The dastardly misnamed Employee Free Choice Act was a major issue in the U.S. Senate race in Maine, as U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) drew on strong union support motivated by the card check issue (see this column) to give incumbent Republican Susan Collins a serious challenge. Change to Win, for example, identified Collins as a target because of card check and the flailing economy.

But Collins began to pull away in the final weeks, and the networks have now declared her the winner. In terms of Senate races where card check ranked as an issue, Maine was probably second, Minnesota first. A harbinger for Coleman-Franken?

The DFL Party in Minnesota, feigning outrage that someone would express disagreement with their candidates’ support of the Employee Free Choice Act, tried to punish and prevent the speech rather than argue against it. Indicative of the mindset that would destroy the secret ballot, don’t you think?

The DFL filed a formal complaint with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings against the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, among others, for running TV ads about card check legislation and the positions of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) and his opponent, Democrat Al Franken. Under state law, it is a gross misdemeanor to run an a false add with reckless disregard of its falsehood. (211B.06 FALSE POLITICAL AND CAMPAIGN MATERIAL; PENALTY; EXCEPTIONS)

The ad’s supposed offense was to claim that by supporting the card check bill, “Franken says eliminate the secret ballot for workers.” Also objected to was the announcer’s statement: “Call Al Franken. Tell him he’s wrong to end worker privacy.”

After an initial go-around and appeal, Administrative Law Judge Barbara L. Neilson has now ruled against the DFL. In her order, she writes: 

The statement that Mr. Franken wants to eliminate the secret ballot is not factually false, since the EFCA will eliminate the secret ballot vote for union organizing elections where a majority of employees sign union authorization cards.

Because Mr. Franken supports the EFCA, the statement, “Franken says eliminate the secret ballot for workers,” is not false. It may be misleading and it certainly is incomplete, but it is not false within the meaning of § 211B.06. Similarly, the second statement is not factually false. Because the EFCA will eliminate private ballot elections in certain circumstances, it is not untruthful to characterize the bill’s effect as “end[ing] worker privacy.” Section 211B.06 does not regulate unfavorable deductions, inferences, unfair characterizations or misleading remarks.35 As with the first statement, this statement is not “false” under the statute.

Beyond that, we’ll assert that the statements were true. There would be little point to the Employee Free Choice Act if it were to NOT eliminate the secret ballot. Only through the public collection of signatures on union representation cards, with the associated peer pressure and intimidation, can organized labor achieve its goal — forcing employees into a union against their will.

We wrote “feigning outrage” above when describing the DFL’s legal attack against free speech, in so far as the party and its union allies recognized the standard to strike down the ad is extremely high. (It’s the “reckless disregard” standard that applies in libel suits by public officials, going back to Times v. Sullivan.) So why did they do it?

They were cynically engaging in intimidation. Pressure. Any tool in their toolbox to silence opposition.

Intimidation. Pressure. And the same tactics will be used against individual employees when union organizers ask them to join by signing a card.

 Coalition news release.

First organized labor argued for the Employee Free Choice Act by claiming union membership is the path to a better life. Card check would simplify the creation of a union. And that was the argument.

Realizing that they were getting hammered by the truth that the Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate secret-ballot elections, labor unions then turned up the rhetorical heat. When someone pointed out that card check would destroy the secret ballot in the workplace, labor responded, “Liar! Liar! You’re a liar!” And claim that card check would allow the unions to still call for an election, even though in any realistic world organizers would never demand a vote they might lose. (This Shopfloor post explains why.)

So when ads started running in Minnesota about the Senate candidate Al Frank’s support for killing secret-ballot elections, the Minnesota DFL (the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party) filed a complaint with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings (Star-Tribune story). The party claimed the ads by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace — to which the NAM belongs — and the separate Minnesotans for Employee Freedom violated state law against disseminating false campaign material.

But the DFL didn’t even bother trying to argue why the ads were false. They just claimed it.

Administrative Law Judge Barbara L. Nielson has now dismissed the complaints. From her memorandum accompanying the order of dismissal to the complaint against CDW.

For purposes of a prima facie determination, the Complainant must detail the factual basis to support a claim that the violation of law has occurred. Here, the Complainant has not alleged with any specificity why the statements at issue are factually false. The Complaint merely asserts that the statements are false and “contrary to the facts,” without providing any further information.

