Voters Reject Corporate Lies About Employee Free Choice [View All]

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http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/11/10/voters-reject-corporate-lies-about-employee-free-choice/

Voters Reject Corporate Lies About Employee Free Choice


by James Parks, Nov 10, 2008

Voters last Tuesday soundly rejected the misleading anti-union corporate campaign opposing the Employee Free Choice Act and overwhelmingly backed candidates who support working families.

A poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates commissioned by the workers’ rights advocacy group American Rights at Work shows that anti-union advertising was among the least important factors in determining voters’ choices for U.S. Senate and that they continue to support making it easier for workers to join unions.

Says American Rights at Work Chair David Bonior:

No matter how hard corporate interests tried to mislead voters, it just didn’t work. State by state, millions were spent, but the fact remains, the Employee Free Choice Act never became the wedge issue corporate interests sought.

Six newly elected senators expressed strong support for the bill, despite the millions of dollars the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business community spent to try and defeat them. The new senators—Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Rep. Tom Udall of New Mexico, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Warner of Virginia and Jeff Merkley of Oregon—could play a key role in passing the legislation.

The bill did not come to the Senate floor last year after senators failed by nine votes to invoke cloture. The atmosphere also is different at the White House. While President Bush had promised to veto the bill, President-elect Barack Obama co-sponsored the bill in the Senate and has said he will work to pass the bill once he takes office.

(more at link. . .)