Huffington Post: As 'Secret Ballot' Myth Sputters, Chamber Launches New Anti-Union Attack Line

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/after-secret-ballot-myth_b_186073.html

Art LevineContributing editor of The Washington Monthly
Posted April 13, 2009

The battle over the Employee Free Choice Act is heating up again during this Congressional recess. The union movement is focusing on grass-roots campaigning and a TV attack ad on corporate greed, while the Chamber of Commerce is adding to the millions already spent on spreading myths about the bill with a new line of attack: the bill's arbitration provision would lead to commissar-like bureaucrats telling executives how to run their businesses.

As the Wall Street Journal sums up the new ad wars:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching a $1 million television advertising campaign that takes a new line of attack against the Employee Free Choice Act, highlighting a provision that would allow federal arbitrators to set the rules for unionization if management and employees fail to negotiate their own deal.

The Chamber TV spots running in the home states of key senators on the issue feature management-level employees saying the legislation would allow "a bureaucrat from Washington" to tell people how to run their businesses.

The new Chamber ads will hit the airwaves in Nebraska, Virginia, Louisiana, North Dakota and Colorado -- states whose senators could be swing votes on the issue.

The business lobby's ads follow a new round of union-backed TV ads designed to build support for the bill. One TV spot, launched Thursday, is called "Greed" and seeks to tap anger over Wall Street bailouts to aid the union cause.

Companies think they "deserve bailouts and bonuses for bringing our economy down, and then turn around and try to keep workers from joining unions to earn better wages and benefits," the narrator says as images of Wall Street flash on the screen.

A second ad that began running last week says the legislation would improve the lives of workers and help the economy. Labor unions have spent $10 million on ads for the bill since Labor Day. Besides TV ads, unions have hung 50-foot banners on a dozen office buildings in Washington that bear personal testimonials from employees about how unions help workers.

No wonder businesses are so eager to smear the legislation. And now, given that the false claims that the Employee Free Choice Act bans the secret ballot are starting to fall flat (in truth, it just offers workers an option of majority sign-up, or what opponents call "card check") it's not surprising that business interests want to paint another nightmare distortion of the legislation.

FULL story at link.