A new FAIR action alert is targeting CNN host Lou Dobbs for peddling anti-union propaganda about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), after Dobbs falsely suggested on his show (Lou Dobbs Tonight, 2/4/09) that the proposed new labor law would “end a secret ballot.” In fact, the EFCA would not take away workers’ rights to have a secret vote if they choose to; it would take away employers’ ability to force workers to have such a vote.
(Click here to watch Dobbs’ misleading report about EFCA.)
You can take action by emailing Dobbs at lou.dobbs@turner.com.
Please copy and paste your letter to the CNN host in the comments section below.
Hey Lou,
I agree with you on some things, but you are completely misinformed on this issue. Having more union representation of American workers is something that will benefit our economy and society by increasing the purchasing power of those workers. The Employee Free Choice Act does not do away with the secret ballot, it does make it easier for unions to organize workers and win better pay and benefits for them. How can that be bad for America? If you’re against that then you ought to have your head examined, as my mother used to say.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a retired member of the GCC/IBT (Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents lithographers and bookbinders) and I’m certain that my pension would be much more secure than it is now if more shops were organized. You say you’re for the middle class yet you’re against something that would create more oppurtunities for people to become middle class. What’s up with that? Come on, Lou, give us a break.
Sincerely,
Christopher G. Walker
709 Frederick St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Dear Mr. Dobbs,
I am very disappointed in your broadcast about this important piece of pending legislation. As a journalist, you have a responsibility to report fairly and truthfully. CNN is getting an apparently deserved reputation as anti-labor/anti-union.
I am a Northwest Airlines flight attendant. I have been a flight attendant for 41 years now, and I cannot imagine what my life would be like without the unions I’ve been a member of over the years. They have enhanced my quality of life immeasurably. Right now I’m facing a representation election with my Delta Airlines colleagues, and I consider it imperative that AFA-CWA (Association of Flight Attendants/Communication Workers of America) win. Without them, we will be at the whims and mercy of upper management, who only look out for their own golden parachutes. I am presently barely surviving on a 40% pay and benefits cut. It would be worse without a union.
The EFCA would not eliminate secret ballots. Please get your facts straight! A retraction on your part would be welcomed.
Thank you,
Karen Ellis
Mr. Dobbs,
You have built your most recent career incensed about the illegal immigration hyper problem–deriding immigrants, the policy (yoo hoo–GOP enabled policy), the corporations, the media, and on and on and on. Many quotes, ”ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE TAKING GOOD AMERICAN’S JOBS!! “WHAT IN THE WORLD”.
By this talk, I would assume that you are FOR GOOD JOBS FOR AMERICANS. Jobs that support families and allow THEM also the chance to be good productive citizens by helping them have DECENT living wages–(WAGES stimulate the economy, JOBS stimulate the economy, even food stamps give more for the buck back than tax cuts.) Check Moodys and their recent report: Non-refundable tax rebates return $1.03 to the economy for each dollar, $1.49 for infrastructure spending, and $1.73 into the economy from food stamp spending, for God’s sake.
Well, WHAT IN THE WORLD, are you doing spreading the lies of the GOP and business lobby that the Employee Free Choice Act would eliminate the “secret ballot”. “the CNN report, SEIU president Andy Stern explained this point clearly: “This is the worker’s choice. They can have a secret ballot or legally affirm by a majority of them signing cards.” Either you are not listening, Mr. Dobbs, to your own broadcase, or you think labor leaders like Stern aren’t telling the truth”.
Getting and keeping in this country good paying jobs for the American workers is either a comparable priority to your raging about illegal immigrants taking good American’s jobs or, sir, you are a hypocrit, simply saying what will enrich your rich Corp-lican friends/boss, or your own pocket.
If the latter is the real truth, your rage about losing jobs via outsourcing and illegal immigration is false, sir.
I say now, WHAT IN THE WORLD–who are you really interested in? Your raging seems to say “American Workers”, but we have begun to learn the truth now. You seem to support the anti-American thinking that American labor is a “bold threat”. To whom, I ask? How do you sleep at night? There are too many traitors to the American worker in your bed to give you a good night’s sleep.
How do you respond, Sir?
