Many of you may have been seeing anti-union commercials put out by a group called The Center for Union facts. The campaign is being funded to the tune of $8 million by the US Chamber of Commerce with other anti-union groups joining in. These commercials have been seen in other states and have proceeded or accompanied “right to work” campaigns. As reported by The Center for Union Facts website “Oregon is not a Right to Work state” and that a “Right to Work” initiative has been filed by Bill Sizemore and Timothy Trickey for the November 2008 ballot.
I generally don’t make it a practice of attacking the messenger in lieu of the message but in this case I’ll make an exception. The Center for Union Facts is led by Richard Berman. In addition to Union Facts Berman has fronted the Center for Consumer Freedom which attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the US Center for Disease Control on behalf of the alcohol, fast food, and tobacco lobbies. Berman’s American Beverage Institute fights laws designed to toughen drinking and driving laws. The Employment Institute fights minimum wage increases and Fishscam.com encourages pregnant women to disregard mercury guidelines and eat more tuna.
As for the message, anything I say here will only be preaching to the choir but if you are interested in more information you can go to aflcio.org, consumerdeception.com, sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Union_Facts, epi.org/content.cfm/datazone_rtw_index, and you can watch Sen. Edward Kennedy rip apart a Union Facts advertisement on YouYube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJ5lKq3GY0.
With potentially another right to work for less fight on the horizon be on the look out for more of these ads and commercials and be prepared with facts to fight back.
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