Anti-Union blogging, adding more misinformation for the masses

Wow, I finally found it, the exact reason I called my site Anti-Union Blogspot:

The Union News, heres another supposedly factual database for working people. It's more likely another one of Rick Berman's or some other anti-union agencies attempts to sway the masses with conjecture. So I got myself a new Wordpress to scoop up the domain before they had a chance. Fortunately the blogger adds some nice links that make it easy for us to see the powers against the Labor movement (aside for a few legitimate ones like the TDU ,Association for Union Democracy,Dr.Homeslice (my apologies to you and anyone else who I may have accidentally slandered) and UnionStats *Note there might be some more good ones in the bunch. Some also have honest agenda's and even though I might not agree with the message, they aren't spin doctors like Berman and The Union Fact's, such a site is the Alliance for Worker Freedom, who posted on my personal blog to explain their view). Here is the list of union links they have on their site:

Links and blogs. Warning: Read Above Before Clicking

• Get union financial reports
• Dept. of Labor recent criminal enforcement actions
• Project Labor Agreement info
• Financial Core Status: defined
• Unionstats.com
• Tracking union finances
• Union Corruption update
• Troublemaker's Website
• AFSCME Slayer
• Members for Democracy
• Association for Union Democracy
• Alliance for Worker Freedom
• National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights
• State Policy Network
• Dr. Homeslice
• Union corruption, violence and intimidation
• Union Free America
• Freedom@Work
• Teamsters for a Democratic Union
• seiuexposed.com
• NoUAW.com
• Sam Adams Alliance Tea Party
• SEIU Exposed
• UURLA - SEIU Local 721
• EmployerReport.com
• Grocery Workers United
• Labor Pains
• Center for Union Facts
• Free Paul Jacob
• Education Intelligence Agency
• Venezuela News And Views

About Rick Berman, heres a bit from a story I had posted at UnionReview and the text below is from a news item posted at Naplesnews from Sept.1st. '07 (please note the article is truncated, but the one post by Charlie Ward is intact)

Guest commentary: Labor Day ’07: Union bosses’ agenda scary By RICK BERMAN, Special to the Daily News

"In an effort to rebuild their former influence, union officials have drawn up a political agenda that should give all Americans shivers.

It centers around stealing rights from employees and rigging federal laws to monkey-wrench business operations"

There are some great comments though , as I see there is an organizing drive for Nurses in Naples , Florida going on , as one of the commentors said:

"Rick Berman: I found it interesting that you chose Labor Day to disburse your antiunion rhetoric, especially in Naples with the upcoming union vote of the NCH nurses. How timely. It would seem that a more fair and balanced perspective should also be considered. Research indicates that your Center For Union Facts is an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and associated with the Right to Work Committee. I've read that you are the CEO and your wife is the bookkeeper. The organization is reported to be funded to the tune of 10 million dollars a year. I have also read that you have been connected with the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and also have been employed by the Employment Roundtable. You apparantely professionally lobbied for the networking of industry, labor lawyers,and some government officials, which operate out of the same office as Berman and Company. With respect to labor unions, some of your comments were factual. You did give credit to unions for improving conditions for union and non-union workers. Then you immediately inject that corruption and embezzelment runs rampant among these unions. However, you failed your fair and balanced testby not mentioning The widespread corruption and embezzlement that exists within "big business". Let us not forget Enron, Global Crossing, Tyco, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, and lest we not forget that bastion of Federal favoritism: Halliburton and their sidekick Kellogg, Brown and Root. In 2001 and 2002 alone there were over 17 corporations who were directly responsible for employeess loss of pensions, 401K's, health benefits and most importantly their jobs. Most of these people were non-union. Where is your outrage? Consider New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina: Halliburton and KBR were awarded, by the Government, a no bid contract to repair a U.S. base there. They laid off New Orleans citizens(who desperately needed the jobs) and brought in third world workers. The contractors were paid with U.S. taxpayer money. Where is the protection for the U.S.worker. Where is the outrage?"-charlieward

Charlie Ward seems to put it together rather nicely, adding that Mr.Bermans agenda includes ties to the US Chamber Of Commerce, in fact they have quoted me in a recent Blog post at ChamberPost: (I am the first link, at the moment)

More excitement over the Labor Department’s union membership report yesterday, including this attempt at analogy.

More on Union Membership

by Brad Peck

"Unfortunately some sites downplay the importance, but in 25 years of membership loss an upward swing could be considered twice as important. Think US football when the team throws an interception and the other team scores, in essence it is considered a 14 point turnaround. Twice the actual 7 point score. Workers just got a touchdown or 2 depending how you look at it. I see two and more to come in '08"

I don't really see "essentially unchanged" as a two touchdown swing, more like a coach challenging the review of a spot and the officials moving the ball half an inch, not enough for the first down, but hey, he won the challenge.

"Essentially unchanged" is the key phrase, and the AP noted it.

The Washington Post let the Chamber give our perspective:

Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called the reported growth the result of a "rounding error."

"This is a very slight, marginal increase," Johnson said. "For all the talk of organized labor putting more and more resources into organizing, this bump is insignificant."

Sounds to me like they really trying to downplay the recent rise in union membership for the first time in at least 25 years, more than one would have expected, as we can tell from Mr.Peck, who it seems is the Senior Director of Communications and the ChamberPost Editor, that the Chamber of Commerce is well aligned with the anti-union movement, and heres a fact from their site if you think they care about the public:

ChamberOfCommerce.com is not a federal government agency, and therefore has no authority to investigate how companies conduct business nor are we able to accept complaints.

So I would guess that anything posted on their Blog is parallel to the thoughts and ideals of Mr.Berman.

More News:

Heres a post I have found since hooking up with Wordpress that deserves mention. From the PacPhour Blog:

I can’t verify all the statistics, but they just feel right.

That feel's right to me too, another cool person I met virtually is Mr Bobbo Simpson who has been drawing labor cartoons for 20 years, and has some great pieces of writing on his Blog TheBlobboSphere:

the second one is about the recent UAW deals with the big three

Well thats about it for now, get to clicking and Digg'in my new blog over at Wordpress, we need people to actually stumble upon the real truth about the labor movement every chance we can.

http://theunionnews.wordpress.com/