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Re: Town halls turning ugly
here's an "astroturf" update...
My local favorite libertarian radio talkshow host brought these to my attention -- good stuff!
http://www.editorsguild.com/LaborNew...borNewsid=1563
Labor Plans Two Mass Mobilizations In August
08/04/2009
Organized labor plans two mass mobilizations in August -- and beyond -- on health care and on the Employee Free Choice Act, interviews at the AFL-CIO Executive Council show.
Both campaigns are to counter massive business-backed advertising blitzes against both health care revision and against the labor law, which is the top priority of the federation, Change To Win and other unions.
The campaigns were discussed at council’s 1-day meeting July 28 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington. The campaigns are needed because the Democratic-run 111th Congress -- stymied by divisions within its own majority -- put off final decisions on both issues until after it returns to D.C. on September 7. Congress was scheduled to recess July 31 but may stay through early August.
Five congressional committees are drafting the health care legislation. In two key ones -- Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce -- it has stalled due to Democratic divisions. The Employee Free Choice Act is delayed because key senators discussing changes in that bill are involved in the health care talks, too.
The delays give unions time, and the need, to mobilize, the staffers added.
The health care mobilization already started, and was going even as the council met. Unions arranged for 50,000 phone calls to be funneled to Congress on the issue on July 28. And on July 27, the Alliance of Retired Americans, the AFL-CIO’s affiliate for union and other retirees, arranged two conference calls, of 100 people each, to talk health care campaign strategy, Alliance President Barbara Easterling added.
And the Employee Free Choice Act mobilization aims at the fact that Democrats now lack the 60 votes needed to shut off a planned GOP-led filibuster against the bill.
“The important thing is to preserve the essential elements of the Employee Free Choice Act: Restoring the freedom to organize and collectively bargain, and not the details” of how exactly to achieve that goal, said AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff, who is directing the campaign.
“That’s the measure by which any tweaking of the law” will be judged, he added.
The council reaffirmed its strong preference for the legislation’s centerpiece:
Majority sign-up, where once unions get verified union election authorization cards from a majority of workers at a site, they -- not the bosses -- can choose between automatic immediate recognition of the union or a National Labor Relations Board-run election.
Other alternatives to majority sign-up, including mail-in ballots and quick NLRB-run elections, received scant discussion, staffers said. But they are not ruled out, Acuff added. “Both would be dramatically better than what we have now” under labor law, he said. Present law allows long campaigns with rampant employer intimidation and labor law-breaking. The Obama administration backs the Employee Free Choice Act.
Senate sponsor Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, also cautions that majority sign-up is still on the table. “Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” he says of the legislation.
The Employee Free Choice Act mobilization includes tens of thousands of letters, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, the largest march in the history of Arkansas, and a coalition of 1,500 businesses supporting the bill. It’s all designed to push senators in 10 states, including Arkansas, California, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine, to support the law and oppose the filibuster.
Labor’s motivation and mobilization for the health care overhaul, where it is working with Obama, is complicated by competing versions of the legislation, said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, the AFL-CIO political committee chair, and others.
That mobilization drive also faces two more problems: Foes who simplify the issue and Finance Committee proposals to drop requiring all employers to pay for health care and to eliminate the proposed government-run competitor to health insurers.
“We reviewed what’s happened so far and talked about our success in beating back the idea of taxing employee health benefits,” AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel said. But if Senate Finance decides to let employers off the hook and to ax the government-run competitor, “We’ll have to see” what to do, McEntee added.
In the meantime, his union alone is mobilizing an estimated 16,000 members to campaign for health care. It’s also running ads featuring union nurses talking about the need for health care reform for both their patients and themselves.
“We also did something we’ve never done before: The Health Care Reform Coalition -- a number of unions -- contracted with Working America on the campaign. For $50,000, they’ll cover a state. For $60,000, they’ll send in a roving team. We’ve put in $300,000 and the AFL-CIO has put in another $100,000,” McEntee said. “The president and the Democrats are trying to legislate in a very complicated area, covering one-sixth of the economy, and it’s hard to cover that in a good sound bite.”
AND...
I think it's time to bury this bill and start all over...
Let's take our time and do it right.
here's an "astroturf" update...
