Did Opponents of Employee Free Choice Break the Law?

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/02/26/did-opponents-of-employee-free-choice-break-the-law/

by Seth Michaels, Feb 26, 2009

Last year, major opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act took part in a conference call, organized by a giant banking institution that was set to receive taxpayer bailout funds, in which they insisted that CEOs and industry contribute to anti-Employee Free Choice Act candidates for public office. That violates the law, says a complaint filed this morning by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win.



The complaint against the Center for Union Facts and the Marcus Foundation alleges that their leaders, Richard Berman and Bernie Marcus, took part in the call organized by Bank of America last year. Marcus and Berman were organizing corporate donors to fight the Employee Free Choice Act and solicited donations to Berman’s organization and to specific candidates hoping to influence the election and prevent passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would protect workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain.

The center and the foundation, two of the key corporate front groups operating an anti-worker campaign of misinformation and scare tactics, operate under a portion of the tax code that forbids direct participation or intervention in elections. In their desperate panic to fight pro-worker candidates and block workers’ ability to bargain for a better life, these groups, the complaint alleges, broke the law.

The complaint states in part:

…principals of the Center and the Foundation, while acting on their behalf, participated in a teleconference during which they explicitly endorsed Republican Party candidates for the United States Senate and solicited contributions to support their election, including, specifically and repeatedly, to the Center itself as a means to elect them. These activities warrant revocation of these charities’ tax-exempt status and the imposition of appropriate taxes and penalties.

The teleconference consisted a substantial part of a discussion about how to support the Republican Party and specific Republican candidates for the United States Senate in 2008 who opposed the Employee Free Choice Act.

FULL story at link.

[deaniac21]

1. Somebody needs to tell George McGovern.