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Popular talk show host Mike Rosen of Denver’s 850 KOA has done an excellent job informing his audience on the Employee Free Choice Act this election cycle.  In Colorado, where 18 separate ballot issues including 5 labor-related initiatives have been clogging up the airwaves, Rosen has continued to emphasize the importance of this federal issue above all others.  

Recently he interviewed Steve Law, chief legal officer and general counsel for the US Chamber of Commerce, and they discussed exactly what this deceptively-named legislation will and will not do.  Big Labor and the Democrat politicians that support it have not entered into these discussions, because as the voting public learns the facts of this legislation, including the deception and massive funding involved, they will never support it.  Listen as Steven Law Discusses Employee Free Choice Act .

In the course of the clip, you may have heard them mention the YouTube debate in which Bob Schaffer plainly discusses the Employee Free Choice Act and Mark Udall dances around the facts.  This is a recurring theme concerning EFCA, as Democrats and labor advocates of the bill are not honest about its provisions .

EFCA will not only take away workers right to a private ballot, but it also weakens the National Labor Relations Board, an arbiter that is in place between unions and business to protect workers.  Under the Act, these protections will be eliminated, essentially opening employees to LEGAL intimidation by BOTH unions AND business.  Listen as Law discusses how EFCA legalizes worker intimidation .

With all of this in mind, it is no surprise that Big Labor and their Democrat friends in the halls of Congress do not want you to know what this bill is really about.  Coloradans for Employee Freedom will continue to encourage voters to fight this Big Labor power grab to protect the American worker…

I thought Mark Udall was a good guy. I thought he might actually listen to his conscience. I was wrong.

I say this because I put a question to Udall on YouTube’s YouChoose08 spotlight. Despite his clear skepticism regarding the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act, he refused to pledge to support employees’ right to a secret ballot election in union organizing campaigns. Here is my question and Udall’s atrocious answer:

“Would you pledge to oppose any bill that lessens the role of secret ballots when it comes to unionization, including the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act?”

Udall’s non-responsive response:

Union Free America has voted for its most decertified union of the year award, and the Teamsters are the big winner.  This is obviously a tongue-in-cheek honor by the anti-union organization.  However, the numbers are quite telling.

The judging was based on an analysis of the reports of election results on the National Labor Relations Board’s web site for the period August 2007 through July 2008.  During that time the NLRB conducted 330 decertification elections.  Employees seeking to rid themselves of a union won 201, or 61 percent of them. 

New unions are being certified at a slower rate, and some would argue that this is because unions are unfit and outdated in a free-market, capitalist society that provides government oversight and laws to protect workers.  However, DEcertifications cannot be argued.  Growing numbers of workers that are already IN unions wanting to get OUT is a crystal clear sign that unions aren’t always in workers’ best interests, as Big Labor would have you believe. 

So Big Labor is rallying its loyal Democrat troops from the US House and the Senate to support the bill, and is working at a break-neck pace this election cycle to add pro-union lawmakers so they can pass the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act in the next Congress.  This act will make it easier to unionize by removing the private ballot from union elections, and thus streamlining union organization and effectively legalizing union intimidation of workers through “card-check”.  

Tell your elected officials to vote NO on EFCA.  Workers are getting out of unions at a record pace for a reason, and the unions don’t need to prop their numbers up by promoting intimidation of workers, removing private ballot elections, and certifying new unions that workers neither want nor need.

At a recent debate,  Senate candidate Mark Udall arrived to a flurry of activist activity.  Coloradans for Employee Freedom were there again, making sure that no one forgets that Udall is supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, which will remove the private ballot vote for union workers.  In the video, you will see Udall surrounded by men in yellow shirts that are providing security and escort.  These are union firefighters for Udall.  Just like the major unions, they know that Mark Udall will continue to support union interests, despite the fact that the vast majority of Coloradans are opposed to the removal of the private ballot from union elections, and in spite of the fact that unions provide a large percentage of Udall’s campaign donations. 

How can Udall continue to support this legislation?  Just ask the guys in yellow shirts…they know.

The Employee Free Choice Act continues to gain attention in Colorado, with a new article over the weekend from the Denver Post discussing arch-liberal George McGovern’s opposition to the bill.

