Business, labor do battle over unionizing bill

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.denverpost.com/movies/ci_6199210

Business, labor do battle over unionizing bill
While the Employee Free Choice Act won't become law this year, union members support it with public theater on 16th Street.
By Tom McGhee
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 06/21/2007 11:31:09 PM MDT

The union-backed Employee Free Choice Act now in the U.S. Senate has no chance of becoming law this year, but that hasn't stopped labor and business from pouring resources into a scrap over the bill.

Over the past week, the Center for Union Facts, an anti-union organization, has mounted a $500,000 campaign to defeat the bill, which would make it easier to unionize a workplace. The center ran ads on cable TV and in The New York Times and USA Today.

The AFL-CIO has collected a little less than that from affiliates and is using it to drive a campaign that includes cable-TV advertising and grassroots activities throughout the country, said Bill Samuel, director of legislation for the national AFL-CIO.

On Thursday, union members engaged in street theater in downtown Denver to put pressure on Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to vote for the act.

All this activity is over a bill that Republicans plan to filibuster and the president will probably veto if it gets to his desk.

Nonetheless, labor wants to keep the bill in the public eye and put pressure on politicians while working to elect a Democrat to the White House in 2008.

FULL story at link.