Over the last few days, a few people have sent me the message reprinted below and I meant to post it earlier…earth to AFL-CIO, can we try to stay on some sort of coherent message?
As you’ll see below, recipients of one of these automated messages you get from being part of the AFL-CIO e-activist network are asked to say “thank you” to Rep. Jim Moran, one of our beloved CAFTA 15, because he is one of the sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)–the bill that, in theory, would make union organizing easier. I don’t want to spend a lot of time here recounting my past analysis on the flaws of the EFCA but suffice it to say that its chances of passing are as good as my chances of being in the Yankees starting rotation this weekend (though, they could use any help out there, says I).
I’m hoping this was just a case where someone in the control room wasn’t thinking and just pushed the button to send pre-programmed messages to a pre-programmed list because…otherwise, what is the message people get? That we’re asking people to give a wet kiss to Moran on a bill that has no chance of being adopted anytime in the next two decades (EFCA) and, by doing so, going easy on him on a bill that actually just passed Congress and, in the real world, means very bad things for workers here and abroad.
Including in the area of organizing (which the never-will-pass EFCA is supposed to address): there is a very strong argument to be made that so-called “free trade” agreements like CAFTA inhibit organizing because people here fear for their jobs and employers threaten to move off-shore if workers chose a union.
In my humble opinion, this is giving, at best, confusing messages to workers since there was so much energy spent by John Sweeney and others declaring that CAFTA was a defining vote. And it underscores the labor movement’s repeated choice of meaningless gestures (asking people to love Moran for EFCA, which is easy for him because it’s not a real vote) versus punishing someone who turns his back on workers when a real vote comes down the line.
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Dear Working Families e-Activist,
One week from today is Labor Day–the day America honors its working men and women. Your U.S. representative has honored working people in one of the most important ways possible–by co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act.
Please take a moment today to say “thank you” and to urge Rep.
Jim Moran representative to
continue fighting to restore workers’ freedom to form unions.
Some 57 million workers in America say they would join a union tomorrow if they could–but you know the kind of war workers face when they try to form unions. Even though U.S. and international law say we have the right to form unions, every 23 minutes a worker is fired or discriminated against for exercising that basic freedom.
The bipartisan Employee Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers struggling to form unions. Under the act, workers could form unions–without management’s harassment, intimidation and firings–when a majority signs cards authorizing union representation. The Employee Free Choice Act also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for employers that violate the legal rights of workers seeking to form unions and negotiate first contracts.
Your representative has taken a strong stand to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which could make a world of difference for working people trying to gain a voice on the job.
Please click the following link to say “thank you” and to urge your U.S. representative to keep fighting for working people:
Your representative has demonstrated a commitment to restore workers’ freedom to form unions.
That’s a great start–but there is so much more to do.
We need our elected officials to publicly support workers who are fighting to form unions and win fair contracts…to speak out to the media about the importance of restoring workers’
freedom to form unions…to challenge employers who block workers from forming unions…and to talk the talk at rallies and walk the walk on picket lines when working people need them.
We need champions for workers’ rights at every level of government–including the U.S. House of Representatives.
W
hen you click the following link and thank your U.S.
representative for co-sponsoring the Employee Free Choice Act, urge him or her to do more–to become a Congressional Champion for Workers you can count on every day. Please click here:”
END DUMB MESSAGE…
