Labor & Employment Law

Anti-Union, Far Right Groups Push and Pay for Republican Agenda

By Mike Hall

They come with patriotic, populist and even progressive sounding names and deep, deep pockets. But Americans for Job Security, Freedom Works, Americans for Prosperity and other groups whose election ads are strangling the airwaves are part of a far-right, anti-union, special interest group cadre trying to buy the election.

These organizations?nothing more really than a hit team for corporate and extreme conservative Republican interests?are spending tens and tens of millions of dollars to enact an agenda that would set working families back by decades:

• Attacking collective bargaining rights and opposing the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Privatizing Social Security and Medicare.
• Enacting job-killing “free” trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA.
• Cutting taxes for millionaires while leaving the rest of us behind.

A new report by American Rights at Work lifts the curtains and shines the spotlight on who is really behind these groups, how much they are spending, their track records, and corporate connections.

Here?s a brief synopsis. Click here to download the full 16-page report ?Behind the Anti-Worker Agenda.?

• Americans for Prosperity: Funded by the winner of the 2006 Forbes/”Outsourcing Excellence Award” for its success in shipping American jobs to China, Americans for Prosperity was active in organizing opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act and even opposed the extension of unemployment benefits in the middle of our current recession.
• American Crossroads: An organization founded by ‘Bush’s Brain’ Karl Rove, American Crossroads is spending tens of millions of dollars to return us to the Bush economic policies that caused our current economic disaster. Rove is strongly anti-union and has worked to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.
• Americans for Job Security: An insurance industry front group, Americans for Job Security was created to counter the influence of unions and is known “one of the nation’s most vicious campaign hit teams.” The group supports trade agreements that ship American jobs overseas and opposes the Employee Free Choice Act.
• The Club for Growth: The Club for Growth is so far to the right that it has been criticized by John McCain as nothing more than the “bagman for the ultra rich.” The Club for Growth supports eliminating Medicare, privatizing Social Security, and calls the Employee Free Choice Act “an abomination.”
• FreedomWorks: Headed by extremist Dick Armey, who supports “phasing out” Social Security and abolishing Medicare, FreedomWorks strongly opposes the Employee Free Choice Act and opposed Wall Street reform.
• Chamber of Commerce: The Chamber of Commerce has moved in an extreme direction, with plans to spend $50 million this election to push its anti-working family agenda. The Chamber strongly supports unfair trade deals like NAFTA and CAFTA, opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, opposes strong workplace safety laws, and even opposed paycheck equity.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 06, 2010 (boomark / email).