CE Week #2: “Propagandists mask Free Choice Act facts”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls it “Armageddon.”
Home Depot’s CEO called it “the demise of a civilization,” and said his fellow corporate executives who didn’t contribute big bucks to defeat it “should be shot, should be thrown out of their (expletive) jobs.”
What has Corporate America so apoplectic with fear and anger? A fatal epidemic? A terrorist nuclear threat? A new Michael Moore movie?
It’s legislation before Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act. It would increase fines and penalties against employers that refuse to negotiate union contracts or that illegally threaten or fire workers who support forming unions.
But the provision that strikes fear in the heart of Corporate America is allowing the workers to decide for themselves whether they want to form a union through the traditional government-supervised ballot election or by signing authorization cards.
It doesn’t eliminate “secret ballot elections,” as you’ve been told. It lets the workers decide if they want one, instead of letting the boss decide, as he now does.
Here is the sad truth. If you support forming a union in America, your employer can – and often will – harass, demote or fire you. It doesn’t matter that it’s illegal. Federal labor laws are so weak, and so weakly enforced, that it could take years of litigation just to prove you were unlawfully fired. Even then, the fines are minuscule.
We, as Americans, should be ashamed. This country, which prides itself for protecting the freedom of association, is listed by Human Rights Watch alongside Third-World dictatorships as a violator of basic human rights on this issue.
Today, the illegal suppression of unions is a simple cost of doing business. It’s seen as cheaper than granting your employees a union contract with higher wages, better benefits and a voice on the job.
Workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more than non-union workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are 59 percent more likely to have employer- provided health coverage and 72 percent more likely to have pensions.
Corporations know this. They don’t want their employees to unionize. And right now, they have the system rigged.
That’s why they so aggressively oppose attempts to reform labor laws to make it easier to form unions. And that’s why, as you read this, they are spending millions to convince you the EFCA will take away your sacred right to “secret ballot” election and lead to intimidation by union thugs like me.
They are lying to you. The EFCA doesn’t eliminate the secret ballot, it lets workers choose if they want one.
As for union thugs on your doorstep, union-authorization cards have always been a part of the election process established by the National Labor Relations Act. In the 70 years that labor organizers have been seeking card signatures, there have been fewer than 50 cases of union misconduct or coercion documented by the National Labor Relations Board. That’s less than one case per year.
Compare that to 29,559 cases in 2007 alone of workers receiving back pay in cases where employers were charged with violating workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
We have example after example of companies right here in Eastern Washington where workers have reached out to union organizations asking for representation. The results have been intimidation and threats by the employers; fear mongering from the employers to the point of retreat from employees. This doesn’t sound like the America or the community that I know and love.
Notoriously anti-union companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot want you to believe you need their protection from the Employee Free Choice Act and from jack-booted union thugs that will come crashing through your front window to take your money.
When are we going to stand up for our rights, and stop listening to this disingenuous, self-serving propaganda from multinational corporations?
Beth Thew is secretary-treasurer of the Spokane Regional Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
Beth Thew is not telling the truth. She is attempting to spin the fact that EFCA, in effect, takes away the secret ballot. Under EFCA once a union organizer get a majority of the employees to sign union cards (not that hard to do since it is a one-sided pitch), the organizer (NOT THE WORKERS)decides what to do next. They can either go to the labor board and get the union in place instantly, or ask for an election. If your job is to organize and your pay depends on that, why would you risk an election? Beth knows that it is not up to the workers to decide whether there is a secret ballot election. She also knows that the current process, where there is a healthy debate, makes it tough to unionize. Most workers simply don’t want her product.
Background: I work in labor relations for a company and, out of college, worked for a labor union (National Federation of Federal Employees). I would rather not give my employer’s name as I am writing this not representing them.