Janet Harlow
An American Worker in Illinois
Mr. Dobbs,
Stop peddling corporate anti-union propaganda. You must be aware that our side is far more morally tenable or you wouldn’t need to use your corporate bully pulpit to spread lies. The EFCA does not eliminate private ballots, a point made clear on your own broadcast by SEIU president Andy Stern.
We union members are trying to re-organize a huge swath of the labor base in order to make labor/management relations a more lateral exchange and we are acutely aware of your allegiances to corporate power over worker rights. The advent of the corporate mass media and its control of the flow of information in favor of the wealthy owners has disabled labor’s ability to organize in this great nation of laborers. The rise of the Internet has restored that ability. Organize we will. We have the numbers.
In loyal opposition to the failed paradigm that you represent,
Peter Stanislaw, ATU local 265
â┚¬Ã…“Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most –
that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.â┚¬Ã‚Â
–Eugene Debs
Mr. Dobbs,
Thank you for taking the time on your show to discuss the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. It is good to know the facts about any far-reaching piece of legislation. As I understand it, taking into account some of the 30 years of experience I had in dealing with workplace representation issues, employers are now arguing that workers will lose the right to a “free” secret-ballot election in cases where those workers seek to form a legal union. Yet, according to the US Department of Labor, the vast majority of employers, particularly private businesses, have historically done everything in their power to stop those elections from ever taking place, always when faced with the signatures of over a third of the workforce demanding such elections.
The rules that allow employers to stop employees from exercizing “free” choice should, indeed, be changed, but done so that employees themselves determine whether there should be an election, not the employer. That is what I understand the EFCA will do.
So, who should decide whether there should be an election? The ones who want organized self-representation, or the ones who want to keep them from having it? Perhaps you and your guests would consider that point.
Sincerely,
Brian Mitchell
Dear Mr. Dobbs,
Congratulations on your moral superiority. You might have exceeded even your laudable contemporaries like Mr. Bill O’Reilly in the coveted “journalistic” values of [what is now being called] “objectivity”, “fairness”, and “independence”. As any good investigative journalist knows, large non-unionized corporations who stand to lose millions of dollars in profit from large-scale unionization can and should be trusted as independent, unbiased sources of information for reports of this nature. For this reason, I think it was an excellent idea that you chose to feature the CEO of just such a corporation as your primary source (you know, the guy that “runs EMS”?). He made an excellent “working Joe” contrast to the demonized villain of your segment, the “powerful president” Andy Stern. Please note that I’m not accusing you of bias by presenting everything the powerful CEO of a huge corporation says as plain fact, even in the face of evidence that he has fired pro-union employees (whom you interview for all of 3 seconds) and despite documentation of just such occurrences at numerous other corporations by the SEIU and other organizations, whose powerful CEOs (for reference, the CEO of Walmart is an excellent example here) make statements exactly like the ones good ol’ Dave made (e.g., “My workers don’t want a union! I asked them!”).
But hey, it’s not your job as a journalist to independently report facts. It’s your job to protect “democracy”. And I don’t mean that wishy-washy kind of democracy, where (real) grassroots organizations mobilize public support in the way of initiatives, referenda, and recall elections to solve problems via an informed majority vote. I mean the kind where unelected, unaccountable corporate shills sit in huge office towers making millions of dollars, sitting in front of television cameras in specially tailored suits, professionally made up with perfectly styled hair, teach us “common folk” how things really are over a steaming cup of coffee one of their numerous assistants poured them. Thanks for contributing so handily to the improvement of America. Hopefully more people will wake up and your vision will be realized.
I listened to the Union 5 point plan to create jobs on the ED show. Amazingly enough they don’t plan on creating jobs themselves. I guess they are hoping by talking about other people creating jobs that they will credit for it. Unfortunately I think people actually buy what they are selling. If they really wanted to create jobs why don’t they go start a business with Union funds. Of course that won’t happen will it. The Union leaders can’t actually create jobs can they.
Before you start with the usual Union propaganda just answer the question.
Just one self-sufficient speech about Cnn in the Television show. He includes a really tough immigration scheme. He graduated around the Harvard College. At present he features their a single Radio Show. He did not like the particular United states of america chief executive.