SEPT. 19, 2008:NWLP
9/16/08
10:45 AM
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Healthy
Washington
Coalition
HWC
The Washington Health Care Caucuses:
Speak Up for Quality, Affordable Health Care
Presented by: The Healthy Washington Coalition
Lend your voice to the effort to achieve quality, affordable
health care for all Washingtonians.
Learn what steps we have taken and what the next steps will be.
You’re invited to participate and help shape the principles and
values we want in Washington’s health care system.
Be part of the community that is committed to changing
the health care system in Washington State.
DATE
September 23 rd
PLACE
Clark PUD Community Room
TIME
6:30 - 8:30 pm
1200 Fort Vancouver Way VANCOUVER
For more information visit
www.healthywacoalition.org
b h
m k
Labor group steps up campaign
to counter anti-union TV ads
After months of anti-union televi-
sion commercials, the union-sup-
ported group American Rights at
Work has launched a $5 million na-
tionwide ad campaign aimed at build-
ing public support for the Employee
Free Choice Act. The ads started air-
ing on Labor Day and will run several
times a day through Sept. 28.
The Employee Free Choice Act —
a bill in Congress that would make it
easier for workers to unionize — is
the U.S. labor movement’s top legisla-
tive priority. Anti-union groups, in-
cluding the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce and the corporate-funded
Employee Freedom Action Commit-
tee, are campaigning against the bill
this election season, and trying to tar-
nish Democratic candidates who sup-
port it.
“Some union bosses and their
politician friends want to do away
with privacy when it comes to join a
union,” says one such ad. The anti-
Employee Free Choice Act campaign
hammers away on one feature of the
bill — it would require employers to
recognize a union if a majority of
workers signed union cards. Right
now, employers get to decide whether
they want to recognize the union that
way, or force a government-run elec-
tion. If unions get to make that choice,
they might opt for the “card-check”
method, which would make a “secret-
ballot” union election unnecessary.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is
silent about intimidation by employers
opposing unionization, but says it’s
concerned that union organizers will
intimidate workers into signing cards.
The new American Rights at Work
ad, on the other hand, paints the bill in
a positive light. The ad says the Em-
ployee Free Choice Act helps workers
get a union — so they can improve
their lives.
“We’re not trying to respond to
their misleading message frames,”
said American Rights at Work
spokesperson Josh Goldstein.
“They’ve crafted their message to be
about secret ballots and intimidation.
Those images of intimidation strike a
nerve, regardless of the fact that it has
Bennett Hartman
Morris & Kaplan, llp
Attorneys at Law
Oregon’s Full Service Union Law Firm
Representing Workers Since 1960
nothing to do with this issue. We’re
trying to switch focus to what unions
can do for you in making a better life.”
“CEO salaries and benefits are get-
ting fatter and fatter,” a female voice-
over says in the Oregon version of the
ad, “while workers face soaring gas
prices, foreclosures, and rising health
care costs.” The visual at this point is
an expensively-dressed “CEO” sitting
at one end of a see-saw. He laughs un-
controllably as the see-saw tilts in his
favor. On the other side of the see-saw
is a “worker” wearing a toolbelt.
But the ad continues: “The Em-
ployee Free Choice Act gives workers
the freedom to form a union so they
can earn better wages, retirement se-
curity, and health care coverage,” the
narrator says. The CEO stops laugh-
ing, and now the camera shows the
worker with a tool belt has been
joined by four other workers. The see-
saw now tilts their way.
The ad closes with a Web address
— FreeChoiceact.org — and a pitch:
“Call Gordon Smith. Tell him to sup-
port the Employee Free Choice Act
and stop siding with wealthy CEOs
over working families.”
Identical ads naming other oppo-
nents of the Employee Free Choice
Act are running in Alaska, Maine,
Minnesota and New Hampshire. And
a version of the ad without the pitch
airs on nationwide television, includ-
ing CNN Headline News and
MSNBC.
The Oregon version of the ad can
be viewed at: www.youtube.com/
watch?v=DNBWogN840M.
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PAGE 2
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SEPTEMBER 19, 2008