LaborPains.org

At the Detroit City Hall recently, the Grim Reaper made an appearance with Jeff Merkley. Working together, they are trying to kill democracy in America by taking away the right to a private ballot in the workplace with regard to whether workers are unionized.

Mr. Merkley’s support of the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act (which takes choice out of the employee’s hands and puts it in the hands of union bosses and organizers) is an indication of his desire to disenfranchise workers in order to line the pockets of union bosses with dues who then turn around and support politicians like Mr. Merkley with tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

Even though they are working together to kill democracy, Mr. Merkley and his campaign staff didn’t seem eager to see the Grim Reaper appear.

In the first video below, one of his campaign staff has just instructed a supporter to keep “Death” busy and distract him. As the supporter is reminding “Death” that he has the right to peacefully assemble, Mr. Merkley’s car pulls out and around the corner to a side door where the candidate is waiting.

As “Death” follows the car around the corner, you can see Mr. Merkley talking with someone in the background and then as the camera pans back to “Death”, Mr. Merkley quickly jumps in his car and they leave.

After all their work together to kill democracy in the workplace, you would think Mr. Merkley would have spent some time with his friend, the Grim Reaper, to discuss future plans. Maybe Mr. Merkley is having second thoughts about his role in destroying democracy in America’s workplaces?

Recently, the issue of the Employee Free Choice Act was raised on the Lars Larson show heard statewide on 15 stations and in over 30 communities here in Oregon. While Lars was out that day, guest host Rob Kremer was more than up to the task of calling out Jeff Merkley on his support of this deceptively-named piece of legislation, calling it a “travesty”.

Some other quotes from Rob Kremer from the radio spot:

“It’s ridiculous to think they (unions and Merkley) are taking away the secret ballot in union elections.”

“This (card check) lays it open to unbelievable intimidation and manipulation.”

“I find it highly ironic that democrats, “Big D” democrats, care so little about the “little d” democratic process that they are OK with getting rid of the secret ballot when people are deciding something that will impact their workplace.”

“I can’t imagine the argument that says that we need to take away a secret ballot.”

Neither can 94% of Oregonians, Rob, but Mr. Merkley still supports this legislation because the union bosses who are contributing heavily to his campaign want him to support it.

Let’s just hope that Oregonians remember whose pocket Mr. Merkley is in when it’s time to vote in November.

Listen to the clip here

Here is Paul Carmouche’s response when interviewed on his stance toward the Employee Free Choice Act, which he is assumed to support. Carmouche is the Democratic candidate for Louisiana’s 4th Congressional District.

Mr. Carmouche states, “I was taught as a youngster in school that the majority rules, uh, so I’m going to have to look at that and see that uh, when, when uh, uh… and I’m not sure about the ballots, and the secret ballots, but uh, if a majority of workers want to have a union, then the majority probably should rule.”

While repeating that the majority should rule (which hopefully is undisputed in the mind of any candidate), he doesn’t differentiate between whether that rule should be determined by a show of hands or by writing votes on gum wrappers.

The important thing we’d like for our candidates to support is privacy in a voting booth.  The Louisianians for Employee Freedom would prefer a candidate who would simply and resolutely answer “Yes” to that fundamental question.  (“Do you support an employee’s right to a secret ballot vote when unionizing in a workplace?”)

He ends by saying, “I’m going to look at those issues and I think you’re going to find that the decision that I come to is going to be a reasonable decision.”

Don’t be surprised if his “reasonable decision” happens to be perfectly in line with the will of the union bosses who have been funneling so much money into Democratic campaigns.