Today the Las Vegas Sun looks behind conservatives' curtains and exposes the true intent of corporate-funded attacks on worker organizing drives.  Corporate-backed adman Richard Berman is known for attacking Mothers Against Drunk Driving and for claiming that second-hand smoke does not cause cancer, but his latest targets are teachers' unions.  Though he purports to fight for workers through his Center for Union Facts front group, Rick Berman betrayed his true intent:

What's not in doubt is that when Berman goes after the teachers, it will be brutal.

At the Sparks conference, he approvingly quoted mobster Al Capone: "You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."

Political and labor observers are watching closely because as Berman acknowledged in his Sparks speech, his attack on teachers unions is really a small front in a much bigger battle over the future of the labor movement and its role in American politics. It's not clear Berman cares at all about education policy. His real target is the broader labor movement.

Just in time for Halloween, Stephen Colbert treats PR trickster Rick Berman to a smack down for his ludicrous campaigns against Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and other public interest groups. Last night on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, Stephen forced Berman to admit that consumers aren't asking him to defend their freedoms. It's corporations like the alcohol companies that are begging him to protect their profits.

Colbert: What do you do for the Center for Consumer Freedom?

Berman: I defend consumers' rights.

Colbert: So do consumers come to you and say, "Defend my rights"?

Berman: No, I figure out what's wrong with people's rights, and I -

Colbert: But who comes to you and says, "Here, here, defend our rights"?

Berman: I get up in the morning and I see crazy stuff and I say, "We gotta do something about that."

Colbert: Who's paying you?

Berman: Ah . . . lot's of people.

Colbert: Who?

Berman: Ah, actually consumers; actually businesses, and then of course -

Colbert: Businesses whose consumers are being denied the freedom to use their product?

When not wearing his Center for Consumer Freedom hat, Berman leads another front group, the Center for Union Facts, which mounts smear campaigns against unions in a similar fashion to his crusade against MADD. Last night's interview confirms that with Berman, it's all about money at the expense of safer roads, public health, and decent jobs.  Colbert appropriately makes us laugh at Berman instead of taking his rhetoric seriously. Check out the full interview.

Learn more on why you can't trust Rick Berman at the Anti-Union Network.

On Sunday, July 22, CBS's 60 Minutes reran an interview with notorious lobbyist, anti-union spokesperson, and Center for Union Facts founder Rick Berman. Berman is just one part of the highly coordinated, yet virtually unknown anti-union network responsible for the enormous obstacles workers face when trying to form unions.

» Click here to download a fact sheet refuting Rick Berman's lies to 60 Minutes' Morley Safer.

57 million men and women would like to have a union in their workplace for a chance to secure fair wages, affordable health care, improved working conditions, and better rights on the job.  So why don't these workers have the basic protections of a union?

It's time the truth got out.  Anti-union organizations and for-profit 'unionbusting' consultants have greatly contributed to workers experiencing enormous obstacles when trying to form unions.  The rise of these groups over the last few decades, their multi-million dollar budgets, and their escalating attacks are no coincidence:  it's the result of a decades-long plan from right-wing ideologues bent on dismantling labor organizations responsible for advancing the social and economic interests of America's workers.

No doubt you've heard about the over-the-top anti-union ads produced by the Center for Union Facts.  The ads are the most recent, highly-visible example of the anti-union network at work.  And while there's a growing understanding about the extensive right-wing infrastructure - responsible for dramatically shifting public policy and altering our nation's political landscape - a significant part of this movement has received much less attention.  The anti-union network is well-financed, well-established, and well-coordinated—and yet virtually unknown.  Look behind the scenes as we expose the funding, the origins, the tactics, the motives, and the players involved in undermining workers and their unions.

Learn more about the range of organizations comprising the anti-union network.  We'll continue to post profiles of players and groups in the future.  Stay tuned for more. 

Center for Union Facts—notorious industry lobbyist and PR flak Richard Berman is now attacking unions through his latest front group, in the same way he's fought against drunk driving laws, health regulations, consumer protections, and minimum wage increases for years.

National Right to Work Foundation and Committee—is the country's oldest organization dedicated solely to destroying unions

U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the nation's most powerful business lobbying organization, has been campaigning against unions, fair labor practices, and legal protections for America's workers for nearly a century.

Public Service Research Foundation and Council—these small, established groups supply their more prominent anti-union colleagues with research, polling, and propaganda to fight against the right of teachers and other public employees to have unions.

For-Profit Unionbusters—these professional consultants or lawyers profit off their ability to manipulate labor law, advising employers on how to thwart union organizing drives or how to get rid of workers' unions.