Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley has been an amazing advocate for working families in Oregon. Merkley helped push through the card check, regulated payday lenders and harmful car title loans and passed a bill which allowed workers to use their paid sick days as part of family leave. It's no wonder the shadowy anti-labor group called Employee Freedom Action Committee is airing a new ad against Jeff Merkley here in Oregon. That's not all, the anti-labor group has a man dressed as the Grim Reaper dawning a scream mask following Jeff around at his events in Oregon. More below the fold....
Full disclosure, I am the netroots director for OR-Sen candidate Merkley
The anti-labor group headquarters is located in the D.C. office of Richard Berman aka Dr. Evil. Berman is a notorious D.C. lobbyist who has waged battles against providing healthy food to our kids and has fought against organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The guy didn't get the nickname Dr. Evil for nothing, that's for sure. The Willamette Week recently named Berman the "Rogue of the week."
The Employee Freedom Action Committee claims that Merkley wants to "disenfranchise workers" by supporting their right to organize. The anti-labor group has a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Employee Free Choice Act entails. They claim that labor bosses are pushing the Employee Free Choice Act because they want to know how each employee is voting. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Employee Free Choice Act makes it easier for workers to form unions. As of right now, once 30% of the workers sign authorization cards voicing their support to form a union, the National Labor Relations Board sets up a time for a supervised election. The problem with this process is that employers have been reported to use the time before the election to intimidate and threaten workers and in some cases even fire workers who favor forming a union.
The Employee Freedom group thinks that's democracy in the workplace?
The truth is, this anti-labor group and people like Richard Berman want to ensure that big corporations have all the control rather than the American worker. People like Berman want nothing more than to continue to keep workers and consumers down in exchange for keeping the most profitable industries comfortable.
They're not just airing misleading ads attacking Jeff Merkley, the group is sending out a man dressed as the Grim Reaper to follow Jeff around at numerous campaign stops. Sometimes the Grim Reaper holds a sign that says, "Death to Democracy." In this picture he's holding a sign has a different anti-Merkley variation:
Jeff likes to introduce the Grim Reaper to Oregonians as a representative for Gordon Smith which cracks me up. Here's one more pic of the anti-working family crusader:
I know what you're thinking....what the heck is this group thinking having a guy dress up as the grim reaper following Jeff around? How effective could that be? I feel the same way. But, this group has 30 million to burn and they're attacking the Employee Freedom Choice Act and candidates like Jeff Merkley and Tom Allen. I do understand why they're going after Merkley, he'll be replacing Smith who was instrumental in blocking the EFCA last year.
We have to ensure that Oregonians and Americans are not fooled by their deceptive advertising. You can be sure that this group will surface again after the election is over once the EFCA comes up for a vote again. We have to fight back against the lobbyist front group's misleading attacks and ensure that workers who want to form a union can do so without having their livelihood threatened.
If you'd like to donate to Jeff Merkley and help send a pro-working family Democrat to the Senate, I recently set up an Act Blue page for Kossacks.