http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/have-anti-union-smear-ads_b_156483.htmlJust as Karl Rove-style tactics didn't work against Barack Obama's campaign, union supporters see promising signs that the spate of negative TV and print ads from corporate front groups attacking the Employee Free Choice Act appear to be failing to sway the public. The main line of attack is that the proposed bill would supposedly take away the right to a secret ballot for workers; in fact, the bill amends the National Labor Relations Act to give workers the choice of whether to have a secret-ballot election or the majority sign-up approach for a union, also dubbed "card check" by some.
The latest good news for backers of the bill came with new polling released Thursday by Hart Research Associates that found 78 percent of the public favors legislation that would make it easier for workers to bargain with their employers. Unlike some skewed polls offered before the election by business critics of the legislation, Hart's research, commissioned by the AFL-CIO, gave a fair description of its three key elements, as outlined in the memo available here, including majority sign-up. A striking 75% of the public favored the provision of the bill that "allows employees to have a union once a majority of employees in a workplace sign authorization cards indicating they want to form a union."
A spokesperson for a Chamber of Commerce-backed organization, the Coalition for Workplace Democracy, told me, while justifying new misleading ads: "I would argue that because the legislation effectively takes away the secret ballot folks are having second thoughts about it," she says of the bill's progress in Congress, "and the sense of urgency has been pushed back."
But I found in doing reporting for a new In These Times piece precisely the opposite:
In truth, the cratering economy has added a new urgency to pro-labor legislation and the strong public support for the measure shows that the false attacks aren't working , union advocates, pollsters and most independent journalists contend. A New York Times editorial saying passage of the bill is urgently needed now to help raise wages has become the centerpiece of a new SEIU ad campaign. Alison Omens, an AFL-CIO spokesperson, observes, "Leaders in Congress and the public understand that without workers having the freedom to bargain collectively they can't rebuild the middle class. There is broad support and understanding of the need for legislation to allow workers to have a better life," especially since wages have been stagnant for at least a decade. At a briefing on the Hart polling on Thursday, the AFL-CIO's legislative director, Bill Samuel, added that the anti-Free Choice ads "haven't had much effect," while contending that the more people "think about the economy," the more support for the legislation grows.
In fact, Esther Kaplan reinforces the importance of a strong labor movement to an economic and progressive recovery in an important new Nation article, "Can Labor Revive the American Dream?"
FULL story at link.
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