My local favorite libertarian radio talkshow host brought these to my attention -- good stuff!
http://www.editorsguild.com/LaborNew...borNewsid=1563
Labor Plans Two Mass Mobilizations In August
08/04/2009
Organized labor plans two mass mobilizations in August -- and beyond -- on health care and on the Employee Free Choice Act, interviews at the AFL-CIO Executive Council show.
Both campaigns are to counter massive business-backed advertising blitzes against both health care revision and against the labor law, which is the top priority of the federation, Change To Win and other unions.
The campaigns were discussed at council’s 1-day meeting July 28 at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington. The campaigns are needed because the Democratic-run 111th Congress -- stymied by divisions within its own majority -- put off final decisions on both issues until after it returns to D.C. on September 7. Congress was scheduled to recess July 31 but may stay through early August.
Five congressional committees are drafting the health care legislation. In two key ones -- Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce -- it has stalled due to Democratic divisions. The Employee Free Choice Act is delayed because key senators discussing changes in that bill are involved in the health care talks, too.
The delays give unions time, and the need, to mobilize, the staffers added.
The health care mobilization already started, and was going even as the council met. Unions arranged for 50,000 phone calls to be funneled to Congress on the issue on July 28. And on July 27, the Alliance of Retired Americans, the AFL-CIO’s affiliate for union and other retirees, arranged two conference calls, of 100 people each, to talk health care campaign strategy, Alliance President Barbara Easterling added.
And the Employee Free Choice Act mobilization aims at the fact that Democrats now lack the 60 votes needed to shut off a planned GOP-led filibuster against the bill.
“The important thing is to preserve the essential elements of the Employee Free Choice Act: Restoring the freedom to organize and collectively bargain, and not the details” of how exactly to achieve that goal, said AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff, who is directing the campaign.
“That’s the measure by which any tweaking of the law” will be judged, he added.
The council reaffirmed its strong preference for the legislation’s centerpiece:
Majority sign-up, where once unions get verified union election authorization cards from a majority of workers at a site, they -- not the bosses -- can choose between automatic immediate recognition of the union or a National Labor Relations Board-run election.
Other alternatives to majority sign-up, including mail-in ballots and quick NLRB-run elections, received scant discussion, staffers said. But they are not ruled out, Acuff added. “Both would be dramatically better than what we have now” under labor law, he said. Present law allows long campaigns with rampant employer intimidation and labor law-breaking. The Obama administration backs the Employee Free Choice Act.
Senate sponsor Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, also cautions that majority sign-up is still on the table. “Nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” he says of the legislation.
The Employee Free Choice Act mobilization includes tens of thousands of letters, hundreds of thousands of phone calls, the largest march in the history of Arkansas, and a coalition of 1,500 businesses supporting the bill. It’s all designed to push senators in 10 states, including Arkansas, California, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Louisiana and Maine, to support the law and oppose the filibuster.
Labor’s motivation and mobilization for the health care overhaul, where it is working with Obama, is complicated by competing versions of the legislation, said AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, the AFL-CIO political committee chair, and others.
That mobilization drive also faces two more problems: Foes who simplify the issue and Finance Committee proposals to drop requiring all employers to pay for health care and to eliminate the proposed government-run competitor to health insurers.
“We reviewed what’s happened so far and talked about our success in beating back the idea of taxing employee health benefits,” AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel said. But if Senate Finance decides to let employers off the hook and to ax the government-run competitor, “We’ll have to see” what to do, McEntee added.
In the meantime, his union alone is mobilizing an estimated 16,000 members to campaign for health care. It’s also running ads featuring union nurses talking about the need for health care reform for both their patients and themselves.
“We also did something we’ve never done before: The Health Care Reform Coalition -- a number of unions -- contracted with Working America on the campaign. For $50,000, they’ll cover a state. For $60,000, they’ll send in a roving team. We’ve put in $300,000 and the AFL-CIO has put in another $100,000,” McEntee said. “The president and the Democrats are trying to legislate in a very complicated area, covering one-sixth of the economy, and it’s hard to cover that in a good sound bite.”
AND...
I think it's time to bury this bill and start all over...
Let's take our time and do it right.
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