Sam Stein, the political reporter for the Huffington Post, just published a vital article on corporate America's fight against the Employee Free Choice Act. Entitled "Bailout Recipients Hosted Call to Defeat Key Labor Bill," Stein writes about a conference call - hosted by Bank of America - and audio of the event that he's managed to obtain.

The call, which took place on October 17th of last year, included participants such as AIG, co-founder of Home Depot Bernie Marcus, and uber-lobbyist Rick Berman. Participants were encouraged to donate to the political campaigns of at-risk Republican senators, or even Berman's union-busting organization, the so-called "Center for Union Facts."

Stein writes:

"At one point, another individual on the call suggested that participants send major contributions to Berman's organization as a way of affecting the election without violating the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. 'Some organizations have written checks for $250,000, $500,000, some $2 million for this,' said the man, likely Steven Hantler, the director of free enterprise and entrepreneurship at Bernie Marcus' Marcus Foundation."

The call was laden with hyperbole, scare tactics, excessive drama, and Oscar-worthy performances. Marcus can be heard saying that the Employee Free Choice Act would be the "demise of a civilization," and that "if a retailer has not gotten involved in this...they should be shot."

How nice!

Overall, as stated on the call, the objective of their anti-Employee Free Choice campaign, says lobbyist Berman, is "is to make this issue so hot in some states so that even a Democrat who is up for election in 2010 has to think twice about whether or not they are going to let this thing go by."

Bank of America, of course, declined a request to comment on both the story and the audio recording. In the article, Stein notes that the bank's efforts to "drum up support for defeating" the Employee Free Choice Act "so soon after getting bail out funds from the federal government," has " left a bad taste" in some mouths.

Earlier today SEIU President Andy Stern called for Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis to be fired, citing the company's irresponsibile business practices and use of federal bailout money.

"Bank of America took taxpayer money and allowed Merrill Lynch to hand out bonuses to executives at the same time it was preparing pink slips for 35,000 employees," said SEIU President Andy Stern.

"It's time to start enforcing some basic standards for corporate behavior. Ken Lewis has failed Bank of America and he has failed taxpayers - and the Bank of America board should remove him."