Lanny Davis enlisted by Big Business to promote a "Third Way" Corporate Compromise on EFCA
Lanny Davis visited the set of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to push for his "third way" corporate compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act. Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods have teamed up and are calling themselves the Committee for a Level Playing Field. As Steve Benen notes in his article:
Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Clinton, is reportedly helping to push this compromise, and told the Post that he's received positive feedback from about 20 Senate offices. We don't know which 20, but not surprisingly, Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas, a right-leaning Democrat who may break with his party over EFCA, said the proposal "could result in a reasonable compromise."
From TPM some good news:
Backers of the EFCA "alternative" have enlisted Lanny Davis, the former Clinton White House adviser turned supporter of Joe Lieberman's 2006 re-election bid, to plead their case on the Hill. And it's not going well so far, to say the least -- senior Democrats are pushing back hard at the compromise offer with a series of talking points that blast the EFCA "alternative" as "written by CEOs, for CEOs."
TPMDC has obtained a copy of the complete memo on the business-friendly deal, which is available after the jump. The takeaway is clear: Senior Democrats aren't buying what Davis is helping Costco, Whole Foods, and Starbucks try to sell.
Down with Tyranny calls the proposal a Trojan horse.
Ah... the rub. While the Greeks hide in the high reeds, grumbling that they oppose leaving such a lovely, costly horse to the tenacious damn Trojans, the modern day Trojans-- or at least the labor unions (if not the Bayh Bloc weak-kneed Democrats) have already figured out the trick. Yesterday the AFL-CIO let the Chamber of Commerce type Dems know that they're not buy into any so-called "compromise" that still allows management to subvert the will of the majority and still allows them delay contract negotiations ad infinitum since without that first legally binding contract the union is still at their never-tender mercies.
Davis refers to himself as a "pro-labor liberal" Democrat in this segment. If this is "pro-labor" lord help us.
John Amato:
This deal is not a compromise and makes things much worse for workers even if right wing union haters are feigning anger at Big Business for coming forward with this plan. If Lanny Davis was really for the working class then he should not be trying to broker this deal. I wonder how much he's being paid to jump into this battle and speak for the Big Guy?
money for our brave billionaires leading the fight for "freedom" I suppose.
There is no compromise.
Employers want to continue being able to harass their employees, pure and simple.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
bringing your dog to work, weekend work binges, more more and longer ala silicon valley style are being questioned.
and ed shultz gave davis all that airtime; including a touching testimonial to what an honest, labor loving guy lanny davis really is ... why he grew up in a household where he was taught to value labor unions. notice he didn't say 'pops was a union steward' ...
if davis is selling it, it isn't worth buying.
Here's a level playing field. Corporations negotiating wages and benefits will be represented by high school dropouts who have never negotiated anything before. Employees will get top of their class graduates of Harvard Business and Law schools to represent them.
http://dynamicbear.com/derivatives.jpg
($28 Trillion in outstanding derivatives)
What is it with these corporate guys who think they have a God-given right to push "the unwashed" around? Seriously! The business mentality seems to be that ordinary workers don't deserve better wages and benefits.
I guess it's the dark side of the American dream. The ideal is that with talent and hard work, anyone can make it to the top. The flip-side of that is the attitude that if you do make it to the top, you've earned the right to treat everyone else like crap.
... it sounds more like a capitulation.
New legislation will forbid all newspapers from making political endorsements??!!:
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/i...
This kind of creeps me out.
Abbywood this will get much more attention on an open thread. Save it for later, and thanks. - Sitemonitor
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
In the FIRST paragraph ...
With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.
They'd have a choice, it wouldn't be mandatory.
davis is a corporate prostitute
and if the time were taken to
investigate him, this allegation
that he is really being backed
by the corporations.
If Lanny Davis has his name on it, it is good for corporate America and bad for Americans.
The Third Way is the Fabian Society's agenda. The Society did publish a book entitled the Third Way by Tony Blair.
The Third Way is a mix of socialism and capitalism, or more specifically Keynesian socialist policies that are used to advance Economic Integration.
Before Bela Balassa codified Integration into 6-steps, this idea was first known as The Open Conspiracy (1928) which was the title of a book by Fabian Society member HG Wells. It was about how world government could bring world peace. Balassa himself though Integration led to political unions -- the 6th step is Complete Economic Integration i.e. a supranational state.
The Democrats, when they were called Republicans, used to be against such collectivist policies that infringe Natural Rights.
But that was 200 years ago...right. New world now eh.
Sen. Specter has once again groveled for the approval of the GOP's Limbaugh fringe, saying he's going to vote against EFCA when it comes to the Senate floor.
How Specter can pull off another general election victory by pandering to the more lunatic base of a rapidly-disintegrating/shrinking regional party in the 2010 Republican primary?
It's easy to bash union heads like Andy Stern and Hoffa Jr, but I hope Specter gets absolutely destroyed politically by the unions for his disingenuous claptrap.
That goes double for any Rep. or Bush Dog Dem in the Senate who votes against the EFCA.
And if the Dems aren't going to enact the EFCA legislation, then perhaps the unions should contribute to, fund, and campaign for, other candidates in both primaries and general elections, as it's obvious that a strong labor movement is not a real desire for far too many Democrats, although they sure do like all those campaign contributions and GOTV efforts they plead for from the unions.
At some point, "we're slightly less worse than the GOP" loses its electoral effectiveness, especially when the base being appealed to financially and vote-wise is otherwise told to "shut up, sit down and don't make a fuss, the time isn't right yet".
The past few decades we have let the robber-barons write the laws in this country and it hasn't turned out too well for Americans or for Earthlings either. Given their track-record maybe we ought not give too much credence to plans put forward but the corporate oligarchy?
I cant tell you what first came to mind when I saw corporations and a third way. However I can give you a hint. First word rymes with Muck and of course the rest ... the corportations.
Might as well not have any vote at all rather than even think about this Lanny Davis corporate bull.
If employees want to vote to start a union without interference from the employer, the employer better be sure he's got a good relationship with his people. Nothing more than competitive salaries, clean working environment, health care and adequate vacation time. So for the Right and businesses everywhere in this country, this is a problem because..?
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
...when we elect corporatists to office. Should have seen this coming.
because anything that humiliates Lanny Davis is pretty much inherently good. really I want to see the EFCA pass as a big, huge middle-finger to my former employer, Whole Foods. Whole Foods are the most hypocritical, lying, fake-ass corporation E V E R, and I CAN'T WAIT until their workers start unions and demand real pay for their work instead of the bogus 'leftover labor budget distribution' method they were using when I worked there (which for one week out of two and a half years of working there resulted in some extra pay. once, out of over a hundred weeks.)
Oh I can't WAIT to watch people who pretend to be all eco-friendly and liberal and pro-worker try to publicly prevent unions from forming in their perfect little worlds. they've been making $$ hand over first, and just using it to expand maniacally. and even though they charge too much for many things, their prices have been artificially depressed due to the low wages they pay. they're going to have to revamp their business model and stop wasting so much $$, because in this day and age, people are not going to be paying any more for their groceries. if anything, people who find a way to charge less while being actually good to their employees are going to win out here, and bloated operations like Whole Foods are in danger of fancy-dancing their way out of business.
it was entirely clear who, and what, he really represents. And, oh yeah, his defense of Hillary also makes it clear that he is no different than the DLCers or Rethugs. They are the enemy and they should be treated as such.
Trust NOT any compromise proposed by multinational corporate pricks or any flacks they hire to promote it.
If Lanny Davis is the kind of jerk Clinton had, no wonder we got NAFTA shoved up the ass of the American workers.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
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