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Looks like American's for Prosperity's Tim Phillips has resorted to hiring some cheap help with their tour bashing the Employee Free Choice Act. Who better than Mr. Fake Plumber Joe Wurzelbacher? I guess these guys couldn't find any real plumbers to go out there and attack unions. From KDKA Pittsburgh:

'Joe The Plumber' Speaks In Green Tree

Samuel Joseph Wuerzelbacher was there to rally against the Employee Free Choice Act – a bill that's supposed to make it easier for unions to organize.

Some local unions organized against Joe at the event.

President Obama supports the Employee Free Choice act.

It appears to be dead for now in Congress due to opposition from Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter.

There were no votes in the Senate yesterday. But there were plenty of fireworks. The biggest news of all was Arlen Specter's (R-PA) declaration of war against organized labor (and honor). In 2007 Specter was the only Republican to vote against the Republican filibuster against Employee Free Choice. It didn't do any good because the Democrats only mustered 51 votes, instead of the 60 needed. But one of those votes they needed was the then hospitalized Tim Johnson, a working family supporter from South Dakota who is now ready to vote for Employee Free Choice. And 7 anti-working family Republicans have been replaced by pro-working family Democrats. Instead of Wayne Allard, Colorado elected Mark Udall; Norm Coleman was defeated in Minnesota, although more on that below; Liddy Dole was ousted by Kay Hagan in North Carolina; instead of reactionary Pete Domenici New Mexico has Tom Udall; Oregonians replaced violently anti-labor Gordon Smith with ultra-pro-workers Jeff Merkley; I don't remember if Ted Stevens is in prison or not yet but Mark Begich is the new senator from Alaska; New Hampshire dumped Chamber of Commerce shill John Sununu for Jeanne Shaheen; and Mark Warner replaced John Warner in Virginia.

The math says that if Ted Kennedy is healthy enough to vote and Al Franken gets seated and all the Democrats-- including Evan Bayh's anti-Obama bloc-- all continue to back the bill (even WalMart's cowardly Democrats, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor), then Employee Free Choice passes if Specter sticks to his guns. With today's craven and cowardly announcement by Specter, more worried about his primary challenger from the fringes of the Republican right than about his own dignity or, more important, Pennsylvania working families, the Democrats will either have to put off the vote until after the 2010 election or persuade either Olympia Snowe (R-ME) or retiring George Voinovich (R-OH), neither of whom is a union-hater, to switch their votes.

Actually, there is another possibility-- however implausible. Everyone in Washington-- and Lexington-- knows there's no love lost between vulnerable Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning and Kentucky's other Republican senator, Miss McConnell, and that Bunning has been threatening to retire and let Democratic Governor, Steve Beshear, replace him with a Democrat-- the 60th vote. According to today's Lousiville Courier-Journal that scenario may actually be moving along. Bunning went nuts today (again), complaining that McConnell is sabotaging his efforts to raise money for his re-election battle.

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell again today of trying to derail his fundraising efforts, this time by trying to raise money for his own campaign account just as Bunning is gearing up his own efforts for his race next year.

...Bunning said his decision on whether to stay in the race will probably made in the next three months.

After earlier setting a goal of raising $2 million by the end of June, Bunning has since scaled that back, saying that McConnell and Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have harmed his fundraising efforts.

The third piece of this puzzle is the Republican Party conspiracy to keep Al Franken from taking his Senate seat. They've helped finance idiotic challenges and a frivolous lawsuit by loser Norm Coleman and today Coleman says he'll appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Coleman and the GOP know he has no chance to win but they just want to delay Franken's seating, in no small part because of Employee Free Choice.

Yep, keeping workers from forming unions is that important to the big money behind the Grand Obstructionist Party. Here's the press release from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

Today’s announcement by Sen. Specter-- a sponsor of the original Employee Free Choice Act who voted for cloture in 2007-- is frankly a disappointment and a rebuke to working people, to his own constituents in Pennsylvania and working families around the country.

The fact is the Employee Free Choice Act has more support than ever-- large majorities in both houses of Congress, the President and Vice President, 73 percent of the public. We will continue to work with
Democrats and a number of Republicans to create commonsense solutions to the decades of corporate power.

