The US Chamber of Commerce is a private group and is not a Federal agency, they lobby for the needs of the largest US corporations.

Besides being completely anti-union and staunchly against The Employee Free Choice Act, the US Chamber Of Commerce is one of the biggest lobbyist of unadulterated free trade. It is very unfortunate because the idea behind the Chamber of Commerce would be a good one if they just weren’t trying to rape the American public and workforce. This is in no way a slight to the more favorable regional Chamber’s who’s members are local businesses, but on the top, the US COC, the needs of the Wal-Mart’s, the McDonald’s, the Home Depot’s and their like minded ilk are priority number one.

Video is from an article at Economy in crisis entitled “Chamber of Commerce Leading Congress Astray“

Video Link for my text readers

The economics policy institutes adds in “Big business lobbies for importers”

Multinational companies such as General Electric and Caterpillar, and their allies in the Chamber of Commerce, are attacking “Buy American” provisions included in the economic recovery bill passed by the House on January 28^th. They claim that these provisions will provoke a “trade war” with foreign governments, but foreign governments have long histories of supporting their own domestic companies. These companies are self-interested, simply wanting unlimited access to imports, many of which are illegally subsidized and unfairly traded. U.S. and foreign multinational companies (MNCs) were responsible for nearly two-thirds of all U.S. imports in 2006, as shown in the chart below. U.S. firms led the way with $678 billion in imports, 36.4% of all U.S. goods imports. Foreign MNCs pulled in an additional $482.4 billion in goods, 25.6% of the U.S. import bill.

Companies like Caterpillar, which will benefit from billions of dollars of infrastructure spending in the stimulus package, want unfettered access to cheap steel from countries like China, which poured more than $15 billion into energy subsidies into that sector in 2007 alone. Chinese steel imports more than doubled between January and November, while U.S. steel production fell nearly 40%. The Chamber of Commerce, which also opposes further “Buy American” provisions, represents the interests of U.S. companies like Caterpillar and IBM as well as foreign multinationals like Toyota and Siemens, all represented on its board of directors. Congress has finally realized that what’s good for big business is not always good for America, and that new rules are needed to rein in runaway corporations. That’s real progress.

Here’s a tidbit from “U.S. Corporations Against Buying American“

“Free trade” has only served to allow the nation’s trade deficit to explode to uncontrollable levels, killed jobs, armed economic rivals with the means to buy up American assets and businesses and allowed our shores to be invaded with toxic products from Third World nations.

gspencer writes in a comment to “Chamber of Commerce Leading Congress Astray“

“United States Chamber of Commerce:“
I really believe that we must preserve the economic miracle that has given our citizens one of the highest living standards in the world. This economic miracle has not been due to the efforts of the members of the US Chamber of Commerce, who include Importers, middlemen, Wall Street criminals, Stock Market Gamblers, Real Estate Speculators, Economists, Insurance Salesmen, Junk Bond Salesmen, etc., and very few firms that contribute to correcting our balance of trade. Todays USA standard of living was created by the Agricultural and Industrial Base that produced the food, goods, services and other items that we consumed, plus an excess of these goods & services that were produced and then sold to other foreign countries in order to accumulate the US gold reserves through a positive balance of trade surplus payments. Our gold reserves are the basis of the value or buying power of our currency. This was (is) true of all of the currencies in the world.

Only a positive balance of trade will restore the value of the dollar, and we must accomplish this by any means possible, or accept third world poverty on a large scale basis. Riots and insurrection are predictable, ala the French Revolution, when the people find their situations economically hopeless.

Big thanks to Mainstream Populist Democrats for the head’s up on the video and the site:

Inside the Burke Group
Union-Busting is Alive and Well

By DAVID MACARAY

Established in 1982, with headquarters in tony Malibu, California, The Burke Group (after president and CEO David Burke) advertises itself as the world’s largest management consulting firm specializing in “union avoidance and preventative industrial labor relations.” Which is more or less a euphemism for “union busting.”

The Burke Group (TBG, for short) earns its keep by defeating union organizing efforts. Torpedoing membership drives is their self-declared “specialty.” When hired by a company to dissuade employees from joining a labor union, TBG representatives swing into action, utilizing every manner of high-powered, negative propaganda to make sure the referendum fails.

TBG’s anti-union presentations (and, typically, there are several of them, spread over weeks) are conducted on company turf, where employee attendance is mandatory. Those who refuse to attend the presentations can be terminated.

Basically, what TBG does at these captive audience meetings is bombard the well-intentioned but impressionable employees with smears, innuendo, flattery, and scare tactics, using a standard, two-pronged assault: one-part economic and one-part psychological.

The economic part consists of pretending that, contrary to what they’ve heard, workers don’t actually “gain” materially by joining a union. Any wage or benefit increase will, in fact, be eaten up by ever-increasing monthly dues that are used to pay the inflated salaries of greedy union bosses, and by debilitating strikes, where employees are thrown out of work for months at a time, with no say in the matter. That’s their pitch.

Of course, these assertions are not only counter-factual and purposely misleading, they’re downright insulting to anyone who’s been paying attention. Union wages alone (not even counting benefits) are, on average, 15% higher than non-union wages. And, because dues run about $50-$60 per month, and amount to but a tiny fraction of that differential, the suggestion that higher wages will be off-set by monthly dues is absurd.

As for strikes, their impact is also wildly exaggerated. In truth, given the economic climate and status of organized labor, how many actual strikes are there anymore? The reason strikes make the evening news and front page of the newspaper is because they occur so infrequently; and the ones that last for “months” are rarer still.

Moreover, a union cannot raise the monthly dues without a majority of the membership voting to raise them. And federal labor law stipulates that voting on dues increases (as well as officers salaries) must be conducted by secret ballot. It couldn’t be any clearer. Yet, these professional union-busters try to make it sound like joining a union means abandoning democracy and common sense, and placing oneself at the mercy of money-hungry despots.