The dismissal of the complaint against the Minnesotans for Employee Freedom is available here.
CDW’s news release is here.

Labor strategy summarized: Deflect, deceive, bluster, abuse, litigate.

Lose.

(Hat tip: Michael D. Brodkorb)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune today reports on the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace’s new advertising campaign in Minnesota. “TV, newspaper ads attack Franken on union views” compares the positions of the U.S. Senate candidates on the Employee Free Choice Act. (Incumbent Republican Norm Coleman versus Democrat Al Franken.)

Given the constraints of space, reporter Kevin Duschere does a good job of explaining the particulars of card check, avoiding the lazy shorthand of “a bill that would make it easier to form unions.”

The ad charges that the Free Choice Act would subject workers to coercion by forcing them to declare publicly their support or nonsupport for a union, rather than vote secretly as is usually done now. That’s undemocratic, the ads claim.

In fact, the bill wouldn’t eliminate the secret-ballot election as an option.

It would give workers seeking to organize the chance to choose between such an election, should 30 percent of all workers request it, or to pursue the so-called check-card process, which certifies the union as soon as 51 percent sign up.

But as Tim Miller of the Employee Freedom Action Committee* explains, unions would never opt for the secret ballot because they gain such a big advantage in “intimidation and coercion” via card check.

The Franken/union people have an opportunity to comment, and as typical, just call names.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr on Friday called that a lie fueled by the “corporate interests” that are funding Coleman’s campaign. Franken blasted Coleman last month for supporting the filibuster and selling out “to corporate special interests time and time again.”

As the debate continues, we’d hope reporters would also look at other malign, anti-democratic provisions in the Employee Free Choice Act, such as forced arbitration in a short period of time if a contract isn’t reached. Blogger Warner Todd Huston comments:

The binding arbitration will force business to decide their contract within 120 days of the card check vote should that vote favor the union. If the contract isn’t settled in 120 days, then a federal arbitrator steps in to decide the matter. In other words, it will be taken out of the hands of both union and business owners and will become another illegitimate, nanny state venue of government.

In other card-check news, from Monday: “The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today announced that it was extending its public awareness campaign to reach Maine citizens. The effort begins with airing a television spot designed to inform the public that the Big Labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act, or “card check” legislation, threatens worker privacy.”

P.S. Funny to see the Franken people condeming special interests the same day the candidate was in Philadelphia at the national trial lawyers convention. Even funnier, the very same day a well-known Minnesota trial lawyer, Priscilla Lord Faris announced she would challenge Franken in the September primary.

* CORRECTION: We misidentified Tim Miller in the original post. He’s a spokeman for the Employee Freedom Action Committee, another business coalition active and advertising in opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air takes note of the new Coalition for a Democratic Workplace ad running in Minnesota, using humor to compare the Senate candidates’ positions on the Employee Free Choice Act. (Sen. Norm Coleman, the Republican, is opposed to card check; Al Frank, the Democrat, support it.) The ad features actor Vincent Curatola in his Sopranos role.

Ed comments:

Curatola is actually a moderate Democrat; he supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries, although she also backs EFCA. His efforts against Al Franken come expressly from this issue, which Curatola has backed for months. His easily-recognized persona makes this new ad just as effective as the first, and it will get plenty of play in Minnesota’s metropolitan areas of the Twin Cities, Duluth, and Rochester.

The AFL-CIO responds to the ads with outrage, bluster and misdirection, using the now-tired tactic of calling on Coleman to repudiate the spots.

 ”We condemn these ads,” said Steve Hunter, secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, speaking at a news conference Tuesday at the State Capitol. “We find these ads clearly wrong and furthermore they are demeaning to workers and to their unions and to our fellow union member, Al Franken.”

And…

Hunter replied: “I don’t find it humorous when you talk about workers’ rights.”

Humor? Being used against Al Franken? Outrageous!

Hunter’s almost-substantive part of his response repeats a standard approach of the laborites, that, why no, the Employee Free Choice Act doesn’t eliminate a private ballot in the workplace. How can you say that? It just gives the organizers a choice whether to have an election or not, the same choice that employers now have.