We do not plan to let a hardball campaign from Big Business derail the Employee Free Choice Act or the dreams of workers.

There are deep flaws in our labor laws, as Sen. Specter acknowledged today. The freedom to join together and bargain with employers for fair wages and better benefits is critical to rebuilding our middle class-- and now is exactly the time to do it, as we begin to revive our economy in a way that works for everyone. In the coming weeks, we will be escalating our campaign and finding the best ways forward to a balanced, strong economy.

Andy Stern, president of the SEIU, had a similar statement today:

In the middle of this economic crisis, passing the Employee Free Choice Act is exactly the right thing to do to give workers the chance to level the playing field. Majority Leader Reid said today, and as even Sen. Specter acknowledges, we need strong labor reform. Now more than ever, America's workers need a choice, free from intimidation and harassment, to bargain for job security, better wages and health care. Our President, Vice President and majorities in both houses of Congress share this goal, and we will not stop in our efforts to achieve it.

In an essay Senator Specter recently wrote for the Harvard Law Review, he states that for people like himself, "finding a practical solution is more important than political posturing." That's why we're dismayed by those who say they support the democratic process, yet refuse to allow meaningful debate and a democratic vote on critical legislation like the Employee Free Choice Act.

It's simple: If you support democracy, you should support the right to debate legislation that could improve the lives of millions of working Americans, pump $49 billion into the economy at a time when we desperately need it, and that's supported by the vast majority of the public.

(Cross-posted at Down With Tyranny.)

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We've known for a long time that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page is horrifically slanted; the rest of the paper may be reasonably balanced and journalistically sound, but the edit page is a wholly owned propaganda organ of movement conservatism. Sort of like Fox News. So it only makes sense that the WSJ's Editorial Page show on Fox would make no pretense whatever at providing even a vague semblance of fairness or balance.

On Saturday's program, they had on five different people to talk about the Employee Free Choice Act. Not one of them had a single positive thing to say about it -- and predictably, spent nearly the entire segment finding different ways to repeat the Zombie Lies that have been concocted to oppose the Act.

The most popular, of course, is the one that comes popping out of Paul Gigot's mouth right out of the gate -- that the Free Choice Act is "Big Labor's drive to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections". Please. How stupid do they think we are?

Evidently, plenty stupid, because they never stop repeating it.

I know these shows are supposed to be for money people. But the only money people I ever knew who got their advice from vacuumed-out bubbles like this one were losing money. Certainly, there's no reason for anyone interested in an actual debate, a contest of ideas, to tune into this show.

[H/t CSpanJunkie]

Finally the Employee Free Choice Act will be introduced in both House and Senate Tuesday and that should provide plenty of fireworks for sure. The right-wing corporate militia has spent millions of dollars to have their propaganda about the act infiltrate the media and have had their suck-ups openly lie about what is contained in the bill.

Update: Here's the full text of the bill.

It's all about the workers' right to form a union how they see fit, period. The biggest lie being told is that it will end "the secret ballot" and destroy democracy. Does anybody know what a secret ballot is? What about the phrase "card check?" It's not surprising that Warren Buffett is against it as well, since he's against unions generally.

A USA Today blog and the Politico both repeated the false suggestion that a National Labor Relations Board election is currently required before obtaining union representation. In fact, current law already allows a union that shows it has the support of a majority of workers to represent the workers if their employer voluntarily agrees to recognize the union...read on.

Howie Klein has a great rundown of the House and Senate members and where they stand on this bill.

So now the far right-- as well as off da hook and much beleagured temporary RNC chair Michael Steele-- is threatening to finance primaries against any Republican who votes for the bill. The Chamber of Commerce has also been actively courting right-wing Democrats with carrots and sticks. The other day Dan Boren (Blue Dog-OK) announced to his Chamber allies that, as expected, he would vote against working families once again.

{snip}

Over on the Senate side, where the attempt to close down the Grand Obstructionist Party's de facto filibuster was defeated, 51 in favor of the bill and 48 opposing it, every Democrat plus Arlen Specter (R-PA). In 2007 every Democrat co-sponsored the bill except conservatives Ben Nelson, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor (all of whom voted for it).

