Labor Begins Big EFCA Drive, Descends on Capital

The AFL-CIO descended on Capitol Hill Wednesday in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), bearing a petition with a claimed 1.5-million signatures. The laborite love fest came a few days after Vice-President Joe Biden said "welcome back to the White House" to his union cronies and pledged support for the EFCA. However, though loudly dismissed by the AFL-CIO as bogus (anything that doesn't compute in the world of liberals and labor is immediately labeled a "lie," so nothing new here), recent polls seem to show the country is a) not too union friendly and b) not much in favor of the EFCA. The one poll I found most interesting was released by the Center for Union Facts showing that 20 percent of those polled were either in unions or had family members who were, while 79 percent were not. So far, so normal. Then, on the second question--"Would you like your job to be unionized?"--82 percent said no, and only 13 percent said yes. Unless the people indicating they already belonged to a union (or a family member did) were excluded from this question, this means that perhaps some 35 percent of those belonging to unions wanted out. However, the Center for Union Facts is a front organization for businesses opposed to unionization, and it's run by a man so hated by the left that he is called Dr. Evil. The man is Rick Berman, who relishes his title, but even his own son has come out and denounced him. David Berman, a songwriter who just disbanded his Silver Jews group, called father Rick a "despicable man" and a "human molestor" on a blog last week. So, we have to ask ourselves if all this hatred for Rick Berman is because he's a) telling the truth, b) succeeding in stopping unionization, or c) lying and fabricating a union smear campaign. (Or all of the above?) If we can question Berman's poll result, how about another one from a group called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace? The unions say this is another front organization for businesses and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that is spreading misinformation and dirty, rotten lies to stop the EFCA. Applying the Berman standards here, does this mean that the Coalition should be trusted because the unions spend so much time bashing it, or that we should ignore everything it does? Anyway, the Coalition surveyed Obama voters from the 2008 election and found that 73 percent of Obama supporters are opposed to the EPCA and that 81 percent of them believe in secret ballot elections for unionization. Things are heating up in D.C. even though Punxsutawney Phil just proclaimed six more weeks of winter.