It was a town hall meeting about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
If you don't know, the EFCA would change the law to allow workers to choose which form to use to create a union. They still could choose to use a private ballot election or use a card-check option. Right now, the company chooses which option and almost always forces a private ballot instead of a card-check. This is important because the private ballot allows time for the company to put together an anti-union campaign and use intimidation against employees who want to form a union.
Several elected officials were in attendance, including City Councilwoman Tonya Payne, City Councilmen Patrick Dowd and Bill Peduto, County Executive Dan Onorato, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and US Congressman Mike Doyle.
In all, about 200 people were in attendance at the Calvary United Methodist Church on Beech Avenue.
Mayor Ravenstahl looked sharp in his suit and rolled three deep with his entourage. "Well, obviously, we have to support this, obviously" he said (obviously, I'm para-quoting what he said, obviously).
Councilman Dowd was in a suit as well, not as sharp, though--kind of regular guyish. He spoke on a more personal level, going back to March 10, 2000 when he lost his job at a private school because he tried to organize a union. At the time, his wife was pregnant and they were already putting their medical bills on credit. This, Dowd said, was the reason why he is for the EFCA.
County Executive Onorato I couldn't see anywhere when he was mentioned--he wasn't sitting with the other politicians. When it was his turn to speak, he rose from the people in casual wear--no suit (I feel like I'm LaMont Jones). He spoke about how it will improve the size of the middle class and how that will improve our economy. Onorato said he will travel down to Washington DC and speak with Senator Arlen Specter on this important issue.
Overall, it was an impressive show of support from the local politicians. Not too much pandering. Just a push for doing the right thing for Pittsburgh.
A surprise at the townhall meeting did come when they heard an audio recording of a boardroom conference call between Bank of America Corp., AIG, Bernie Marcus (co-founder of Home Depot) and Rick Berman (founder of Center for Union Facts) strictly to talk about the EFCA and their opposition to it.
The conference call, held on October 17th, was three days after Bank of American receive $25 billion in bailout money. AIG received $60 billion a month after this call.
Marcus is the center of the disgust with the tape, saying of the EFCA, "this is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."Mind you, Marcus is one of the wealthiest men in America, running one of the most profitable companies, and calling the legislation an end to civilization? Yeah, the demise of civilization will be caused by workers having enough money to pay off their mortgages, send their kids to college and pay down debt. Summer Hollywood blockbusters are always boring us with that old scary plot!
The Huffington Post first reported about the conference call on January 27th. They have audio excepts here.
"If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs," Marcus shouts (huffington).
Get your guns a-blazing! Marcus' call to arms!
So lets go through some numbers. We have the biggest disparity between the rich and the rest of us since before the Depression.
Think 23%. That's the percentage of wealth that 1% of the population has. To put it another way, 1% of the population has almost one-quarter of the wealth in America. BTW, the top 10% possess 45% of America's wealth. That leaves 55% of wealth for the rest of us--90%. Juuusssst a little lopsided.
Here's another one: for years until former President Ronald Reagan was in office, when a company did well, workers were rewarded--wages were kept in-line with company profits. The thirty years since then, companies stopped tying wages to company profits and instead, kept the profits for themselves. It also is no accident that during this time, organizing unions became harder and as a result, union membership declined.
Congressman Doyle said the US House passed EFCA last session and that it will be overwhelmingly pass again this year. The problem is in the Senate, where they need two more votes--Republican votes--and that is why Senator Specter is so crucial. Since Senator Specter already voted in support for SCHIP and the federal stimulus bill, Democrats believe he is a good target to be one Republican to support EFCA.
The EFCA is an important piece of legislation. Even Mayor Ravenstahl thinks it's important, or someone is telling him to think it's important. Big business organizing to defeat this bill is bad news and people ought to stand up and write letters to Senator Specter in support of EFCA. In the end, it affects us all.
Sign the EFCA petition
Lady Elaine
4 comments:
Nice post L.E.
The Huddler has jet lag, and is getting over a cold. Thanks for the details on this great event.
The Employee Free Choice Act will be taking center stage in months to come.
Thanks for this, Elaine. I wish I had read it before editorializing a wee bit on the Act. I'll adjust accordingly as I get more familiar.
Haha, not a problem, Bram. I don't feel slighted in the least. It's a big issue and the important thing is for it to be out there and commented on. You can't be everything to everyone, although I was impressed you read the women's blogging society's blog!
I was offered an honorary membership to that blog briefly, but then I asked if that meant I qualified to attend blog sleepovers. Apparently not.
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