Franken Signs On As EFCA Co-Sponsor

Hours after he was seated, Sen. Al Franken, D-MN, let it be known that he would be sign on as a co-sponsor to the Employee Free Choice Act, the labor-backed provision that would allow unions to more easily organize, as his first legislative activity.

"I just became a cosponsor of my first bill in the Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act," the Minnesota Democrat declared at a gathering at the AFL-CIO on Tuesday evening.

Despite taking a backseat in terms of media attention, EFCA remains very much a hotly-debated measure within the halls of Congress. And while Franken's vote will likely boost Democratic efforts on health care and judicial nominations (he is poised to sit on the HELP and Judiciary Committees) it could be on labor matters where his voice is most felt. Certainly the union community, which is pushing for a vote on EFCA sometime this year, feels relieved that it is one senator closer to preventing a Republican filibuster on the measure.

Franken, who was officially sworn into office on Tuesday after an eight-month recount, told the AFL-CIO crowd that he shared common interests with them. According to Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the union group, Franken described the long tradition that exist in Minnesota of "having two Senators who are very pro workers and working families."

"He said it was an honor to be sworn in today and walk through the aisles with Mondale and to be sworn in on Paul Wellstone's Bible," Vale recounted. "He stressed that both men were champions of the labor movement."

Comments

[windup]

Go Franken. Now get on healthcare!

[RevBookburn]

Fantastic first act. This was an uplift after all the screwy news of late. I'm re-reading your hilarious book about Rush. It remains a timeless classic and one of the funniest books ever. Please stand up to Repubs or Dems who fail to work in the interests of all people. Rev. Bookburn - Radio Volta

[memphisdem]

God Bless him.

[Tom Joad]

Good on ya, Al Franken! You're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like you...

[schatsie]

People love him the way they love Mark Twain. A really progressive humanist.

[AMERIKA]

Right on Al Franken!!!

[jeun28]

No one was listening to the Unions when they warned of the effects of these globalization or free trade actions, they were called socialist. The end result ohio, detroit all suffer

[schatsie]

you are so correct.

[sonoffestus]

Yes, has anyone else noticed that since the decline in unions, we have seen a direct decline in wages, benefits and of our standard of living? True unions do present some problems, but management's inability to "manage" their business contributed to more failures than anything unions have done. I spent over twenty years working in management and saw a number of industries fail. Short term profits, no long term plan, cut, cut , cut . No new thoughts how to grow , grow , grow. "It's the workers fault". It wasn't the workers fault, but they are the easy to blame.

As I posted before, " The Captain runs the ship onto the rocks. So it's the engine's fault?"

[vandegrasse]

Yay, Franken. A man of his word!

[cjt1957]

His first vote however was against Obama. Voted to waste tax money even Obama does not want spent....

[ErnestineBass]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[uncomplicatedlife]

better wake before its too late....

[CR46]

Go Al Go!!!!

[Brianfox]

Clarence Darrow quotes (American Lawyer, Speaker and Writer, 1857-1938):
“With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes (American Baptist Minister and Civil-Rights Leader. 1929-1968):
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped.”

Many thanks - Sen. Al Franken

[schatsie]

Excellent quotations...and so true.

[Jenjohnson]

Way to go Senator

[Bluepagan]

Thank you, Senator Franken.

[SoLeftbutSoRight]

For all the people that want to bash Senator Franken and his "Stuart Smalley past," they should take two minutes out of their day to see what he has done for the PEOPLE. Not for his future or that of the Democrats. Even Arkansas Dem Blanche Lincoln does not have the balls (figuratively and literally) to show her support for the American working class. Protecting her seat is more important than protecting the people. Her failure to support the EFCA is cowardly. Ironic how she is also the Senator from the state that houses the Wal-Mart headquarters. Yes, the same Wal-Mart that strongly opposes the EFCA. And if not ironic enough for you Wal-Mart and its affiliates were Lincoln's third largest donor for the 2003-2008 election cycles.

Just because the man is damn funny does not mean he is lacking as a politician in any way. I know his time in politics has been short, 8 months shorter than it should have been, but I have unwavering confidence in his decision making and hope to see him as a major progressive and liberal voice in the future.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=2008&type=I&cid=N00008092&newMem=N
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/key-democrat-blanche-linc_n_183613.html

[VikingQuest]

Unions are such a good thing for all of us, they help make car companies succ . . . I mean the teachers union is all about the ki . . .

Well I love union stories like this:

"700 NYC teachers are paid $65 million to do nothing"

Hundreds of New York City public school teachers accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5heYRW9pbqE-Ezt-lidTx-rGzP7IAD98VVBDG0

Well, unions are an are of the Democratic Party, this isn't news that they do whatever the AFL-CIO tells him to do.

[ErnestineBass]

Once more WITH FEELING...sodoff, yahidjit.

[Icantbelieveher]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Protecting the employees over the administration! I'm all for that!

[VikingQuest]

Nothing says unions like having pay teachers taken off duty for sexual misconduct.

[SensibleJoe]

What ran the car companies into the ground wasn't unions. It was CEOs and management who felt entitled to millions in compensation and golden parachutes while doing nothing, unwilling to see the forest for the trees by pushing the same old gas-guzzling clunkers while the competition overseas was starting to develop cleaner, meaner, greener machines for an age of shrinking petroleum reserves.

[CR46]

I ceratinly hope you work for your employer 14 hr days 7 days a week and never take a holiday or weekend off, and I'm sure whatever pitance your employer wants to give you, maybe a $1.00 a day is what you gladly work for since you are so anti-union.

The weekend and 40 hr week-----brought to you by your local union
Fair pay---brought to you by your local union

[schatsie]

Exactly, if Reagan hadn't totally screwed the unions, we might have had 6 weeks of vacation instead of one week and health care for all.... Thanks to Reagan and the repugs we have totally wasted the last 30 years pandering to the OLIGARCHS in this country...Pandered and pimped for them.....

[schatsie]

Yes and you can tell me why we are paying the banksters trillions and letting them write off their frtinggginn jets, jet fuel, maintenance, insurance and pilots,,,,while we get to write off NOTHING....

[Icantbelieveher]

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There actually used to be a middle class that made a good living before Reagan did his best to bust them up! Why do you think corporations fight so hard against them? Salaries for 95% of us have gone steadily down coinciding with the decline of unions.

I can't understand anyone fighting for corporations to keep their profits! Especially since the CEO's now make 300 times more than their workers.

Here are some dramatic facts that sum up how the wealth distribution became even more concentrated between 1983 and 2004, in good part due to the tax cuts for the wealthy and the defeat of labor unions: Of all the new financial wealth created by the American economy in that 21-year-period, fully 42% of it went to the top 1%. A whopping 94% went to the top 20%, which of course means that the bottom 80% received only 6% of all the new financial wealth generated in the United States during the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s (Wolff, 2007).

[schatsie]

and that is without considering the population effect...that is the population grew by at least 10% over those years, so really the bottom 80% is going down.....

We are no longer a developed country, we are on the slippery slope....

Henry Ford that fascist Republican would be appalled that the top 1% are killing the golden goose, the consumer.....