N.C. Chamber of Commerce to Rally against Employee Free Choice

Spending tens of millions of dollars for attack ads spreading fear and lies about the Employee Free Choice Act has been the game plan so far for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But next month, a county chapter of the Chamber in North Carolina plans to further its anti-worker agenda with a rally featuring Sen. Elizabeth Dole.

The Chamber brags that Dole will be joined by four of the state's Republican members of Congress – Reps. Patrick McHenry, Sue Myrick, Virginia Fox and Robin Hayes. In its news release, the chamber quotes Dole making the standard false claims that unions are trying to take away workers' right to a secret ballot.

Business lobby campaigns against Employee Free Choice are running newspaper and TV ads around the country, particularly aimed at Senate candidates who support the bill. The groups go by such dubious names as Coalition for Democratic Workplace and the Employee Freedom Action Committee.

In Minnesota, a full-page ad ran last Thursday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune attacking Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken. His opponent, incumbent Norm Coleman, was one of 48 Senators who refused last year to vote to end a filibuster that would have brought the Employee Free Choice Act to the floor. In an earlier bipartisan vote, the U.S. House approved the bill 241-185.

Franken spokesman Andy Barr told Minnesota media that Franken, a member of four labor unions, is proud to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which would begin to restore workers' badly eroded organizing and bargaining rights.

"The Employee Free Choice Act doesn't take away a worker's right to a secret ballot -- it prevents the corporations who bankroll Norm Coleman's campaign from intimidating workers," Barr said.