This evening we received word that over 68,000 people (and counting!) have signed the petition calling for NBC not to air Rick Scott's "infomercial" attacking a public healthcare option. The ad is set to air on the network after Meet the Press this Sunday.

NBC needs to know that if they run this fake "documentary"--sponsored by former hospital CEO Rick Scot and his group Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR)--and it contains any falsehoods (which is likely, given his track record), they could face an FCC violation and big fines. SEIU sent a letter to the network, asking for this 30-minute phony "documentary" to be pulled off the air before it runs, only
serving to further distort the debate on health care reform. We've also warned Meet the Press that they're being used by Rick Scott, and will be tarnished by his swift-boating.

Media organizations like NBC and Meet the Press have a responsibility to their viewers and the public NOT to air falsehoods--and it's our job to up the ante and keep the pressure on them to do so. Along with signing the petition, we asked Washington, DC residents to give the local NBC4 station manager a call, telling them this ad by Conservatives for Patients Rights is unfit to air.

We're keeping a tally of how many calls go into the station, and many activists have already reported back to us after making the call to NBC4 and asking to speak with General Manager Michael Jack.

From caller A.L., who was unable to get through directly to NBC4's general manager Michael Jack:

Spoke with an assistant. She took my message, which was: info in the ad is not correct. Also, Rick Scott's record at Columbia/HCA (having to resign because of fraud charges) makes his claims suspect at best. If NBC4 cares about accuracy, they outght not to run the advertisement.

In voicing my concern, I said I generally watch NBC4 because I find their reporting more substantive than [others]. I asked that NBC, its management and staff carefully review the 30-min ad because (having seen CPR's literature), there are several things patently false and misleading.

I added that since NBC4 is interested in reporting the FACTS, that they do review this ad's content to ensure it is factual and not misleading--because it is about a very important issue for ALL of us and they should not accept the ad merely for financial purposes.

The 68,000 voices who've already sent their message to NBC and Meet the Press demanding Rick Scott's 30-minute "documentary" be pulled from the air this Sunday is thanks to the combined efforts of SEIU and other healthcare reform advocate organizations HCAN, DFA and Credo. Will you join the 68,000+ people who have already taken action? Tell NBC & Meet the Press: Don't Air Rick Scott's Phony "Documentary"

Thanks to you, the media is finally airing Rick Scott's dirty laundry. Yesterday morning, both CNN and FOX News confronted Scott about his miserable record in the health care industry.

It seems the nearly 20,000 emails you sent to CNN and FOX News were enough to get the message across, and now they're passing that message on to viewers: Rick Scott can't be trusted when it comes to health care.

Watch video of CNN and Fox News going after Rick Scott on live television: action.seiu.org/RickScott

Here's the thing, though--Rick Scott is still running ads across the country; he's still using the money he made gaming the health care system to try to kill President Obama's plans for reform.

He may have deep pockets, but they're not deep enough to drown our movement to fix health care. Will you help shine light on the REAL Rick Scott? Share this video with your friends: action.seiu.org/RickScott

This is the man who was ousted by the board of his own company amid a "rash of civil and criminal fraud inquiries." His own company didn't trust him, and now he's asking America to. All I'm asking is that they know the truth about his past before they make their decision.

Watch and share the news segments on Rick Scott: action.seiu.org/RickScott

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/.

1199SEIU's magazine and website www.1199seiu.org won numerous awards in this year's journalism contest sponsored by the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), the professional organization for labor journalists. The contest was open to all labor media produced in North America in 2007 including labor print publications, websites and radio, television, and film productions.

1199SEIU--which represents 300,000 members and retirees in NY, MD, Wash., DC and MA--took home prizes in a total of eight categories, winning high honors for top-ranking U.S. local union website and local union publication with a circulation over 20,000, Our Life and Times magazine. The local's magazine also won the Saul Miller Award for Best Collective Bargaining Story for an article featured in the magazine's September issue about the importance of keeping unions strong, written by social worker Jim Gilbert. "Lessons Learned" narrates Gilbert's first-hand experience being forced out of his management position due to company downsizing after 28 years as an 1199er.

--> Read the entire listing of awards 1199SEIU took home this year.