What to make of my political hero opposing the union-backed 'Employee Free Choice Act'

[Omaha Steve]

Post of the day. Please read the entire article.

http://www.minnpost.com/douggrow/2008/10/31/4239/what_to_make_of_my_political_hero_opposing_the_union-backed_employee_free_choice_act

You tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afjp4Cx-3W0&eurl=http://www.minnpost.com/douggrow/2008/10/31/4239/what_to_make_of_my_political_hero_opposing_the_union-backed_employee_free_cho

I did a double take. Was this really my political hero, George McGovern, on the TV screen speaking out against what labor calls the "Employee Free Choice Act"?

Yes, it was. McGovern, the former South Dakota senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, was in a TV political commercial deploring the notion that unions want to take away the secret ballot from working people.

My hero was speaking on behalf of an organization called the Employee Freedom Action Committee, which has spent more than $30 million fighting labor's No. 1 issue in this campaign. Other pro-business organizations have spent millions more. The group makes its case here, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which also opposes the measure, makes its pitch here (PDF).

Labor's top priority even baffles some of the rank and file
From the beginning of this campaign season, there has been a steady drumbeat of ads, pounding on labor's efforts to take away the secret ballot from working people. The ad campaign has been so effective that even rank-and-file union members have asked leadership what's up.

The first response labor leaders have to those who ask questions are more questions.

"Who's paying for the ads?'' said Candace Lund, organizing director of Minnesota's AFL-CIO. "Since when are organizations like the Chamber of Commerce so interested in helping working people?''

These are intriguing questions.

FULL story at link.

[billyoc]

1. He never had any friends in the Labor Movement, why should he help us now?

Also, since he doesn't work for a living, or hire any workers, who cares what he says?

[ben_meyers]

2. I don't think that McGovern realizes that the current voting

system to certify a union allows the "disrupters" to hide behind the secret ballot. In order for the Union to properly educate and inform potential new members it must be able to identify those who would disagree with the effort.

Obama fully supports the Employee Free Choice Act, and the Unions would have a stronger tool to fight the exploitive employers.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. If anyone is really that hung up on the 'secret ballot' crap

then why are they not equally "outraged" by the fact that current Labor Laws allow Unions to be decertified by card-check?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

3. "They took an old man seething with bitterness from thirty-six year old slights"

McGovern sits on the board of FirstJobs Institute alongside the likes of Bush Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, the editorial page director of the Washington Times, and the head of Sam's Club. FirstJobs Institute is a project of the Employment Policies Institute, a group run by Rick Berman and managed by his PR company, Berman & Co according to SourceWatch, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FirstJobs_Institute


Maybe the following helps explain McGovern's opposition to the EFCA:

http://institute.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008083419/mcgovern-mystery
...The fact is, George McGovern is one of those Democrats who, along with Al From, has never had much use for the AFL-CIO.

It's one of the subplots of NIXONLAND: the bright-eyed anti-war reform Demorats who formed the core of McGovern's movement became locked in a civil war with the old-line union leaders who were as uncomfortable with reform as they were comfortable with the Vietnam War. It got ugly. Long story short: AFL-CIO president George Meany, who chose to remain neutral in the 1972 presidential election but who obviously favored Richard Nixon, got the last word. At a Steelworkers convention in September, he explained that the "Democratic Party has been taken over by people named Jack who look like Jills and smell like Johns."

To understand is not to forgive. But I thought I might help explain where this insane betrayal might be coming from. And there's a Big Con lesson: our enemies are insidious, cunning, and resourceful. They took an old man seething with bitterness from thirty-six year old slights, and made of him an instrument of their will. They fight for keeps. We have to as well.