This year the only Democrats who haven't signed on as co-sponsors are Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Colorado freshmen Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, Jeff Bingaman, Illinois freshman Roland Burris (although probably because no one asked him to), Kent Conrad, Claire McCaskill, Byron Dorgan, Herb Kohl, North Carolina freshman Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu, Jon Tester, Blanche Lincoln, Mark Pryor, Mark Warner, Jim Webb, and Dianne Feinstein. (Bolded names were sponsors in 2007 and I'm sure they're still on board now and just haven't gotten around to sign up for co-sponsorship.)

He's got a lot of info in the post so please read the entire thing.

d-day also has this about Blanche Lincoln:

...for those who say that someone like Blanche Lincoln has to watch herself for the 2010 midterms, consider Senate Guru's analysis that nobody's really running against her worth a darn. Therefore we can conclude that, if Lincoln votes against Employee Free Choice, it's not because she has to, but because she wants to.

The rhetoric being used against the Employee Free Choice Act would be hilarious if it weren't replacing real debate with phoney end-of-the-world scenarios, backed up by such huge money and anti-worker influence. SEIU:

According to CEOs and their front groups, the fabric of our nation may well fall apart, all because of the Employee Free Choice Act. Its opponents no longer debate the merits of the bill, and instead resort to hyperbolic vitriol intended to inflame the public and press.

In reality, the Employee Free Choice Act is a bipartisan, common sense economic recovery for working families that will pump billions into our nation's economy.

Tell the phoney outraged powerbrokers what you think here.

When I read this story I almost puked.

When asked, Sen. Michael Bennet either "doesn't know" if he supports The Employee Free Choice Act or "hasn't decided" yet. Truly amazing. Bennet, who, you'll recall, was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Bill Ritter (D-CO) to replace Sen. Salazar, hasn't had to be accountable to the people of Colorado so I guess doesn't see any reason to ruffle any feathers by actually taking a stand on one of the most important pieces of legislation he's likely to vote on in the coming year.

Great work by Darcy and CO-06 challenger David Canter for applying pressure on Bennet and the entire Colorado congressional delegation to come out strongly and vocally in support of The Employee Free Choice Act.

--

The thing is, this really shouldn't be difficult or controversial. This is, as Darcy says, about the basic rights of workers to organize. EFCA is a bill that passed the House in 2005 and 2007 on a bi-partisan basis.

How can a Democratic member of Congress, (even if they were appointed because of a cabinet post) have no idea where they stand on EFCA? It's a joke. Big business does not want workers to unionize. It really is that simple. The unions helped make this country a great one. Sen. Michael Bennet should be ashamed of himself.

And it's clear that every vote will be needed this go-around, so Bennet's dilly-dallying just gives the Republican hardcases aid and comfort.

It's so nice to see Darcy Burner step up to the plate. This bill is a must. It gives workers the choice on how to unionize and not the employer. Again, it's that simple. There's no mystery about it. Republicans hate unions and they will do what they always do: Whine and Obstruct. Please go here and sign the petition.

Orrin Hatch will probably have a staged heart attack on Hardball just to emphasize how much he hates unions. He's already said it will destroy American civilization, so I imagine he's working on his method acting chops.

In a time when unions are outraged with Democrats for their pro-immigration policies, big labor has launched an unprecedented lobbying campaign to force workers into unions. Labor unions are supposed to protect workers’ rights, yet union bosses want Congress to pass a law that actually robs workers of their democratic right to a private ballot.

That's an outright lie and he will continue to lie about it.

Digby writes:

The Republicans are well aware that stopping unionization is an imperative. They are the party which represents the owners of America above all others. (So are Democrats, mind you, just to a lesser degree because their coalition is much broader, which may also be why they are suddenly having a hard time putting together enough votes for this legislation now that it could actually be signed.) They are readying a full court freak-out --- if you think Rush's caterwauling about socialism and Stalin is bad now, just wait.

The Republicans are always going to stage a hissy fit on this, no matter what, so there's no point in trying to find "the right time." They have signaled that they have no intention of cooperating on any legislation that doesn't only benefit rich people it's useless trying to bargain either. In for a penny and all that rot. Might as well do it while the doing is possible.

Please go here and sign the petition.

Progressive congressional candidate David Canter (CO-06) called on every member of the Colorado delegation to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act. Can you add your voice to the cause by signing this petition today?

