LaborPains.org

Even though Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley has been told that “Death” or the Grim Reaper is not affiliated with the Gordon Smith campaign, he repeatedly and knowingly makes this false assertion to potential voters.

In this clip, Mr. Merkley tries to tell people that the Grim Reaper is with an anti-union group, which is also untrue. Oregonians for Employee Freedom is actually very pro-worker, fighting hard to make sure that workers’ right are protected in the workplace by ensuring they have a private ballot when voting to unionize

Mr. Merkley seems very uncomfortable with the truth coming out about his support for the grossly mis-named Employee Free Choice Act, a bill sponsored by big labor unions to make it easier for them to organize by taking away workers right to a private ballot in the workplace.

Union membership has been steadily declining in recent years and Big Labor has made it a point to buy politicians like Jeff Merkley with campaign contributions to support this bill. Unable to fairly compete with employers, Big Labor has chosen instead to take away a fundamental American right, that of every citizen to a private ballot, to try and bolster their numbers.

Politicians like Jeff Merkley, in the pocket of union bosses, will say whatever those union bosses tell them to in order to keep the money flowing, even to the point of lying to deceive potential voters.If Jeff Merkley will say and do anything to get elected now, what kind of deception will he practice if he gets elected?

Recently, Jeff Merkley was approached on the campaign trail and asked about the Employee Free Choice Act and the elimination of the private ballot for workers in deciding whether to unionize.

In true Jeff Merkley characteristic fashion, he tried to deflect the question and make it about whether workers should be allowed to unionize. At one point in the video below, he accuses the questioner of having a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the issue.

It appears that Mr. Merkley is the one who has a fundamental misunderstanding as he fails to recognize that it is not the workers who will have a choice under the grossly mis-named Employee Free Choice Act, but rather the union organizers and big labor bosses who will decide whether to use a private ballot or card check.

Union bosses and their organizers prefer card check because it means they know exactly how people are going to vote. For anyone who doesn’t agree with joining the union, they are more open to threats, intimidation and undue pressure by other co-workers, union organizers and even their supervisors. Workers can even be visited in their homes by union organizers so that the organizers can “persuade” workers that a union is the right thing to do in their workplace.

Jeff Merkley dodged the question of eliminating the private ballot because he knows that his position is indefensible. Once it became clear that the questioner wouldn’t settle for his answer (which had nothing to do with the question), Mr. Merkley decided to extract himself from the situation and get in his car to leave.

Oregonians are left to wonder: Why won’t Jeff Merkley answer the question? Why does Jeff Merkley believe that it’s okay to disenfranchise workers in America and Oregon by taking away their right to a private ballot in the workplace when deciding to unionize? Finally, if Mr. Merkley believes that taking away the private ballot for workers is okay; does he also believe that the right to a private ballot should be taken away from Oregonians in other elections as well?

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.

After seeing activists protest against her sponsorship of the Employee Free Choice Act, Senator Mary Landrieu has interestingly shunned all regular constituents from asking her questions.  Because of her high seat vulnerability, she and her advisers are dodging questions about the controversial card check issue at all costs. She avoids these EFCA activists like Pestilence.

Co-sponsorship usually indicates serious support for and fluency with a bill.  Why do she and her advisors act like she needs to be briefed on it before even beginning to answer questions from harmless constituents?

Perhaps Landrieu, like many other legislators and candidates, is finding that faux-democracy “card check” is an undefendable issue.

Labor union PACs don’t have much to show for the $100,000+ dollars they’ve spent on the Senator’s campaign.  Senator, would you like to elaborate on your EFCA co-sponsorship?

As U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley attempts to visit one-hundred towns before November, he’s spent a lot of time talking about democracy and his support for “ordinary working people”.

Unfortunately for ordinary working people, talk is about all the support they can expect from Merkley.

Merkley supports the Employee Free Choice Act, a misnamed and deceptive piece of legislation that takes away workers’ right to a private ballot in the workplace regarding whether they want to join a union.

The current system is fair and allows unions to collect signatures from workers to determine whether they want to unionize. Once the union has approval from 30 percent of the workers, an election is called for by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a federal agency created to protect workers. The workers then vote by private ballot, the same basic American right we all have when we go to vote for a candidate, say for U.S. Senate.

Under the deceptively-named Employee Free Choice Act however, the NLRB would be effectively abolished and workers would be given a contract to sign by union organizers. These contracts are collected by union organizers. Once unions have 51% of the workers’ signatures on the dotted line, they are recognized as the employees’ representation and can negotiate with small business owners over wages, benefits and other important aspects of their jobs.

How secure would you feel if an organization that benefits from you signing up also hands out and collects the contracts that say whether or not you want to join? The checks and balances of the system are taken away by the Employee Free Choice Act.

And what kind of democracy is it when your vote isn’t held private? Workers would be open to intimidation, coercion and even threats by union organizers and fellow workers in an attempt to “persuade” them to sign these cards.

Unions like to talk about increased benefits or higher wages, but they won’t tell workers that union bosses are paying themselves six-figure salaries from members’ dues, that hundreds of union officials have been convicted of racketeering in the past five years or that unions’ inflexibility has played a role in driving many companies into bankruptcy, costing those same workers their jobs.

They also don’t talk about the tens of millions of dollars they collect in dues that go to politicians like Merkley who turn around and pass legislation that makes it easier for unions to get more members and therefore increase the dues they take from ordinary working people. This vicious cycle ensures that politicians like Merkley continue to receive millions in financial support while ordinary working people struggle to put food on the table and gas in their cars and trucks.

Merkley and his supporters claim that unions create a better working environment, more job security and higher wages. The real question we should be asking is for whom: Workers or the union bosses and politicians like Jeff Merkley?

Merkley claims to stand up for ordinary working people, but his actions and his support of the Employee Free Choice Act say that he’s really looking out for himself.