solicited donations to Berman’s organization and to specific candidates hoping to influence the election and prevent passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.
Were Bailout Funds Used to Plot Against Employee Free Choice?
This week, we learned that shortly after the approval of billions in bailout funding for major banks, at least two bailout recipients were involved in a conference call for lobbyists and Big Business figures plotting to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.
Now, a coalition of five major government-reform groups is asking Congress to fulfill its duty of overseeing the bailout funds and making sure they aren’t being used for political purposes like fighting the freedom to form unions.
In a letter sent to Congress today, leaders of Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, Change Congress, Democracy Matters and Public Campaign asked for an investigation into whether taxpayer dollars are being spent on political influence-peddling.
This story may be the tip of the iceberg. That’s why we’re calling for Congress to investigate whether Bank of America, AIG, or other recipients of billions in bailout money used taxpayer dollars to send “large contributions” to any political organizations.
Bailed-Out Bank Uses Taxpayer Cash to Fight Employee Free Choice
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When Congress entrusted billions of dollars to banks last fall, it wasn’t with the expectation our taxpayer money would be used to hustle for political campaign cash, spread disinformation and fight legislation aimed at improving the economy for everyone. Yet that’s exactly what Bank of America did last fall, coordinating CEOs and lobbyists to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act.
According to reporting by Sam Stein in The Huffington Post, within three days of being approved for $25 billion in taxpayers’ money, Bank of America officials hosted an Oct. 17 conference call with key corporate leaders to strategize about the upcoming election and how to fight the Employee Free Choice Act in the next Congress. Stein obtained audio of the call, led by mega-lobbyist Rick Berman and Bernie Marcus, founder and former CEO of Home Depot. The call, which included major finance industry figures and representatives from big corporations (including AIG, itself a recipient of $85 billion in taxpayer-funded loans), featured apocalyptic rhetoric and demands that those on the call donate to anti-Employee Free Choice Act politicians. (Click here and check out the audio samples from the call.)
Speaking of Rick Berman…
We noted yesterday the great new website, Berman Exposed, but if you want to learn more about mega-lobbyist and corporate front man Rick Berman, check out Art Levine’s latest piece, “Dr. Evil Is Baaaack,” published by In These Times.
Levine’s column focuses on a big ad buy in The Hill, Politico and other D.C. insider publications, sponsored by Berman’s misleadingly named “Center for Union Facts.” As you may have guessed, this misnamed organization is not a “center” and doesn’t provide “facts.” Instead, it’s essentially an operation through which Berman funnels big-dollar, undisclosed corporate donations into vicious anti-union messages in the media. Berman gets to play super-villain and get cited as an expert in the mainstream media, while his corporate donors hide in the shadows. Everybody wins, except workers.
‘Berman Exposed’—the Facts Behind the Smoke and Mirrors
Did you hear that mercury in fish isn’t dangerous, that earning a minimum wage is bad for workers and that Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a menace to society? If you have, chances are you’ve heard that from mega-lobbyist Richard Berman.
Now, a new website is shining a light on the man and the money behind many, many myths.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has launched “Berman Exposed,” a great new website detailing Berman’s background and just how he winds up in the middle of so many controversial issues.
Berman is an award-winning spinner of distraction, disinformation and outright falsehood. We’ve written frequently about Berman, because he’s an influential political mercenary, the guy the biggest corporations hire when they want to keep their fingerprints off a misleading and nasty public relations campaign.
He hides behind self-created organizations with deliberately misleading names like “Center for Union Facts” and “Center for Consumer Freedom.”
Come Out of Hiding, Bret Jacobson
OMG. A labor secretary who might look out for workers?
As an op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times makes clear, President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Rep. Hilda Solis as secretary of labor is too terrible to contemplate. “A Disastrous Pick for Labor Secretary,” shouts the headline by author Bret Jacobson, who tries to terrify readers by telling them that Solis is—gasp—looked on favorably by leaders in the union movement and worst of all, she supports the Employee Free Choice Act.
Solis doesn’t hide the fact that she’s a longtime friend to workers and will be a great advocate for safe workplaces, fair treatment and the freedom to form unions and bargain.
But what’s Bret Jacobson hiding, and why is he so scared of a pro-worker secretary of labor?
Wall Street Execs Get Grinch of the Year for Scrooging Workers
So many potential Grinches, but only one top Grinch spot to fill. So voters in the Jobs with Justice (JwJ) ninth annual Grinch of Year contest picked the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.
Each December, voters in the Grinch of the Year contest tap the CEO, corporation or politician who has done the most to “scrooge” workers. This year, in addition to greed-first CEOs, the field of Grinch candidates included anti-worker corporate lobbyist Richard Berman and soon to be out-of-office Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao. Popular write-in candidates included Blue Diamond Growers, American Airlines, United Airlines and that perennial favorite and 2002 winner, George W. Bush.
Over the years, especially under the Bush administration, the bank chiefs, hedge fund sorcerers and stock traders successfully lobbied for deregulation of the financial industry and, in turn, made record profits. But at a price. Millions of Americans lost good jobs and the nation’s economy is in the worst shape it’s been since the Depression. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the market, Wall Street is sending the bill to working people—the very ones who have been forced out of their homes, out of their jobs, out of their health care and out of their pensions by Wall Street’s greed.
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.
And the Falsie Goes to…Richard Berman
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Corporate lobbyist Richard Berman has finally received the recognition he deserves for his PR campaigns against workers, victims of drunk driving and healthy babies.
The Center for Media and Democracy/PR Watch gave its first-ever “Lifetime Achievement Falsie Award” to Berman, the man CBS’s 60 Minutes dubbed “Dr. Evil.” The Falsies shine an unflattering light on those responsible for polluting our information environment—you know, those high-paid corporate mouthpieces who have truth-telling issues.
Here’s how PR Watch describe what Berman has done to “earn” the lifetime award:
Indeed, no one exemplifies the spirit of the Falsie quite like Rick Berman. It takes a special—um, something—to champion the payday loan, pesticide and alcohol industries by taking on such dangerously principled foes as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Cast Your Vote for Grinch of the Year
And the nominees are—no, it’s not the Grammies. It’s Jobs with Justice’s (JwJ’s) Grinch of the Year contest, which for the past nine years has “honored” the CEO, corporation or politician whose greed and meanness demonstrate a heart that is at least “two sizes too small.”
This year’s nominees fit that description well. First, there’s the notorious anti-worker lobbyist Richard Berman, a hired gun for the alcohol, tobacco and the fast-food industry. Berman has mounted campaigns to relax drunken driving laws, downplay the public health impact of obesity and indoor tanning and prevent an increase in the minimum wage.
But he’s reserved his greatest venom for attacks on unions and working people. Berman most recently has spent his time—and millions in corporate cash—on a deceptive and outright false ad campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act. During the recent elections, his PR blitzes smeared candidates who supported the bill in a multimillion-dollar campaign paid for by corporate special interests who want to deny their employees a fair wage, health care benefits and safety on the job. According to the Union Busting Network at the non-profit American Rights at Work, Berman runs several campaigns out of his offices in Washington, D.C., with corporate backers paying huge fees to his lobbying firm.
