Her Son’s a Quadriplegic. That’s the Least of Her Worries
It was tragic enough that her 11-year-old son became a quadriplegic after gunshots hit him while he was playing outside. But now Alberta, a single mother, worries every day because she can’t leave her job to take care of her son. Without her job, she has no way to get, or pay for, health coverage for her son.
Alberta told us her story as part of the AFL-CIO and Working America 2009 Health Care for America Survey. She did so because, as she put it:
I wanted to share this story because I just wanted people to understand that your life could change so much in just a few seconds and if the safety enjoyed by those of us who have insurance provided by work could be shattered. Health care is necessary and I didn’t think much about it until I was faced with tragedy and met so many others that were in similar situations some of which have lost everything as a result.
And the Winner Is…
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We have a winner in the heated contest for the Chicken Little Sky Is Falling Bizarre Corporate Panic Over Workers’ Rights Award. The award for the most egregiously over-the-top bottom comments about the Employee Free Choice Act goes to casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who said that there are two “fundamental threats to society”: “radical Islam” and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Hundreds of you voted in our contest, and Adelson had stiff competition: Other hyperventilators up for the award included Fox News pundit John Rutledge, who called the bill to restore the freedom to form a union “a Gestapo tactic,” and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who said it’s “a mortal threat to American freedom.”
Adelson won with 27 percent of the vote. Coming in second, with 20 percent, was Randel Johnson of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who promised to make the corporate front groups’ battle against Employee Free Choice “a firestorm bordering on Armageddon.”
Some Anti-Worker CEOs Not Working with a Full Deck
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Denise Bowyer, vice president of American Income Life Insurance Co. and secretary of American Income Life’s Labor Advisory Board, says casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is playing the wrong cards when it comes to the Employee Free Choice Act.
In recent days, Sheldon Adelson, casino billionaire, had this to say about the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that if enacted, would level the playing field for workers seeking to join unions:
The Employee Free Choice Act is one of the two fundamental threats to society. [The other is "radical Islam.]
Give me a break: Employees choosing to form and how to form a union is not a threat to society. Truth be told, Sheldon Adelson, the fiercely anti-union billionaire casino mogul knows that passing the Employee Free Choice Act is a high-stakes game, and the only fundamental threat is to his bottom line.