This is good news from the SEIU, assuming Burger King has dropped their opposition permanently. It seems to be the result of a full week of SEIU actions at Burger Kings across the country :

Under pressure from SEIU activists and allies like Brave New Films, Jobs with Justice, and the Coalition for Social Justice this week, Burger King scrambled to respond to allegations that it lobbied against the Employee Free Choice Act while paying its workers poverty wages. In a statement issued Friday, Burger King apparently backed off its opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act:

"Burger King Corp. (BKC) believes unions serve a purpose in some workplaces and a number of its guests, vendors and franchisees have positive union membership experiences. BKC is not anti-union. BKC and its franchisees serve a diverse consumer base and, therefore, aim to remain neutral on political issues.

Now that it has recanted its opposition, we fully expect that Burger King will cease its expenditures on lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act and either withdraw from business associations that also oppose the bill, or demand that those groups also stop lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act.

Burger King spent $319,648 lobbying against the proposed legislation between 2006 and 2008 and has helped fund the fight against the bill through its involvement in the National Retail Federation, one of the organizations behind an anti-employee free choice group called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

Prominent Burger King shareholder Goldman Sachs is also involved in lobbying against workers' interests as a member of the Business Roundtable, which spent $15,849,000 on lobbying in 2008, including lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act.

This really isn't complicated. The Employee Free Choice Act gives the workers the right to select how they will form the union. At this point, the employers have that right and it's not fair. Lou Dobbs knows this, but needs to keep repeating republican talking points.

CNN:

DOBBS: We well, the American people voted for lots of things, but I don't know a lot of people voted to end a secret ballot. That's pretty radical, even in this era of nationalization and socialization of our economy, isn't it?

That's just a lie Lou. The workers can vote to keep it "secret."

Here's FAIR:

Dobbs' claim that EFCA would eliminate the "secret ballot" in union authorization elections, which has been a centerpiece in a U.S. Chamber of Commerce-funded anti-union PR campaign (see Nation, 1/26/09), is completely false. As the text of the act (H.R. 800, 3/2/07) reveals, EFCA contains no language about eliminating the "secret ballot" enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act under Section 9 e.

Under EFCA, workers would still have the right to vote in a National Labor Review Board (NLRB) "secret ballot" election if 30 percent of the workforce signs cards, just as they do now. EFCA would change the process of union formation by giving workers seeking to join a union an additional option of winning union representation after a majority of the workforce signs cards, through a new provision to the act (section 9 c 6).

As American Rights at Work points out, this method of union sign-up, known as "majority sign-up" or "card check," is already recognized under current labor law, but only when the employer approves it. EFCA would represent a change in such union drives by removing the ability of employers to withhold recognition and to insist on an NLRB election.

ACTION: Ask Lou Dobbs to stop repeating the business lobby's false charge that EFCA would eliminate secret ballot elections.

CONTACT:

Lou Dobbs
Email:lou.dobbs@turner.com

CNN:
212-275-7800

The media has already adopted the konservative talking point and don't even use the proper name when talking about this important bill. If you want to make a republican scream, just mention the word, "Card Check." It drives them crazy, but they couldn't tell you anything about it except the lie driven media's "secret ballot" nonsense. And as usual the Blue Dogs are acting like konservatives once again:

Blue Dogs To House Dem Leaders: Hold Off On Employee Free Choice

Blue Dog Democrats in the House have asked House Dem leaders to postpone a vote on the Employee Free Choice Act until after the Senate votes on it, and the Democratic leadership has agreed, a senior House Dem aide tells me.

The discussions are likely to disappoint some in the labor movement, who see Employee Free Choice as their top priority and had hoped the House would act quickly and pass a strong bill before the Senate passes a weaker version. Proponents and foes of the measure alike say the Senate is expected to be the major battleground over the bill because of the tight Dem majority.

Blue Dog Dems have told House leader Steny Hoyer that they don’t want a vote on Employee Free Choice before the Senate because they fear they’ll end up having to vote for two different versions of the measure, compounding the political damage they may face in moderate districts, the aide says.

Remember John's post on banks using bailout monies to continue to lobby and organize against the Employee Free Choice Act? Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) wanted to make sure that BofA CEO Ken Lewis wasn't using our taxpayer dollars to prevent employees from unionizing. And Lewis assured Ellison that he was working in his company's best interests.

