Card Check - A Game Changer

by Eric Wohlschlegel

The VoteForBusiness Bandwagon is back on the road this week educating voters on a variety of issues, with a strong emphasis on card check, as the Wall Street Journal reports:

The centerpiece of the Chamber's fund-raising and advertising initiative is its opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, a labor-backed piece of legislation that would make it easier for unions to organize workers inside companies. The legislation, supported by Democrats on Capitol Hill, would overturn current requirements that employees cast secret ballots in votes on whether to unionize. Unions say companies can make it difficult for them to hold such formal elections.
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The Chamber and many corporations oppose the measure, saying the end of secret balloting could allow union representatives to identify antilabor workers and apply pressure to them. On Tuesday, the Chamber released a nationwide television advertisement attacking the Employee Free Choice Act.
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Paul Makarechian, CEO of Makar Properties LLC, owner of several resort hotels in Southern California, says he donated to the Chamber campaign because the pro-union legislation would be a "game changer" for business.

Dyke Messinger says he donated to his state's threatened Republican senator, Elizabeth Dole, in part because of the union proposal. "It's so un-American it's not even funny," said Mr. Messinger, the chief executive of Power Curbers Inc., a nonunion Salisbury, N.C.-based maker of machines used to lay curbs and sidewalks.

You can see the television ad here. The Bandwagon is in North Carolina, but it is only part of our efforts, more from Potomac Watch on our efforts:

It has, for months, been defending the 60-vote wall, fully engaged in nearly every competitive Senate race. It may well spend $40 million this cycle, or double its 2006 effort.
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It also unveiled the season's most humorous ad, entitled "Meet Bill." It features real-life union boss, Bill, caught assaulting a cameraman ("I'm gonna' take this camera and stick it somewhere you don't want it!"). It points out that it would be Bill who, under card check, would get to monitor votes in a union drive.

This is brave stuff, especially given Democratic admiration for Bill-like tactics. Chuck Schumer, who is leading the Senate effort to turn Democrats into masters of the universe, is livid. All the more so, given he's spent the past year threatening the business community with dire retribution if it doesn't support his party. (Weren't they listening?) He recently ripped the group as nothing more than a "wing" of the GOP, and has made clear he'll remember the slights.

Truth is, the Chamber is nonpartisan. It makes endorsements based on which candidate will do the most for the business community. If Mr. Schumer wants those endorsements, he could always try fielding candidates that deserve them. As it happens, the Chamber in 2006 went all out for three vulnerable House Democrats who'd been targeted for their free-trade votes. This year it is going to bat for Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Virginia's Mark Warner -- both of whom it believes will work with business.

Mr. Miller doesn't apologize for supporting members' interests: "What if we became lambs instead of lions? Would the legislative agenda be less beholden to trial lawyers and labor unions? Maybe this is a shot at K Street, but the lobbying mentality of too many is to go up and be solicitous, and hope to get some crumbs from the table. That is not our deal. Our deal is to be the last line of defense for the business community. And while we always work collaboratively, that's what we'll continue to be."

Comments

[Mark Peters]

More on this horrid cliche:
http://www.good.is/?p=12799

[Everett Royer]

The nerve of Chuck Schumer to threaten the Chamber of Commerce. How many millions of dollars does organized labor pour into democratic coffers every election year? This is serious business folks. Democrats such as Schumer have no respect for business, and Barack Obama's call to create jobs from the bottom up is a joke! Employees don't create jobs, business owners that risk their own money and resources create jobs. Support the Chamber's fight to keep organized government out of your business!