Lou Dobbs and Drew Griffin go after the SEIU and the Employee Free Choice Act in this anti-union hit job. Dobbs even manages to squeeze in a shot at Acorn at the end of the segment. He doesn't seem to have much use for our First Amendment and the right to peaceably assemble either.
DOBBS: A bold threat tonight from one of the most powerful unions in the country, a bold threat to democratic lawmakers and President Obama. The Service Employees International Union marching on Capitol Hill today, marching to demand that democrats pass the so- called employee free choice act. The Service Employees Union, which did help many democrats win election, including the president, said that those democrats must keep their promises or else. Drew Griffin with our report.
DREW GRIFFIN: The battle has been waged inside this Indianapolis office building for three years. But the fight at the corner of Illinois and Market Streets is about to spread to every Main Street in the U.S. This noisy protest by members of the service employees' international union is specifically about janitors, but nationally, it's about the employee free choice act.
DAVE BEGO, EMS OWNER: Check is real simple. They want to eliminate the secret ballot election.
GRIFFIN: Dave Bego says in his case, the workers don't want the union.
BEGO: They've been after us for almost three years. And they've only got 10 or 12 people interested in what they have to sell.
GRIFFIN: Bego runs EMS, a national janitorial service based in Indianapolis. He started it 20 years ago and has never been unionized. Its workers, at least those chosen to talk to us, say that's the way they want it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the union, everybody needs a union, and unions are good, but with this company, we've been treated pretty fair and the work is good.
GRIFFIN: The SEIU says the real reason Bego's firm does not have a union is because workers who try to organize, like Shanika Brown and Harry Webster, are fired. Why has it been so hard to convince your other fellow employees of EMS to do that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of intimidation.
GRIFFIN: Bego denies it but says if his workers want a union, fine, as long as they can vote in secret. He even took out this ad in the Indianapolis newspaper telling the SEIU to fish or cut bait.
BEGO: Let's have an election, let's have it now. If our people choose to join your union, we'll live with it. If they don't, pack your bags and go talk to another company or go to another city.
GRIFFIN: Did they fish?
BEGO: They did not fish. We never heard one word.
GRIFFIN: Andy Stern is the powerful president of the Service Employees' International Union. And says folks all over the country soon will be hearing from his union.
BEGO: Isn't our whole democracy based on you don't know how I vote, I don't know how you vote, and that is the basic fairness in the election?
ANDY STERNS, SEIU PRESIDENT: This isn't necessarily an election. This is people wanting to start an organization. This is the worker's choice. They can have a secret ballot or legally affirm by a majority of them signing cards.
GRIFFIN: Right now, it is democrats in congress and the white house who will have to deal with Sterns. The SEIU was the largest contributor to democratic campaigns this election, $85 million. And the union says 2,000 members of SEIU gave up their jobs to work full time for Barack Obama. Sterns says politicians who made promises better keep them or else.
STERNS: We can lobby, we can petition, we can use the same things we do in the electoral process to unelect people.
GRIFFIN: So everybody should be scared of you?
STERNS: Everybody should be scared of living up to their promise.
GRIFFIN: Lou, how serious is he about that threat? They have set aside millions of dollars on reserve to unelect any of these politicians that stern says don't come through with their campaign promises. Back in Indianapolis, that business owner thinks that the democrats will have no choice but to pass this freedom of choice act for employees.
DOBBS: That's a straight-forward threat, isn't it?
GRIFFIN: Yeah, it is. There's no beating around the Bush with Mr. Sterns. He says what he wants and he's, so far, getting what he wants. He has backed these democrats with money, time, effort, sweat from his union, and he expects some changes. That's what the American people voted for, he says.
DOBBS: We well, the American people voted for lots of things, but I don't know a lot of people voted to end a secret ballot. That's pretty radical, even in this era of nationalization and socialization of our economy, isn't it?
GRIFFIN: Well, that will be the hang-up, I'm sure, in congress if it gets that far. I asked him point blank is there any wiggle room on this. The answer's no, they want it.
DOBBS: Thank you very much, Drew. Drew Griffin.
The Service Employees' International has a long track record of lobbying amongst other things for amnesty for illegal aliens as well. The SEIU also has tied with the so-called community organizing group ACORN. In fact, it shares buildings with groups such as ACORN are included, by the way in the stimulus bill, a bill calling for more than $4 billion, by the way, for something called neighborhood stabilization activities. That means fund for advocacy groups such as acorn, which is partisan groups supporting President Obama and others through its voter registration drives and other activities. ACORN is under investigation in more than a dozen states. ACORN, a major supporter of the democrats across the country.