What does Ken Lewis mean by "best interest of our company?" To us, a company is not just the executives and shareholders, but its employees, its customers, and its community.

So it's tough to reconcile Lewis' apparent opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act with an internal Bank of America memo about the bill. In that memo, Bank of America admitted the bill would mean:

increased spending power of lower income consumers as this would be a de facto wage and benefit increase.

Let's get this straight: Bank of America admits that the Employee Free Choice Act would raise wages and benefits for consumers, pumping money into our flailing economy. But Bank of America will apparently continue its efforts to fight this bill despite knowing it can help the economy.

Ken Lewis makes $9,803 an hour, while his tellers - those that make Bank of America run - make $10-$15 an hour. A number of Lewis' 247,000 employees lack adequate health coverage and instead depend on state subsidies." While Lewis himself did not take a bonus for last year, Lewis made sure that high level staff still got bonuses even though Bank of America recently announced it was laying off another 35,000 employees.

So, we've got to ask. Is it really in the best interest of "the company" to actively lobby against measures that would improve the lives of very same people that work within the company - or is it just in the best interest of Ken Lewis?

Good question. In fact, Jason Lefkowitz has more on the organizing these bailed-out banks are hatching:

(W)e were alarmed to discover that the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) — the lobbying organization for the banking industry — was organizing a meeting there that would bring together CEOs from several bailed-out banks to coordinate their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

It’s no secret that some bankers have been taking taxpayers’ bailout money and using it to keep you from having the power to decide for yourself whether or not to join together in a union with your coworkers. [..]

Given that, when we found out about the bank CEOs’ plans to meet in Florida on the taxpayer’s dime to continue to push this anti-worker agenda, we decided to blow the whistle on their egregious misuse of their bailout funds.

So our Chair, Anna Burger, wrote a letter to FSR President Steve Bartlett (PDF) in which she outlined why the meeting was a bad idea and urged him to reconsider:

The failure of the financial services industry to manage risk has led to the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression. And, while the managers responsible for the meltdown benefit from a taxpayer bailout that soon could exceed one trillion dollars, millions of workers are losing their jobs and many more are losing their retirement savings. At a time when the industry must devote every effort to economic recovery, it is shameful that the Financial Services Roundtable makes lobbying against the right of workers to organize a legislative priority and, worse yet, is using taxpayer-financed TARP subsidies to do so…

The Roundtable’s partisan political priorities are especially disturbing given that your members have so far received the lion’s share of federal bailout funds. According to current data on your website, Roundtable members account for 78 percent of the $256 billion in capital injections so far approved for financial services firms under TARP. In addition to providing the Roundtable with substantial membership dues, TARP recipients are also major contributors to your PAC.

Because making sure bailout funds are spent responsibly is an American issue, not a Democratic or Republican issue, she sent copies of the letter to both the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Congressional committees that oversee the banking industry, as well as to Elizabeth Warren, chair of the panel empowered by Congress to provide oversight on the bailout program.

Those leaders listened. [..] However, even as Lewis defended his corporation’s right to spend taxpayer dollars lobbying to restrict your rights, his friends at the Financial Services Roundtable were thinking that maybe having their meeting at a luxurious resort wasn’t the best PR idea after all. On Thursday, FSR announced that it was moving its meeting from Florida to an undisclosed (and presumably more Spartan) location in Washington, D.C.

So that’s a big chunk of your money that’s going to be saved. You’d think that would make bean-counters happy, right? Apparently not the bean-counters at the Wall Street Journal, whose op-ed page this morning blares with condemnations that we restricted the bank CEOs’ free speech rights by having the gall to question how they choose to spend your money

Meanwhile, the NY Times is reporting that these banks are still insolvent and will require even more aid. So let's see if this makes sense: CEOs making well into the seven figures (or more) have run these banking institutions into the ground and not only get to keep their jobs while taking taxpayer money, but are actively organizing to make things worse for their employees and wasting taxpayer dollars on things like five day Superbowl parties but it is we--the lowly non-screwups--being castigated by the WSJ for wondering WTF is going on?

