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The Employee Freedom
Action Committee (EFAC) is a political spin-off of lobbyist Richard
Berman's anti-union front group, the Center
for Union Facts. EFAC attacks candidates who support the Employee
Free Choice Act.
What is the Employee Freedom Action
Committee?
EFAC is a new anti-union front group
that attacks Congressional candidates who
support the Employee
Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it easier for
workers to form unions. Behind the scenes, the group is a corporate-funded
campaign against workers' rights.
Though it often purports to be "pro-worker,"
or at least "not
anti-union," EFAC serves no interests but those of anti-union
corporations afraid of their employees having a voice at work. EFAC and its
allies plan to spend tens
of millions of dollars into early 2009 in attempts to defeat the Employee
Free Choice Act.
What does the Employee Freedom Action Committee do?
EFAC established
itself in several states with contested Congressional campaigns; in addition to
a national 501(c)(4) group, EFAC created at least a dozen shallow state-based
spinoffs to appear as localized groups. Its apparent intent is to prevent
the election of candidates who would vote for the Employee
Free Choice Act in the next Congress.
Armed deceptive print and radio ads and aggressive associates who track
candidates with video cameras, Berman's EFAC aims to kick up
dust in political races at the behest of anonymous anti-union
corporations. EFAC targets races and attacks candidates
it wants to portray as vulnerable on workers' rights issues. EFAC does not air its own ads on television,
as its 501(c)(3) arm, the Center
for Union Facts, puts up general anti-union advertising on TV almost
everywhere EFAC goes.
Why is the Employee Freedom Action Committee wrong?
EFAC's main line of attack - that the Employee
Free Choice Act somehow takes away so-called
"secret ballot" elections for joining a union - is blatantly
false. The Employee Free Choice Act not only strengthens
the current process for workers forming unions, but also provides for a more
fair and democratic method for men and women to join unions.
Local media outlets in Berman's target states have done well in exposing the
lies of his out-of-state interference campaigns. A Minnesota publication called
EFAC “fake,”
and its ads “smears,” while an Oregon
paper did its homework and said the group attempts to “mislead voters.”
EFAC has also attempted to
claim that the majority sign-up process would open the door to union coercion
and intimidation. However, exactly
the opposite is true: workers in
NLRB elections are twice as likely (46
percent vs. 23
percent) as those in majority sign-up campaigns to report that management
coerced them to oppose the union. Further, less than one in 20 workers (4.6
percent) who signed a card with a union organizer reported that the presence of
the organizer made them feel pressured to sign the card.
In Minnesota, the state's Democrat-Farmer-Labor party filed
a formal complaint against EFAC's ads that suggest the Employee
Free Choice Act eliminates "secret
ballot" elections to form unions. The party asserts that EFAC's ads break Minnesota law that prohibits "spreading
false information."
Who funds the Employee Freedom Action Committee?
As with all of Berman’s
front groups, EFAC refuses
to disclose its funding sources. But in discussing his first anti-union
campaign in 2005, Berman was blunt, acknowledging
that “All of my clients are corporations.” United Press International noted
that "the group's spokesman refused to release the names of its donors or
say where its funding came from." At the first group's inception Berman
said that he
had raised about $5 million "from companies, trade organizations and
individuals," whom he declined to identify.
Where is the Employee Freedom Action Committee active?
EFAC has thrown itself into a number of races in the 2008 election cycle,
setting up state-based front groups for a local facade. EFAC and its
entities have attacked these candidates for supporting the Employee
Free Choice Act:
Coloradans
for Employee Freedom
Senate: Mark Udall
CO-04: Betsy Markey
Kentucky (no official group formed yet)
Senate: Bruce Lunsford
Louisianans for
Employee Freedom
Senate: Mary Landrieu
LA-04: Paul Carmouche
Mainers for Employee Freedom
Senate: Tom Allen
ME-01: Chellie Pingree
Minnesotans for
Employee Freedom
Senate: Al Franken
MN-03: Ashwin Madia
MN-06: Elwyn Tinklenberg
Mississippi (no
official group yet)
Senate: Ronnie Musgrove
Granite
Staters for Employee Freedom (New Hampshire)
Senate: Jeanne Shaheen
NH-01: Carol Shea-Porter
Oregonians
for Employee Freedom
Senate: Jeff Merkley
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