‘Those mobster ads’ and why union choice issue really matters

One of the great setbacks in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate campaign is how Republican operatives — more specifically big business operatives — have been able to cloud the water over the issue of the Employee Free Choice Act. Their ads featuring mobster-like figures pressuring pleasant looking workers into joining unions have fueled many misconceptions held by people unfamiliar with the goals of the labor movement and have even confused some voters into thinking that they might lose their “secret ballot” for public elections, too.

Seriously! This is a real problem!

With all our fancy blogs and sophisticated organization, we’re still getting played by the same powerful interests that once coerced all the workers on the Iron Range to vote for Warren “Teapot Dome” Harding and Cal Cooledge.

And in addition to clouding the issue for union organizers, these interests have set their sites on Al Franken in his bid to oust Sen. Norm Coleman. The conventional wisdom is that Franken’s poll numbers are being held down by “baggage,” but I contend these workplace “democracy” ads are taking their toll as well. We see almost total saturation up here in Northern Minnesota’s TV market. And the worst part about it is that the very premise of the ads has been proven patently false time and time again.

Well, below is information now being distributed by labor assemblies on the Iron Range. Yes, it’s from unions so it presents a distinctly pro-union perspective, but the facts are facts. Now, if only this information was up and running in statewide AFL-CIO TV ads right now. That would be helpful.

What is the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)?

The Employee Free Choice Act is a proposed law that will restore a fair process that allows people to decide whether or not they will form a union in their workplace.

Myths about the Employee Free Choice Act

Myth: the Employee Free Choice Act will take away Secret Ballot Union Elections
Fact: The Employee Free Choice Act will give people the ability to choose how they will form a union. Presently employers control the entire process.

Background: There have been two options for choosing a union since 1935: majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process. Under the Employee Free Choice Act these two options will still exist. The difference will be that a majority of workers will decide between the two options instead of management making the decision for the employees.

Changes to labor law over the past 70 years have given employers excessive nfluence and have severely weakened the rights of workers. Today, workers who try to form unions are intimidated, harassed, discriminated against or fired. The Employee Free Choice Act will restore a fair process that allows people to decide whether or not they want to form a union in their workplace.

Myth: Al Franken is going to take away the secret ballot.
The commercials you are seeing on TV are FALSE. They are paid for by a group of businesses that oppose worker’s right to organize. The Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field and these businesses don’t want that. Most of the time, workers don’t have a say in whether they form a union. This legislation would change that. Al Franken does not want to do away with the secret ballot – he simply wants workers to have a say in whether or not they form a union.

Follow the money and you find out what the goal of these ads is. The “Coalition for a Democratic Workplace” is funded by a conglomeration of groups who are iametrically opposed to workers forming unions. They are misleading the public into thinking that Coleman – not Franken – is the pro-worker candidate, when the opposite is true. These interests want labor and progressives divided for this election because the Republicans have been wrong on all the issues that are important – wrong on the economy, wrong on health care, wrong on energy, and wrong on the war in Iraq.

Remember, these ads distort the truth. Neither Al Franken nor the Employee Free Choice Act will take away the secret ballot election process for forming a union, voting on a contract, or any other election process dealing with organized workers.

Myth: Workers feel pressured by co-workers to vote for a union in a majority sign-up election.
Fact: Academic studies show that workers who organize under majority sign-up feel less pressure from co-workers to support the unions than workers who organize under NLRB election process. It is illegal for anyone to coerce employees to sign a union authorization card and any person who breaks the law will be subject to penalties under labor law.

Myth: Secret-ballot union elections allow employees a free and fair opportunity to make their own decisions about unions.
Fact: By the time employees get to vote, the environment has been so poisoned that free and fair choice isn’t an option.

Background:

  • 25% of employers illegally fire at least one worker for union activity
    during organizing campaigns.
  • 78% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one meetings against the
    unions without supervision.
  • 92% of employers force employees to attend mandatory closed-door meetings
    against the union.
  • 51% of companies threaten to shut down if the union wins the
    election.

The real tragedy here goes far beyond this year’s Senate race, which despite many great challenges remains possible for Al Franken to win. The real problem is that these powerful interests are turning the word “union” into a pejorative. When unions are weakened, everyone’s wages and benefits suffer — whether union or not. That’s an historical fact. That’s why Franken supports the Free Choice Act and why the goons are working so hard to make it seem like a bad thing. This has the potential to be a boomerang issue that Franken, Democrats and unions can turn around IF the unions get off the stick and hit the airwaves now.

Comments

  1. Great post! Thank you for such a good layout of the issues. Blogger doesn’t trackback, but here: http://carldems.blogspot.com/2008/07/aaron-brown-union-choice-matters.html

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