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Stuart Acuff of the AFL-CIO was on Neil Cavuto's Fox News show earlier this week, and it seemed like Cavuto tossed every right-wing talking point imaginable about the Employee Free Choice Act** at him, and each time Acuff shot them down with great ease. By the end of the segment, Cavuto was clearly frustrated.

This seems to happen a lot whenever right-wingers actually try to engage anyone knowledgeable about the Free Choice Act. The facts aren't on their side. Which is why when Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly discussed it this week, they only had on fellow right-wingers.

More facts can be found at the AFL-CIO and SEIU sites.

**link fixed

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Lou Dobbs and Drew Griffin go after the SEIU and the Employee Free Choice Act in this anti-union hit job. Dobbs even manages to squeeze in a shot at Acorn at the end of the segment. He doesn't seem to have much use for our First Amendment and the right to peaceably assemble either.

DOBBS: A bold threat tonight from one of the most powerful unions in the country, a bold threat to democratic lawmakers and President Obama. The Service Employees International Union marching on Capitol Hill today, marching to demand that democrats pass the so- called employee free choice act. The Service Employees Union, which did help many democrats win election, including the president, said that those democrats must keep their promises or else. Drew Griffin with our report.

DREW GRIFFIN: The battle has been waged inside this Indianapolis office building for three years. But the fight at the corner of Illinois and Market Streets is about to spread to every Main Street in the U.S. This noisy protest by members of the service employees' international union is specifically about janitors, but nationally, it's about the employee free choice act.

DAVE BEGO, EMS OWNER: Check is real simple. They want to eliminate the secret ballot election.

GRIFFIN: Dave Bego says in his case, the workers don't want the union.

BEGO: They've been after us for almost three years. And they've only got 10 or 12 people interested in what they have to sell.

GRIFFIN: Bego runs EMS, a national janitorial service based in Indianapolis. He started it 20 years ago and has never been unionized. Its workers, at least those chosen to talk to us, say that's the way they want it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the union, everybody needs a union, and unions are good, but with this company, we've been treated pretty fair and the work is good.

Continue reading »

I remember when Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearings were underway, conservatives like Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to decry the racism of those liberals who dared oppose him.

Now the shoe's on the other foot. Even though most of Barack Obama's nominations have sailed through confirmation hearings and votes with alacrity, there's one notable exception -- Hilda Solis, Obama's pick as Labor Secretary:

The confirmation of Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, as President Barack Obama's Labor secretary has been delayed because of Republican objections.

Democrats have announced that a Republican senator is using a parliamentary procedure to delay Solis' confirmation, the Washington paper Congress Daily reported Friday.

But while it does seem peculiar that conservatives would block the nomination of one of Obama's few Latino candidates, no one is suggesting that racism is the motive here.

Actually, there's a very simple answer to the above question: The Employee Free Choice Act.

As the Star-News report notes:

The anonymous hold - as the tactic is known - was placed because of Solis' support for "card check" legislation aimed at facilitating union organization and another bill regarding pay-discrimination, and for non-responsive answers during her confirmation hearing, according to GOP aides, the paper reported.

During her nomination hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Solis deferred questions on the controversial card check bill to Obama, to the frustration of GOP committee members, who strongly oppose the legislation.

Mario Solis-Marich at Nuestra Voice observes:

The Department of Labor has long been a strange relic to economic conservatives. Where DC visitors to the DOL see an office building the GOP sees a wicked temple inhabited by evil wizards that actually count the unemployed and study statistics that often contradict core conservative economic superstitions. The questions to Solis were reminiscent of a witch dunking where there are no right answers. If Solis had drowned she would have been human and acceptable but her survival, due to her accurate and honest answers, indicated her pre-supposed guilt.

I reviewed the Solis hearing that seems to have befuddle the GOP inquisitors and found the Secretary Designate to be very even handed. Solis admitted that she sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act (apparently a type of anti-GOP spell) and that President Obama has endorsed it. However Solis also repeatedly indicated that she was not clear what her role would be in the coming debate surrounding the Act due to her potential new position and her inability to yet speak for the Administration. Solis gave the same nuanced answers to Senate Democrats that wanted assurances about a host of progressive labor agenda items that she gave to the GOP. The Secretary Designate was trying to express and open mindedness to a middle ground while respectfully deferring to the new President (who by the way was still President elect at the time of the hearing).

