The Big Lie about the Employee Free Choice Act

America's top CEOs -- the clueless millionaires whose greed, ignorance and arrogance drove our economy off a cliff -- have declared their top legislative priority for 2009. It isn't the president's budget. It's not promoting jobs or health care for their workers. And it's certainly not limits on CEO pay.

Instead, they've launched an all out campaign to scuttle bi-partisan legislation that would restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. The legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, fixes a broken system and would restore the promise of the American Dream for working Americans. It must be a key component of our efforts to rebuild the middle class, promote economic growth and create an economy that works for all Americans.

America's CEOs have made the defeat of this bill their biggest goal in 2009. To spearhead their campaign, they've hired Rick Berman, a shadowy P.R. man who has spent his career attacking nonprofits, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, through phony front groups and misleading advertisements. Berman made a name for himself by winning huge fees working for clients including the tobacco and alcohol industries, mounting campaigns to defeat or weaken drunk driving laws, quieting concerns about cigarettes, and blocking increases in the minimum wage.

Berman specializes in Big Lie campaigns. That's why the CEOs have hired him. The Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and other front organizations for the CEOs have decided that they can't oppose the Employee Free Choice Act on the merits, so they'll create a Big Lie to raise concerns about the bill. The lie they're promoting is that the bill would eliminate secret ballots for workers forming a union.

The claim is simply not true. The bill gives workers, not their employer, the choice in how they choose to form unions: either after a majority of workers sign a card in support of the union or through a secret ballot election. Workers could choose elections, but the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act don't care about the truth. They've already begun spending $200 million to spread the lie that the bill eliminates secret ballots, hoping that enough people will believe it to kill the bill. That's why we need to call them on their lie.

The real reason CEOs oppose the bill is because they know that giving workers a better chance at forming a union will undercut corporations' ability to keep the rewards only to themselves. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott - who made about $23 million in 2007 - is one of the few CEOs to tell the truth about his motives. He admits that the secret ballot canard isn't the real reason he's fighting to kill the bill. "We like driving the car," he said, "and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us."

Playing fast and loose with the truth is not going to defeat this important legislation in Congress. In the last Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin, and in the Senate, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has helped to build a solid majority of Democrats to support the bill. Thanks to Senator Reid, we now have a senate majority that supports giving workers a ticket to the middle class. But Republican senators have threatened a filibuster. Too many Republicans appear to be frightened that if they stand up to the Big Lie about secret ballots, they will upset the leaders of the their party. They know from experience that those leaders - anti-worker talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity - will make it difficult for them to stand with America's workers.

That's why it's important to keep the facts in front of the GOP senators. They need to be reminded that union members earn 30 percent more than workers who don't have one. Union members are 63 percent more likely to have health care through their employers. That's why workers want to join unions. CEOs don't want to pay more so that workers can live better.

Americans want an economy that works for everyone, not just CEOs and right wing radio and TV talk show hosts. The Employee Free Choice Act will help rebuild the middle class and jumpstart our economy, by giving every worker a chance to bargain for decent wages, benefits and safe working conditions. A union job is not only a ticket for workers into the middle class, it's the best way to jumpstart our economy.

Comments

[corwin]

Red Knuckles
Please answer specific query's.
1) Why do you think Toyota is crumbling?
2)Do you think a UAW representation would be sought by Toyota employees?
a) If yes,please elaborate.
b)If no please elaborate

Red,consider the US had the only major country with an undamaged industrail base post WWIi.In effect,we had a monopoly on manufacturing and could charge mmonopolists prices,pay monopolists wages.Certainly something so unstable couldn't last.If your logic were correct,the states with higher union memberships would be the most prosperous­.DIffedent­ly,I point out,Michigan l;eads the US in unemployment,And more diffidently,I add the city of Detroit is imploding.A median house sale in the city in Dec was $7,500.That's realwealth destruction.
Gidster,the studies I've seen quote the private sector pays 42% lower than public..You may feel the surgeon is overpaid,but surgeon's making 291K can go elsewhere and be hired.So,they don't seem to be overpaid.The easiest ,and most widely recognized measure of whether a public positionis ovepaid is the per cent of people leaving the field.Few leave a public job for a similar one on the private sector.Why would one/It means a big pay and benefits cut.And ,ultimately,my arguments and yours are subject to beta testing now.Pres Obama is being judged on results.A new thing for him,I believe.It will be very interesting