If a lifelong proponent of organized labor like McGovern is against a bill supported by labor interests, it is surely bad for workers and should be in no danger of passing into law, right?  Unfortunately this is not the case.  Mark Udall and a majority of his fellow Democrats in Congress, whose party coincidentally receive 97% of all labor union politcal donations, have pledged to support the bill.  In fact, they have been wholeheartedly behind the bill since trying to sneak it through the Congress in the first 100 days of the newly elected Demorcrat majority in spring of 2007.

The following is a statement from Udall’s camp in the Denver Post article:

Taylor West, campaign spokeswoman for Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall, said her boss isn’t backing down from his support for EFCA, and reiterated his pledge to vote for the bill next year regardless of who’s in the White House.

West continues:

“This isn’t a perfect piece of legislation, but it is a way to make sure workers can join together and negotiate for the health care and benefits they deserve.”

This legislation is not only imperfect, but is shortsighted and seeks to solve a problem that does not exist. EFCA would allow them to trick and intimidate a whole new generation of workers into their membership.   

Mark Udall is shamelessly following the orders of Big Labor and the Democrat establishment on this one.  After all, how can he blindly continue to support legislation his own camp admits is flawed?  Removing the private ballot from union elections is not supported by George McGovern, is not supported by Coloradans, and is not in line with the American ideals that potential United States Senators should be committed to upholding…

The Employee Free Choice act was a hot topic on the Colorado airwaves again yesterday, with local radio talk show host Craig Silverman of 630 KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman Show interviewing the two candidates for Colorado’s open US Senate seat. 

Silverman first interviewed former Congressman Bob Schaffer.  On the subject of labor unions, Schaffer first says that labor unions are an important part of our country’s workforce, and legitimate institutions.  He takes a stand, however, against any type of coercion, intimidation, or other underhanded practices by labor unions and their representatives.  He also stands firmly against the “card check” method of unioniztion and the removal of private ballots from the union organization process, and makes it clear that he would not support the Employee Free Choice Act.   

Click to Hear Bob Schaffer Discuss Unions

Silverman then brought in Congressman Mark Udall for the next hour.  Due to the fact the people of Colorado are concerned about this issue, the Employee Free Choice Act  came up again.   Udall laid out a distinctly different plan, supporting the removal of the private ballot from union organization through EFCA. 

Click to Hear Mark Udall Support Removing the Private Ballot 

Despite Silverman’s multiple attempts to get Udall to address the removal of the private ballot from the process, Udall dances around the issue, diverting to other topics including local ballot initiatives, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and insisting the the bill “levels the playing field”.   He claims that EFCA will strengthen the NLRB, but that is patently false, as the NLRB will be removed from the process.  Currently, the NLRB acts as a neutral party between business and labor, conducting the private ballot election that EFCA seeks to remove!

So Mark Udall is willing to “level the playing field” at the expense of workers and their right to a private ballot?  That doesn’t sound like the independent Western spirit that Mark Udall so often claims to possess.  In fact, it sounds like a bad deal for workers in Colorado and all across America!

The issue of preserving private ballot elections for workers continues to heat up.  Guest host Governor Bill Owens, in for Mike Rosen on 850 KOA, fielded several calls regarding the Employee Free Choice Act, and its most egregious failing, that it will remove the private vote from union elections and subject workers to intimidation by union representatives, management, and fellow workers.

          Click to Hear Governor Owens take call on EFCA

Another caller continues to discuss the issue with the former Governor, and they get deeper into the details of private ballots, the ramifications of Big Labor intimidation in the workplace, and the importance of the issue in the Senatorial and Presidential races.  Congressman Mark Udall openly supports this bill, as does presidential candidate Barack Obama.  

EFCA only failed in 2007 because US Senate Democrats didn’t have the votes to break the Republican filibuster (at the same time, Mark Udall was voting with a large Democrat majority in the House), and the Congress has not moved on it recently because they know that President Bush would veto it.  Obviously this could all change if Mark Udall takes the open Colorado Senate seat and Obama ascends to the Presidency.  Passage of this bill would be a disaster for workers and small business.  

 Click to Hear Governor Owens on Private Ballots

One of the guests on the show today definitely has an opinion on the Employee Free Choice Act, former Congressman Bob Schaffer, who is opposing Mark Udall for the US Senate in Colorado. 

          Click to Hear Governor Owens and Congressman Schaffer Discuss EFCA

More people continue to weigh in on the issue, and Coloradans for Employee Freedom will continue to work to show the people exactly what negative consequences this bill will have on the American worker!