The same goes for strikes. Because a strike is such a momentous undertaking, a union negotiating team cannot call one unless the membership has already given them authorization to do so. That stipulation is spelled out in the by-laws. Again, it couldn’t be any clearer.

In fact, some unions, such as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), require even more than a simple majority; they require a 75% mandate for strike authorization. In short, no matter what these union-busters claim, a union doesn’t hit the bricks unless the members themselves choose to do so. Yet, companies like TBG continue to sell the idea that union members have no say in what happens to them.

The psychological part of the presentation is equally misleading. TBG reps try to convince employees that once they join a union they no longer have unrestricted or unimpeded access to management. They are told that, by virtue of signing up, they automatically define themselves as management’s “enemy,” and, accordingly, can expect the company to treat them with hostility and contempt.

The propaganda is unremitting. Workers are warned that, if they ignore the sound advice being offered them and choose, instead, to join a union, they will go from being free, self-sufficient and valued employees to mere foot soldiers in organized labor’s vast army of minions. They paint an unbelievably demoralizing picture.

It’s also not uncommon for professional union-busters to use visual aids. Typically, they’ll show footage of downtrodden workers manning picket lines, union goons battling the police, and scowling, overweight union bosses doing the perp walk as they’re led away by federal agents for violating racketeering statutes or stealing money from the union’s treasury. Anything to make organized labor look bad.

As heavy-handed and coarse as these methods are, TBG has been surprisingly successful using them. Among its “victorious” customers are General Electric, Honeywell, Coca-Cola, the Eaton Corporation, Virgin Air, T-Mobile, K-Mart, and the Chinese Daily News. With TBG’s help, all of these businesses were successful in keeping their employees from joining unions.

Because so many of the workers being targeted by organized labor these days are Latinos, many of whom are recent immigrants working at jobs at the bottom of the economic ladder, TBG has convinced employers that they need qualified Spanish-speakers to do their dirty work.. And TBG speaks fluent Spanish. (Their consultants also speak Tagalog, French, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and several dialects of Chinese.)

Indeed, TBG takes great pride in customizing its service. When the Chinese Daily News (CDN) came to TBG for assistance in crushing its employees’ organizing drive, the firm chose as its representative one Larry Wong, an ethnic Chinese. They rarely miss a trick. Predictably, TBG’s services don’t come cheaply. According to reports, CDN alone has paid TBG more than $800,000 in consulting fees.

So next time people are tempted to criticize organized labor for not recruiting more new members, they should take a moment to consider the opposition. When it comes to keeping the unions out, American businesses are willing to pay cash. TBG is just one of many companies willing to accept it.

David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright (“Borneo Bob,” “Larva Boy”) and writer, was a former labor union rep. He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net

From the pages of:

Q: Averaging just $17,000 a year, $4,000 below the poverty line, how on earth is a Wal-Mart employee able to have a truck and a mortgage?

Video Link for my text subscribers

On Saturday, January 31, a rally and march will be held to support striking Stella D’Oro workers in New York City. The company is attempting to destroy their union The 135 workers of Stella D’Oro, the biscuit producers, most of whom are Latina women and immigrants from Asia and Africa are confronting a cold winter on the streets. They have been on strike since August 13, 2008. The company, Brynwood Partners, has refused to negotiate and is demanding that the workers return to work without a contract in an attempt to destroy their union.

JOIN THE MARCH DOWN BROADWAY!

Saturday JAN. 31 * 11AM * 237 St & Bway

#1 train to 238th St. (at Broadway); map

In front of Stella D’Oro plant on 237th Street & Broadway

“No Justice, No Cookies!”

BOYCOTT STELLA D’ORO PRODUCTS

The workers have gone on strike because the company wants to: Slash wages by as much as 25% Make health insurance unaffordable by imposing crushing premiums Eliminate holidays, vacations, sick pay & current pension Eliminate extra pay for working Saturdays

The strikers are represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 50. They are on the picket line everyday!

PRODUCED BY:

Committee in Support of the Stella D’Oro Strikers

WEBSITE: www.stelladorostrike2008.com

YOUTUBE VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQgv3n-A5Cs

“I do believe–and I make no apologies for it–that over the last 100 years the middle class was built on the back of organized labor. Without their weight, heft and their insistence starting in the early 1900s we wouldn’t have the middle class we have now, in my view. So I think labor getting a fair share of the pie is part of it.”

Obama- “Cannot have strong middle class without strong labor union”
by NathanNewman

That was Obama statement repealing a number of Bush-era anti-union executive orders and creating a White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, chaired by VP Joe Biden and no doubt staffed by former-Economic Policy Institute leader Jared Bernstein, who is working for Biden on economic issues

I’ll skip the substance of the exec order actions and emphasize that Obama statement as far more significant. We have not had a President that so forthrightly identified the health of the nation with the health of the labor movement. I’m sure Clinton and Carter never did and I’d be curious if anyone has quotes from LBJ or JFK said so strongly.

Remembering that much of the upsurge in labor organizing in the 1930s came BEFORE the Wagner Act was allowed to go into effect by the Supreme Court in 1937, in many ways the most significant tools of the labor movement that decade was FDR’s statement early on that, President Roosevelt declared publicly, “If I were a worker I would join a union.” Union leaders used that statement to rally workers across the country. Whether Obama’s statement will have the same galvanizing effect is unclear, but it may help significantly — and may help undercut the anti-union stance of Congressional opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act and other labor bills pending.

Bumper sticker ready

MSNBC Reports on Bank of America’s Anti-Worker Conference Call
By Brad Levinson