[squarebird]

So, you are saying that there would be an election by the workers to decide if the vote to unionize is by secret ballot or not? If that is true (I can't find that claim anywhere else yet), the question becomes .. is that election to allow a secret ballot itself a secret ballot? If not, then we are back to the same issue that is solved by secret ballot - that of fear of intimidation by the union or employer. Anyone who votes 'for' a secret ballot will be marked by the union as wanting to vote against the union. Then even if there is a subsequent secret ballot, the union will still have its list of most probable dissenters.

[Pucky]

Well said.

And of course the unions insist that any vote to de-certify a union be a secret ballot.

Why do you suppose that is?

[lj9283]

Your post is incorrect.

Employers can de-certify a Union with a card check petition that is signed by 50%+1 of employees, and they do not need to hold an election.

[Andy96]

It's not about common sense That depends on your worldview. It's about checks and balances. As an engineer and former union rep, I've seen the need to counter abusive and arrogant management. Afterall they are no more perfect than other humans. Unions give employees more say in what happens to them and theirs benefits. It does not allow them to make business decisions. Unions provide some power in the workplace, but management still has the greater power. This new law shifts the power more to the worker on the front end of the process by taking away the opportunity of management to intimidate the worker before what could become an optional secrete ballot with the passage of the Free Choice Act. Even with its passage, management still has the greater power, but not as much. Unions are a necessary check and balance for some employment situations. Employees need to be able to push back when abused by employers. Unions help protect workers in a very lopsided equation. They perform a similar role to police, fireman and other emergency workers except that the abuser is bad management instead of a criminal or other factors we also can't control.

Http://the-WAWG-blog.org

[CommonSenseRules]

Unions are exactly why the big auto makers are tanking right now. And they sit back and watch it go down as if they have nothing to do with it. People getting paid the same amount of money they were when they were working, when they are not working is just ludicrous and should never have been agreed to. So, if unions destroy companies, then who are the union people going to work for?

And also, we have many more labor laws on the books these days and employees also have this thing they can use, called suing if they feel they were mistreated. Unions are not needed at all today, they were great in the early and mid part of last century, but now, all they are is a political pawn that is used to get votes for Dems. Everyone can see now.

Unions stifle creativity and productivity and they reward laziness.

[LeftRight]

Yeah, those darn union workers making $28 per hour are totally running GM into the ground. It has NOTHING to do with the combination of poor choices in building on the part of the managers, coupled with a MASSIVE economic downturn (on the order of 1929....), coupled with the CEO making MORE THAN $1600 PER HOUR!!!! That man makes more than 57 of his employees, at the HIGHER wage that NO ONE coming in today makes!!! He makes more than 114 of his employees at the rate that most of them are getting ($14/hr)!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!

I guarantee HIS salary alone adds more cost to every car than his labor costs do!

[Gainsbourg69]

If congress passes the employee free choice act it should do something to clean up the unions as well. Today's unions are in with businesses and their number one concern isn't the worker but the fees those workers generate.

[stevej2200]

First, the Democratic Congress should pass the Employee Free Choice Act. After that they should work toward repealing the section of the Taft-Hartley Act that allows for state "right-to-work" laws. These laws have done more to hinder the union movement than any other single factor.

[DesertDogAlpha]

Clueless is when workers regard their employer as the enemy (or demand something for nothing, such as company-paid health care where workers don't pay for a share of what they get - the GM model for years). GM was not the the enemy of UAW members who worked there - Toyota was. Now they've woken up too late - and still can't bring themselves to get to a truly competitive labor agreement with what Toyota has with its US workers, even as GM plunges into the sea in flames.