Republicans are sending a clear signal with this delay that they intend to fight the Free Choice Act with every fiber of their beings. Democrats has better be ready. Fortunately, Hilda Solis already will be.

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We've known for some time that Fox News is merely the propaganda arm for the GOP. However, they usually couch their partisanship with claims of being "fair and balanced" and token ineffectual Democrats. But Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace was perhaps a little unintentionally forthright about where his loyalties lay in Sunday's interview with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Congress's priority to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

WALLACE: Big Labor’s top priority is what’s called “union card check” and that would be eliminating the right to a secret ballot in determining whether or not you’re going to organize, unionize a working place. [laughs] I love the way you’re smiling already. Are you going to move on that in the first month?

HOYER: I’m smiling because of the way you phrased it. It’s the Free Choice Act, of course, and what it does is …

WALLACE: Well, “union card check”, Free Choice, both sides have their euphemisms.

HOYER: Of course, and you use one side. That’s why I was smiling…[laughs]

WALLACE: And you used the other.

Sadly, Wallace obviously has access to the GOP talking points soundbytes that the Democrats are never savvy enough to replicate. Nice, neat, and sound sensible if a little weak on facts. "Union card check" sounds like something a Dem-voting life-long union member would be leery of. But Hoyer never retorts in a way that eliminates this fear. The Employee Free Choice Act simply gives the employees the right to decide whether to unionize, rather than the company. It's easy to understand and say, right? But instead, Hoyer gives this mush-mouthed reply:

HOYER: Well, okay, my point being that we believe that one of the problems that has existed in America is that working people have had a very, very difficult time in getting represented by unions in the work place. Work place has resisted that. The NLRB has not been very vigorous in assuring the lack of unfair labor practices. We believe that the employees…if over 50% of them sign and say that we want to be represented by a union, they ought to be able to be represented by a union. Let me say that many, many employers currently, under existing law, recognize such signatures right now and start to bargain and have a union representative.

C'mon, guys, it's bad enough that you go on Fox, can't you do a little prep work to be able to respond to the Republican framing first?

Transcripts below the fold:

Continue reading »

Mary Beth Maxwell from American Rights at Work on Washington Journal Jan. 2, 2008 discussing the Employee Free Choice Act.

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Fox's Neil Cavuto had a fellow named Rick Berman of the "Employee Freedom Action Committee" on his program yesterday blaming the auto workers' unions for the demise of the auto industry. Berman natters on at length about the legacy costs for American automakers (neglecting to mention that the legacy we're talking about here originates with a workforce that made these corporations the giants they are today) and trots out a thick union contract to complain about how onerous it is for these corporations to deal with unions.

Cavuto, of all people, tries to be "fair and balanced":

Cavuto: All right, but it's also managers who don't turn fast enough, or see the benefits of more fuel-efficient cars, or to be able to move as quickly as their Japanese or Korean counterparts.

Berman: Yeah, but you have to understand again that you've got -- in that big contract I've shown you, you've got the UAW with veto power over which cars are made in which plants for what period of time. Now you tell me of another business that has to deal with a union and the union makes those decisions and can veto whether or not you start producing a fuel-efficient car.

This is -- not to put too fine a point on it -- a load of bollocks. The decisions on developing corporate lines and following technological trends at the Big Three have never been influenced to any great extent by labor-related restrictions but instead have always been about maximizing profits under the vision of corporate management. See Who Killed the Electric Car? for a clear portrait of this.

Berman goes on to make clear he wants to see a "prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy" that would completely wipe out all existing union contracts and start everyone over at Square One. If you worked for GM for the last 20 years, well, tough luck.

What goes unmentioned in this interview -- and the ultimate target of Berman's campaign -- is that he's looking to attack not just autoworkers' unions but the entire labor movement. Bashing the UAW is just a way of laying the groundwork for a much broader attack on unions in general -- and in particular, on the Employee Free Choice Act.

Who is Rick Berman? He's a former legal eagle for the National Chamber of Commerce (the longtime nemesis of the labor movement) who has gone on to forge a lucrative career setting up all kinds of "nonprofit" organizations that rake in thousands of dollars from corporate interests, as NPR reported awhile back:

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