REALITY CHECK: Anti-union ad is no joke ( spot light on the Center for Union Facts )

My oldest daughter in Colorado will be voting against right to work this Nov.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jun/27/reality-check-anti-union-ad-is-no-joke/

By Raj Chohan, CBS4
Friday, June 27, 2008

You may have seen the provocative anti-union ad making claims about union bosses and coerced union elections. The ad is tongue-in-cheek, but the point it makes is no joke. It comes from an out-of-state 501(c)(4) group called the Center for Union Facts. The group refused to release its donor list, although a like-minded sister organization in Colorado called Coloradans for Employee Freedom lists Colorado conservatives Sean Tonner, Jon Caldara, Mark Hillman, Cory Gardner and Frank McNulty among the local group's board members.

Ad: (Set in an elementary school classroom)

Narrator: What if labor bosses controlled class elections?

Girl running for school office: Thanks for your vote. I want to assure you that a vote for me is best for you.

Boy candidate: Ms. Hudgens has just agreed that there isn't gonna be any secret vote. Sign these cards showing us who you like the best, and my campaign committee will collect and count 'em.

Here's the spin. The ad attacks legislation in Congress called the Employee Free Choice Act. If approved, it would amend the National Labor Relations Act to make it easier for unions to organize.

How would it work? If a simple majority of workers sign cards saying they want a union, EFCA would essentially require the National Labor Relations Board to certify the union, assuming there was no illegal coercion involved in gathering the signatures. Under these circumstances employers would be barred from demanding a secret vote.

While the Center for Union Facts commercial implies EFCA would end secret ballots, that implication isn't technically accurate.

The pro-union group American Rights at Work correctly points out that employers could still call for secret votes when unions gather cards of more than 30 percent, but less then a simple majority of the work force.

The Center for Union Facts counters that unions are unlikely to move for secret elections with less than 50 percent of the cards in hand because such elections would likely fail.

Instead, under the proposed EFCA, union organizers could bypass the election process by simply obtaining signed cards from more than 50 percent of the work force.

Ad: (narration) Labor bosses have a new scheme to do away with the secret ballot.

It's not the whole story.

FULL story at link.

She's voting against the "Right" to Slave.

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/center-for-union-facts/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Union_Facts
http://workinglife.typepad.com/daily_blog/2006/02/the_sham_center.html

And here's that Rick Berman CREEP:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rick_Berman
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/center-for-union-facts/bermans-front-groups.html

pnorman