Corporate interests have been using every means at their disposal to lobby against Employee Free Choice, the legislation that would make it easier for workers to join a union. However, labor's show of support for this legislation and stepped-up efforts to debunk the corporate lies have not gone unnoticed by the mainstream media--from Washington-insider publications like Politico, to national publications CNN and BusinessWeek.
Yesterday, hundreds of workers from across the country rallied at the offices of major corporate industry associations to expose the huge scope of their DC lobbying against measures that could help working people in today's economy. We've compiled a short round-up of the media coverage surrounding SEIU's demonstrations - here are a few highlights:
CNN: Key union renews push for hotly disputed labor bill
One of the the country's most powerful unions stepped up its campaign for a hotly disputed labor bill Monday, holding a rally on the eve of the bill's formal introduction in Congress. SEIU's President Andy Stern:
[Business leaders] "believe in this old market-worshipping, privatizing, deregulating, trickle-down [policy] that took the greatest economy on the Earth and sent it staggering forward because of their greed and their selfishness. Without the Employee Free Choice Act ... the rich will get richer and the rest of us will fend for ourselves."
Huffington Post: SEIU, Chamber Of Commerce Dust Up Started With A Tweet
As some of you may know, SEIU President Andy Stern is on Twitter every day on his own, often breaking news. Here, Sam Stein has the story of how one of Stern's tweets about Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donahue escalated into a demonstration outside the offices of the Chamber yesterday.
It was a small and rather innocuous volley, but an interesting footnote in one of the year's most fiercely pitched legislative debates...During the subsequent week, the SEIU sent letters to seven industry groups opposed to EFCA asking them to engage workers in a conversation on the bill. The gathering of labor leaders and progressive religious and community officials, protesting the business group's lobbying efforts against labor priorities, marked a crest in an exchange that has been simmering for weeks. Certainly it is one of the more overt moves in a political chess match that has been waged largely behind the scenes.
Business Week: Bill Moves Forward As Lobbying Battle Heats Up
The bill's reintroduction coincides with an intensifying lobbying blitz over card check organized by the business and labor organizations that are battling over the bill....the Service Employees International Union has organized a competing "fly-in" with the AFL-CIO and other unions; they will also flood Capitol Hill with roughly 300 workers who will tell members about how they've been stymied in efforts to win the union representation they believe they need to improve wages and health care benefits.
As now written, the bill would eliminate an employer's ability to require a secret ballot if employees attempt to gain union representation. Instead, a union could be certified if 50% of those working at a particular site sign cards asking for a union. Andy Stern, the head of the SEIU, says the simpler procedure is needed to keep companies from intimidating workers who try to unionize.
Politico: Unions protest Chamber of Commerce
You've probably seen the ads and heard the rhetoric on the House and Senate floor, but now the protests over the Employee Free Choice Act are under way. A spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union says the organization has dispatched 300 labor union members to protest outside the offices of the Chamber of Commerce, a leading business group that has been leading the fight against the bill, which opponents call the card check legislation.
"It's startling how huge a lobbying machine corporations have deployed against change that would help workers gain a greater voice at a time when our country and our economy so desperately need it," said Jeffrey Cappella, an SEIU spokesman.
PBS: Andy Stern and SEIU protest outside Chamber of Commerce
Emboldened by Democrats taking power in Washington, the Service Employees International Union marched outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the White House in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. Andy Stern heads the union. He says the economy benefits when workers get a fair deal:
"The Employee Free Choice restores what Franklin Roosevelt did as part of the economic solution to allow workers to have a partnership with their employer, to bargain about wages and benefits and to make sure that they get a chance to be in the middle class. And the good news, it worked in the past and it will work again today."
Workers Independent News: Union Workers Take To Capitol Hill Seeking Votes For Employee Free Choice Act
SEIU grassroots member lobbyist Mike Kingsbury, an RN from Colorado, says workers need this piece of legislative reform to make the freedom to form and join unions not as susceptible to anti-union employer intimidation like he experienced.
"Within fifteen minutes of my boss finding out that we were organizing the director of nursing, who I had never had a meeting with before and one of the other nurse managers from my unit sat me down in an office and talked with me for an hour and a half and just on and on and on about why unions were bad and why it was a bad idea and how misguided I was," said Kingsbury at SEIU's rally in front of the Chamber of Commerce yesterday.
"Without the Employee Free Choice Act we're not gonna have a good recovery. We won't have a complete recovery until we can get something that guarantees workers some of the basic, fundamental rights. These are human rights."
To see more photos from yesterday's actions, watch our Flickr slideshow below:
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
On March 19, nationwide "Take Action Against Corporate Excess" demonstrations will take place at the offices of major banks and other corporations in 40+ cities through the country. More details at http://takebacktheeconomy.org/.