But for the unions, the major point of card check is to allow union organizers to eliminate the possibility of losing in an election. Why would they ever permit a vote when they can achieve representation through open signature-gathering, the petitioning process that invites arm-twisting and intimidation?

It’s a laughable argument, except, you know, we’re not supposed to laugh.

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace — of which the NAM is an active member — has begun running ads in Minnesota comparing and contrasting the positions of the two U.S. Senate candidates on the grotesquely misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, the legislation that would eliminate the secret ballot in the workplace. The incumbent Republican, Sen. Norm Coleman, has voted against the “card check” legislation (Coleman news release), while organized labor’s candidate, the Democratic challenger Al Franken, is an active supporter of the measure. 

From the news release announcing the ads:

“Minnesotans need to know that workers could effectively lose their right to cast a private ballot in a union election. The next U.S. Senate will have to make a decision about the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act,” said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. “We will continue to provide information to Minnesotans about where the candidates stand on this issue, which affects all workers,” added Worth.

“Minnesotans need to know that workers could effectively lose their right to cast a private ballot in a union election. The next U.S. Senate will have to make a decision about the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act,” said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. “We will continue to provide information to Minnesotans about where the candidates stand on this issue, which affects all workers,” added Worth. In addition to informing all Minnesotans, the ad will ask candidates to support the right to private ballots. Candidates in Minnesota do not need to give in to union pressure. Recent polling in Minnesota conducted by CDW found that voters in Minnesota would be less likely to vote for a candidate for U.S. Senate who supports legislation to replace a federally supervised secret and private ballot system with a card check shortcut. A plurality of voters would be less likely to vote for Al Franken (41%) if he supports this legislation. Clearly, supporting legislation to replace secret ballots with a card check system will have negative consequences for potential Senate candidates.

You can watch the advertisement here, featuring our favorite spokesman, the guy from the Sopranos.  And there’s more information on the Minnesota survey of voters mentioned in the news release.

Browsing through the program for the upcoming annual convention of the American Association for Justice, we see the trial lawyers have attracted prominent politicians to speak to them in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is on hand to welcome the thousands, the guest speaker at the opening plenary. A natural job for a governor of any host state, plus, as the program states, “First as district attorney, then as mayor of Philadelphia, and now as governor of Pennsylvania, Rendell has stood shoulder to shoulder with your clients. In fact, Rendell recently took on the insurance industry by declaring at a physician’s forum that the ‘Med-Mal crisis’ in Pennsylvania was over.”

Glad to hear it.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is speaking, as well. The program summarizes accurately: “He has defended the civil justice system and is known for voting his conscience irrespective of partisan politics. Senator Specter is also the author of Never Give In, a newly-released book about his successful battle against cancer.”

But the big draw is the guest speaker at the Monday, July 14th, AAJ PAC Town Hall Meeting…Al Franken!

Through his comedy, books, and radio show, Franken has been a leading voice against the policies of George W. Bush, Newt Gingrich, and many others. For two decades, Franken tackled the most important issues facing this country with biting humor and quick wit which will serve the Senate well. Following in the footsteps of the late Paul Wellstone, Franken looks to continue Minnesota’s progressive tradition.

Franken had a radio show?

Oh, right.

You can understand any convention wanting to have a big name entertainer as an attraction, especially one you can count on to attack all the same people you like to attack. But he’s not just the big speaker, he’s the special attraction for the big-time trial lawyer contributors, the Platinum M Club. We assume that’s those who give the max amount to the PAC, $5,000.

AAJ PAC Platinum M Club Meet and Greet
featuring Al Franken
11:30 am–noon
Loews Philadelphia, Washington C
Please join us for an exclusive AAJ PAC Platinum M Club meet-and-greet reception featuring Al Franken. This reception, immediately before the Town Hall Meeting, will allow you to meet Mr. Franken in a more personal setting and discuss the political landscape facing civil justice candidates this fall. This new event is by invitation only for AAJ PAC Platinum M Club Members and AAJ PAC Eagles to thank them for their leadership in our campaign to elect a pro-civil-justice majority in Congress.

The AAJ’s PAC spent more than $6 million in the 2006 election cycle and is already up to $4 million or so spent in the current cycle.

Al Franken, pro-civil justice candidate…man of the people…son of Minnesota…meeting and greeting the trial lawyers who write $5,000 checks. In Philadelphia.

It’s satire!