My response to LTTE Re:Congress threatens union member rights (Local Rag)

[Earth Bound Misfit]

http://www.nj.com/gloucester/voices/index.ssf/2010/02/congress_threatens_union_membe.html

Some dim-bulb's LTTE and my response. Any DUer's comments/thoughts would be appreciated.
The Letter:

By Letters to the Editor/Gloucester County ...
February 22, 2010, 3:00AM
To the Editor:

This concerns the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress, HR-1409, also called the “card check” bill, that would change the rules for labor union representation elections.


There are many co-sponsors of this House bill, in fact, 228 of them.

What many union members do not understand is that this legislation, if enacted, would have them give up their right to a private vote in these representation elections.

No longer will you be able to cast ballots based upon your belief in private. The votes can be scrutinized by the public. Or, may I be so bold to say, union officials will have to approve of how you vote.

So “thank you” to these congressmen from South Jersey who are listed as co-sponsors: Rob Andrews, D-1st Dist.; Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist.; John Adler, D-3rd Dist; Chris Smith, R-4th Dist.; Rush Holt, D-12th Dist.

I guess the union funds that their re-election campaigns receive do well for them, but remember, this money comes from the union members’ dues.

Too bad the union members do not realize that these House members have sold their freedoms and rights down the drain.

My reply:

The author's scribblings repeat, no make that parrot, the hyperbole filled talking points of so many reich-wing carnival-barking provacateurs such as Glenn Bleccchh & Sean (INS)Hannity and Chamber of Commerce funded astro-turf groups with deceptively-titled names such as the "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace" claiming a workers' rights agenda and a grassroots base representing "rank-and-file workers from across the country." Not surprisingly, when one checks, no workers are named as members on CDW's website, but hundreds of national, deep-pocketed groups and their affiliates including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Associated Builders and Contractors, the National Retail Federation....and the list goes on....ARE listed. The notion of the US C of C as "defender" of workers rights is certainly ludicrous, and were it not so OFFENSIVE to me as a working person, would be laughable at best.

The U.S Chamber of Commerce and its allies in the past have fought against: the eight-hour workday, child labor laws, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Voting Rights Act, Raising Americans with Disability Act access standards, overtime payments for millions of workers through reforms of the Fair Labor Standards Act, OSHA ergonomics regulations that would protect workers from occupational injuries, increases in the minimum wage...and the list goes on.

And now they've added the Employee Free Choice Act to that list.

The author further debases her position by contending that "...the Employee Free Choice Act...would change the rules for labor union representation elections...The votes can be scrutinized by the public....union officials will have to approve of how you vote."

Huh? It's painfully obvious, at least it is to me, that the author apparently has not bothered to read or, at least COMPREHEND Section 9(c) of the National Labor Relations Act nor Section 2 of EFCA which seeks to amend that section.

Who needs facts when hyperbole and propaganda are so convenient, and so effective?

[Omaha Steve]

1. I was fired in 1980 for trying to organize a print shop

EFCA doesn't effect union members. Just those trying to start one. Like I did in 1980. NO penalty for the company that did this. I got back pay. They kept the union out. Now that company merged AFTER getting state tax incentives. Great article in last weeks paper about this great company. No mention of it's labor record.

The union boss only sees the card IF you hand it to a union representative. It can be mailed unseen to the NLRB!

OS

K&R!