In an unusual move, one of the country’s most powerful labor leaders, SEIU chief Andy Stern, has just issued a public challenge to Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, daring the influential business leader to debate him publicly over the Employee Free Choice Act.
Stern threw down the gauntlet in an interview with me just now, upping the stakes in what is shaping up to be the biggest and nastiest legislative battle between business and labor that we’re likely to see this cycle. Employee Free Choice is labor’s top priority, while business groups are marshaling forces to defeat the measure at all costs.
“Why don’t we just have a public debate about the Employee Free Choice Act?” Stern asked in a phone interview moments ago. “If he feels as strongly as he does, he should be willing to have a public discussion so we can do this in the sunshine.”
Stern said he’d privately brought up the idea of a debate to Donohue himself several times during personal encounters, only to get the brush-off.
“He’s never said Yes, never said No,” Stern said, adding that the anti-Employee Free Choice forces were hiding behind “front groups” and should “come out of the shadows.”
Labor needs to be far more aggressive in getting their message out regarding employee rights, the rampant law breaking from business and the remedy - EFCA. The debate has largely occured on business' terms. It's time to turn the tables and expose the gross distortions eminating from the Chamber.
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