Wednesday, March 25, 2009

EFCA "Dead"? This Better Not Be True!

OK, I'm freaking out now. Yes, it sucks that Arlen Specter refuses to be the 60th vote to allow a final vote on EFCA. However, what I'm more concerned about is this:

Labor spent millions of dollars and put hundreds of thousands of ground troops into the battle to get Obama elected. And yet, if you believe NBC News' reporting,* the White House's priority is not "sticking a finger in business's eye" in order to slightly increase workers' union rights.

* Note: This is, indeed, a major "if." In one way, this story smells - Obama has always been a friend of unions. In another way, this story seems not entirely unbelievable - many of the people inside Obama's administration have often been enemies of unions and the labor movement, and many of them may be happy that they don't have to deal with a union priority and can instead focus on handing over more taxpayer cash to their friends on Wall Street. Also, it's not unbelievable that while Obama supports EFCA, he may not be interested in expending political capital to pass it. On that last score, actions will speak a helluva lot louder than words.

This had better not be true. President Obama needs to speak up and speak now. He needs to reaffirm his commitment to passing the Employee Free Choice Act and giving back to workers their right to organize. All we've been talking about for this last month has been more money to bail out failed billionaire Wall Street gamblers "investors". So when will we working class Americans see our "bailout"?

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