What would be wrong with only secret elections?

And, what would be wrong with giving union members the right to say whether their own dues are used for political contributions and activities, via a simple opt-out?

Why are secret elections so scary to union bosses (who make a ton of money themselves, BTW)?

[Chris]

IF the poitn of this bill is truely to give employees "free choice" then shouldn't it be calling for the end of havign to be in a union or not being unionized? Why can't a non union driver, drive for UPS? Wouldn't that be the free choice to choose who you work for and if you join a union. Why are unions so afraid of non union workers being in the same shop? If the unions provide such a better quality of life, then you would attract more members by showing the non union people exactly what the union workers life is like.

It is funny you claim the big lie is to eliminate secret ballots and then follow it up by saying that employees will have the choice to not have a secret ballot. Who is lieing?

[LeftRight]

Actually, I partly agree with you, you SHOULD be able to opt out of the union if you want to. HOWEVER, if there is no union in the shop, and more than 50% of the employees WANT one, then they should be allowed to HAVE one! The only thing that less than 100% joining the union will do is make it harder for them to negotiate with the employer!

[dgscol]

A worker's coalition here is extremely important, even if it is illegal. This should be promoted elsewhere as well, where workers have no history of representation. We should also promote direct-to -market operations from other countries to our own, as a means to assist workers. I am told Las Vegas has such a program.

[arvay]

O, these CEOs are far from "clueless." Wrong and short-sighted, yes.

They clearly understand that the current situation where employees have basically no bargaining rights, frees them to do whatever they will.

For example, the former "leaders" of now-defunct Circuit City fired all their most experienced workers, and offered to re-hire them at starting wages. Stupid and cruel. And would be impossible if employees had real bargaining power.

RE: "We like driving the car," he said, "and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us."

Better to share power than to lose ownership entirely. Without reform, American capitalism will generate a two-tiered society with a revolutionary outcome. If these CEOs like how Venezuela is run, they should continue to oppose this legislation. This is not an intellectual exercise for employees, it's existential.

[katekid]

It is simply good business for any worker to have his terms of employment in writing.
Union contracts created the middle class.
Their strength has raised the standard of living for all, including the timid free loaders who work paycheck to paycheck without the dignity of a collective bargaining agreement.
It will always be better to bargain, than beg.

[iblogleft]

If we get more unions here, we will have to demand it from the countries we trade from. Just want to make sure people understand that much.

[historymatters]

I think that's a great idea. A better standard of living for everyone!

[iblogleft]

Exactly. It is of the utmost importance that people understand the basic fact of a global economy; Wage equality will be achieved, the only question is do the least paid get paid more, or do the best paid get paid less.

The other lesson we could learn would have to do with a social stability as a precursor for a strong capital economy.

Something like that anyway.

[j-stl]

Even George McGovern is against this. Never take anyone's right to a secret ballot away.

[VPjimlong]

Read the blog again, then read the "bill". The right to a secret ballot ,once again,is not taken away..

[Chris]

Actually it is, even in the blog he admits it may be.

"The bill gives workers, not their employer, the choice in how they choose to form unions: either after a majority of workers sign a card in support of the union or through a secret ballot election. "

So this bill, in cases, could lead to the end of the secret ballot for a particular shop. Why woudl unions be agianst a secret ballot?

[DallasMike]

Are these the same unions that pay 95% of their employees salary and benefits to sit at home and then choose if they want to work or not when a posisition becomes available?
The same unions that pay their workers more than they are worth, thus increasing the price of goods more than they should be.

[VPjimlong]

No, you must be in "Rush" world.

[mountainweb]

Face it, its all about taking freedom of speech from the employees and giving it to a union that has management with the same objectives as the company management, put money in the managers pockets.