"Card Check" "Save Our Ballot" Burr Hypocrisy and the Return of Rovian Politics in NC

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http://www.bluenc.com/card-check-save-our-ballot-burr-hypocrisy-and-return-rovian-politics-nc

Wow.

Yesterday, an Art Pope funded corporate shill group called Americans for Prosperity, that once claimed raising the minimum wage would actually hurt American workers, gave Richard Burr, a man who has made a career out of shortchanging American workers, an award “In Defense of the American Worker.”

Just typing that sentence almost made my head explode. But it gets worse.

Sen. Burr accepted this ridiculous honor at an event in downtown Raleigh, not because he ever lifted a finger for working people (no, no that would be too easy to debunk), but in recognition of his zealous opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, big-business, the GOP and the Art Pope puppet project are gearing up for the fight of a lifetime over this once obscure revision to federal labor law that is quickly becoming the newest GOP wedge issue.

The intricacies of federal labor law that regulate union organizing is about as esoteric a topic as any. In one of the least unionized states in the nation, big-business and the GOP are taking plays straight out of the old Karl Rove playbook by focusing on a little-known aspect of federal labor law and distorting it to the point where it appears as if this common-sense correction to a badly broken federal law is somehow an attack on our American way of life. (Anybody remember the "voter fraud" hysteria?)

As insane as it is to give Senator Burr an award in “Defense of the American Worker”, the rhetorical justification for these group’s anti-union efforts is even more outlandish. Americans for Prosperity kicked off their disingenuously titled “Save Our Ballot Tour” by attempting to frame their opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act as a civil rights issue. AFP even went so far as to schedule their first event at the Greensboro Historical Museum, calling the venue “a special place in our nation’s struggle for civil rights and equality.”

The NAACP quickly denounced AFP for their shameless attempt to co-opt our state’s rich civil rights history in order to advance their mission to suppress workers' rights to form a union, free of intimidation. Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP said:

The agents of the large corporations behind this phony group have, we believe, underestimated the North Carolina media and North Carolina people, thinking we are so uninformed we will fall for this sophomoric manipulation of treasured symbols and words in our rich North Carolina civil rights history.

In response to AFP’s award, the NAACP, civil rights leaders, clergy and union leaders held a press conference on Monday to award Sen. Burr their Hypocrisy Award in recognition of “Senator Burr’s consistent opposition to policies that would help working families while simultaneously selling himself as a defender of the American worker.”

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