LaborPains.org

This week, Democrat attempts to stifle debate on EFCA were tossed out of court, and put back in the court of public opinion where they belong.

King Banaian, Chairman of the Minnesotans for Employee Freedom Steering Committee, has this excellent post on the situation.  King was actually named in the petty, whining complaint by DFL Party Chairman Brian Melendez, but is still willing to debate the subject at a time and place of Melendez’ choosing.

I am quite willing to still debate the analysis and facts of EFCA with Mr. Melendez at any place, at any time. I can come by the DFL booth at the State Fair, if he was of a mind to agree to that. I don’t expect he will, though, and you can draw your own unfavorable deduction from that.

I would like to hope Chairman Melendez will accept the offer.  In any case, Minnesotans for Employee Freedom will be keeping up the pressure for a real debate on the subject.  Stay tuned.  The fun is just beginning.

Newspapers take conflicts of interest seriously. The American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Statement of Principles holds that:

Journalists must avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety as well as any conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict. They should neither accept anything nor pursue any activity that might compromise or seem to compromise their integrity.

That’s why I get confused when I see videos like this:

I’m not making any specific accusations here, but how is it possible that a unionized reporter can write articles about union issues, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, and not present a conflict of interest? It seems like a valid question, no?

Last week at a huge agriculture get-together in MN known as Farmfest, Al Franken repeatedly ducked and dodged all questions about the Employee Free Choice Act. As recently as three weeks ago, Franken proudly proclaimed his support for EFCA, yet at Farmfest, he ducked the question twice.

Franken had time to chow down on two rather large pork chops on a stick and talk to fellow EFCA supporter, Congressman Tim Walz, but no time to answer questions about EFCA and the devastating impact it would have on the workplace rights of workers in rural Minnesota.

I’m sure Al realizes that the union boss agenda doesn’t play very well in greater Minnesota, so I guess he changes it when he goes on the road. Maybe he’ll have yet another answer next time we catch him in the Twin Cities.

With apologies to Rodney Dangerfield and Caddyshack, the title of this post gets it right: Ashwin Madia’s union buddies clearly helped him get his answer “right” on EFCA. 

Following Madia’s evasions and the embarrassing spectacle of him literally running away from us now making its way across the Internet, I’m sure Madia’s union sponsors were none too pleased with him.

After their significant investment of time and money, I’m guessing they wanted to see their talking points coming from Ashwin’s mouth.  Verbatim. 

The really cool thing about the video: You can’t even see the strings holding up Ashwin as he dances to the unions’ tune.  It’s about as wooden, and about as sincere, as a hostage video.

Workers have the right to organize any way they want to,” so says Congressional Candidate Ashwin Madia.  As a lawyer, albeit one who recently allowed his law license to lapse, Madia knows that isn’t the way the law works today, nor would it be under the EFCA bill he has promised to support. 

Madia is well aware that today workers are entitled to a private ballot election where they can vote their consciences while under EFCA, union organizers, not workers, will decide how to unionize.  They aren’t going to pick the private ballot method that’s available to them today.  They will use the more coercion-friendly card check method. 

In our attempts to get Madia to explain his support, we’ve never had much luck getting a real answer.  We’re not sure if that’s because he doen’t really understand the issue and can’t get beyond union-provided talking points or if he does understand the issue all too well and knows it can’t stand public scrunity. 

Whatever the case may be, Ashwin Madia sure isn’t anxious to talk about it.

Democrat Congressional Candidate Elwyn TInklenberg turned his back on us, just as he has turned his back on Minnesota workers with his support for EFCA, when we tried to get him to explain his support for this misguided legislation.

Sauntering along at FarmFest, he seemed in no particular hurry, yet he had no time to answer a simple question or two.  I guess he didn’t recognize us as one of the 27 unions who have endorsed his campaign.

On the bright side, at least this time he didn’t smear Minnesota business owners with false charges of “intimidation.”

This article on the Power Line blog gives an excellent overview on the stakes over EFCA and all the stops the unions will be pulling out to make sure their legislation is enacted into law.  Power Line is 2/3 Minnesota-written, so it is with appropriate local pride that we commend it to your attention.

They pose exactly the right question:

Ask yourself: if the unions don’t want to abolish the secret ballot so that they will be free to intimidate workers, then why do they want to abolish the secret ballot?

In the through-the-looking-glass world of Al Franken, taking away the guarantee of a private ballot to Minnesota workers actually gives them MORE privacy.  Huh, you say?

Well, according to funny man Franken, in receiving the endorsement of the Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council, by our count the 22nd union to endorse Franken, worker privacy would be strengthened by allowing union organizers to strong arm workers into signing a card rather than maintain their right to a private ballot in which they can vote their consciences.

In his speech, rather than explain how less privacy was actually more privacy, Franken resorted to what he knows best, name calling.  He labeled us a “Norm Coleman front group.” 

This, like his description of EFCA, is obviously false.  Franken and his supporters in the Minnesota DFL party have clearly become a bit unglued by our efforts to tell Minnesotans about EFCA and Franken’s support for it.  But calling us names and filing frivolous legal complaints won’t stop us from telling the truth.  In fact, it will have the opposite effect.