This lady is way out of line. She thinks unions are good? How deluded is she? Unions are the embodiment of communism in this country. All of that good work Joseph McCarthy did will just be wasted on this Employee Free Choice Act. The communists will have won. They will get their unions now, and it seems harmless. But the truth is that this is the first step down the path where they steal all our money and redistribute it. Thank God for the Second Amendment. Not only is unionizing a despicable, cowardly, commie thing to do, it also ruins our perfect free market. If we give workers all of our money, how are we supposed to hire more workers? Mr. Smith gets 30% more money for his job at Wal-Mart. Mr. Johnson gets no money because Wal-Mart can’t afford to hire him, and he and his wife and his 2.5 children have to live on the street. Because that is why unemployment is so high: unions. And this article says “they are lying to you,” “they” being corporations. That is what is really propaganda. Why would corporations lie to us? I would like to see one instance where a corporation has screwed over employees or consumers. No one can find it because it has never happened. And when corporations fire employees for trying to unionize, they are doing nothing wrong. Unionizing is as bad as stealing because that’s what unions do. They steal. And they’re communist.
Connection: From last year: the Sherman Antitrust Act. This is where all this holding companies back started. It’s just wrong. It’s just not American. We do not have to appease these Human Rights Watch people. They sound like a bunch of UN hippies to me.
If a corporation does not want to work with a union, they should not have to. It is on the same level as forcing doctors to perform abortions when they feel it is ethically and morally wrong. If a business owner does not feel it is in his best interest to accept a contract from unions, why should he have to? Being fired because a person wants to form a union is wrong. If this person gets to the point of harassing the boss, there is cause to fire them but if they simply show interest, they should not be fired. Unions should see that individuals can be just as effective as a mass group if the individual asks in the correct way. Unions tend to want too much power. They are not good for corporations or small businesses. Look what happened at Fox not that long ago. The union went on strike and cost the company a ton of money. Unions lead to not good endings and no one should be forced to join them or make them.
Connection: A union can be a lot like an interest group but with a lot more power in their company than interest groups have in the government.
“Notoriously anti-union companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot want you to believe you need their protection from the Employee Free Choice Act and from jack-booted union thugs that will come crashing through your front window to take your money.” I don’t know what crazy things that this article is talking about, unions thugs will come crashing through your window and take your money. They may even take your children, put them into sweat shops, and use the grand profits to feed you more of their self-serving propaganda! These crazy union leaders are the same people that tell you that global warming is a totally real and stem cell research is ethical. You can’t trust these crazy extremists and their lies. You can trust your friends at Wal-Mart though. Wal-Mart provides hundreds of jobs for everyone, including disabled and elderly. Home Depot is your store for finding hardware. You can trust companies like this. They sell you what you need. If a few toes are stepped on in the process, it’s all for you, the consumer. Plus, with our economy the way it is, we can’t afford anymore of those silly unions. They’re taking away from time working on good product. Let live the age of corporations. They protect you, and keep your best interests in mind. Sure there have been those silly rumors about rats in meat, and horrendous on-the-job injuries. Stuff like that is rare, and blown out of proportion. It’s our time to protect our corporations, and even better, invest. Trickledown economics works every time.
Connection: Deregulation. Like deregulation breathing down those corporations’ backs, unions do the same. They force corporations to spend money on frivolous things such as health codes, safety codes, and so called “ethics.” We should leave businesses alone, this is a free market. We’re hindering business with bureaucracy and wild-running unions.
This is my fundamental concern with conservatism and free market. There are too many greedy people to just let the economy run like Rosie O’Donnell running after a chicken with its head cut off that just ate a can of tuna.
Think about it.
Wealth is power. Just as it is the duty of the government to divide power internally, it is the duty of the government to divide the power of its citizens. But even if that is too socialist for the stomach, is it not the duty of the government to protect its citizens? In free market, corporations like Wal-Mart are the ones that rise to the top because they are more than successful at making money and getting consumers to buy their product. In the case of Wal-Mart in particular, this comes at a serious cost to its employees – most of them being American citizens. Free market is the perfect environment to create wealthy monsters. Thank God we have Obama to get them under control before they grow to the size of Godzilla and trump entire cities in to ruin while their CEO sits on a mountain of cash, smoking a Cuban cigar, erupting in an evil laugh as the camera fades to reveal his wealth.
Connection: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, believed that our consciences would keep the “invisible hand” from becoming too greedy. It is clear that he was wrong. Our culture has moved too far from community into an addiction to materialism. The narcissism of our society has transformed free market into an extremely dangerous being.