LaborPains.org

To avoid debating EFCA.

As readers know, Minnesota DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez responded to our invitation to debate EFCA with a frivolous legal complaint, one which was dismissed last week.

In honor of Mr. Melendez’ refusal to debate the issue, or even respond to our invitation, we conducted the First Annual Brian Melendez Cluck Like a Chicken Contest at the Minnesota State Fair. 

Having been called “liars” by Mr. Melendez, we’re certainly sensitive to labeling someone a “chicken;”  the Scarlet C is a difficult stain to wash away.  But that’s really the only name for a person who refuses to debate important policy issues while filing frivolous legal complaints and attempting to sully the names and reputations of their opponents.

We will continue to highlight this important issue while calling out those, like Mr. Melendez, who try to silence those with whom they disagree while refusing to debate the merits of the legislation.

Stay Tuned.  More to Come.  Cluck.  Cluck.

We presented Minnesota Senator and EFCA supporter Amy Klobuchar with our version “Card Check,” the one our friends at AFSCME found so objectionable.

Before her handler stepped in to cut us off, Senator Klobuchar seemed a little clueless, perhaps realizing the absurdity of what we were suggesting.  If only her union pals had been there to provide her with talking points.

In our follow up discussion with the Senator’s staffer, he seemed almost offended that constituents would dare ask her an actual question about an actual policy issue.  In the end, he was pretty doubtful that our plan would “pass Constitutional muster.”

Gee, ya think, Mr. Chief Justice?  Seems like another case of a politician imposing a system on others they would never live under themselves.

Check out this video as Rep. Ben Chandler (D-KY) dodges the question and pokes fun at the KY Club for Growth after their Chairman questions his support for the card-check legislation. He must think it has something to do with the “living wage” as many times as he repeats that phrase.

In another report from the Minnesota State Fair, we were able to secure a few minutes with Congressman John Kline from Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District.  As a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, Congressman Kline has an especially keen understanding of EFCA.

In fact, Congressman Kline gives one of the best analyses of EFCA that I’ve seen or heard.  It’s a shame there aren’t more like him in Washington.  Watch and learn.

The Employee Free Choice Act is becoming a hot issue in Louisiana. The Shreveport area CBS affiliate, KSLA-TV is taking notice and invited Louisianans for Employee Freedom on their “News Makers” segment to discuss EFCA and the impact it will have on Louisiana workers if it passes.

Steering Committee Chairman Mark Zeldon sat down with “News Maker” Host Pat Simon to talk about the harmful effects EFCA will have in the workplace citing intimidation at work and at home, which will result in workers becoming less-likely to vote their true opinion.

Mark Zeldon explains how before the National Labor Relations Act of 1935—which provided the private ballot election—union workers were manipulative and abusive when attempting to convince employees to unionize. However, once the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was passed, the abuses committed by the labor unions ceased. The Employee Free Choice Act effectively eliminates the private ballot election, allowing for history to repeat itself.

Zeldon points out that Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu—who co-sponsored the bill—says she supports the bill because it allows for a fair process. But as history has shown and labor union’s willingness to do anything to obtain a larger part of the workforce, the act will prove fatal to the workforce. The current process, as Zeldon has clarified, is a fair and good process for collective bargaining. Senator Landrieu must have misread or failed to read the bill she is co-sponsoring because it is neither a fair nor democratic process. 

Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus has a fantastic Op-Ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on the need to stand up and fight against the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act:

My advice today about the Employee Free Choice Act is the same as I gave in England: You better fight to stop this undemocratic bill. I’m not the only one who thinks the proposed law violates long-established principles of democracy. In these pages, George McGovern, a former Democratic senator and a champion of organized labor, called this bill what it really is — “a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor.”

To my astonishment, most CEOs in America are unaware of this planned hostile takeover of their human resources. I am retired, so this is not business for me. It’s strictly personal. I care deeply about the competitiveness of American companies and our system of free enterprise…

Those who support the bill claim that it will “protect workers.” This doesn’t pass the straight-face test. Mr. McGovern saw through the false rhetoric of the bill’s sponsors, saying that the measure “runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, [it] risks silencing those who would speak.”

It’s time to stand up and fight. America’s competitiveness, jobs and right to a secret ballot are at stake. CEOs, employees who want to keep their jobs in America — and those retirees like me who would not be where we are today but for our system of free enterprise — must stop this anti-democratic legislation.

Marcus was also recently on CNBC talking about the Employee Free Choice Act with Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Senator Mitch McConnell recently aired Bruce Lunsford’s dirty laundry and called him out on being in total lock-step with the AFL-CIO.

Apparently Bruce agrees!

While speaking at the Kentucky Farm Bureau forum in Louisville, McConnell warned farmers of Lunsford’s ties to union bosses stating that Bruce won’t be for trade agreements that will allow Kentucky farmers to sell their products abroad because the unions won’t let him.

When asked about his support for unions and their agenda Lunsford told reporters “pretty much at this stage I agree with things they ask.”
Lunsford tried to spin his support for unions as being for “middle America” saying that he thinks “the AFL-CIO represents middle America.”

Wonder if he knows that “middle America” along with everyone else still wants the right to a private vote when it comes to unionization? This is just another union agenda item that Lunsford will support because he’s told to by the union bosses despite what the working men and women really want.

Days after Lunsford claimed his support for the AFL-CIO’s union agenda, the AFL-CIO began running radio ads criticizing McConnell and sticking up for their good buddy Lunsford.

Guess that’s what you get when you agree with the unions on things such as the Employee Free Choice Act claiming that what the unions are asking for “are pretty reasonable for middle America.”

The Minnesota State Fair, in addition to ranking as the nation’s 2nd largest, is a wonderful place for politics and policy issues.  There you find politicians away from the tight grasp of their handlers freely mixing with Minnesotans.  Additionally, dozens of groups are there to raise the profile of their issues.

We used the opportunity to talk to groups and politicians about EFCA.  In fact, we decided to talk with some folks in the union movement about democracy.  We presented them with an idea of ours about replacing elections with a card check system. The text of our “card” is below:

 I hearby authorize Al Franken to represent me in the United States Senate for the next six years.  This card replaces the traditional method of selecting representatives formerly known as “voting.”

As you see in the above clip, our union friends weren’t too crazy about the idea.  They gave eloquent, persuasive arguments about the critical nature of elections…pretty much the same ones we’ve been making in opposing EFCA.

Thanks folks.