Unions Gave Millions to Elected Officials for Their Future Votes on Card Check (EFCA); Sponsors Got $1.7 Million Each

Why would Rep. Harkin from Iowa who represents agriculture introduce Card Check, the "Employee Free Choice Act," which strips away an the employees' rights to a secret vote. The nonpartisan watchdog Center for Responsive Politics reports that the main Democratic sponsors, Rep. George Miller (D-CA) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), both collected over $1.7 million in union contributions over the last two decades. While the $1.7 million represents 5% of the $35 million Harkin raised over the same period, the labor union contributions accounted for about 33% of the $5.4 million Miller raised since 1989.

Could you put a price on denying workers their rights to a secret ballots? Evidently the unions did! And, it appears that Rep. Harkin and Rep. Miller have been bought "lock, stock and barrel." It is doubtful that the union workers voted to give this $3.4 million dollars. The future strength of the union members' pension funds would have benefited from this money.

But the situation is even worse: "In the 2008 election cycle, labor unions spent . . . $80 million on independent broadcast advertising, mail and internal advocacy to help elect or defeat specific federal candidates." Members of Congress who voted in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007, when the bill wasn't passed, collected on average $862,065 from union PACs during their careers.

So, how much was given by unions to support electing President Barack Obama? The Center reports, "In the 2008 presidential race, the labor sector spent at least $45.3 million on independent expenditures and communications costs toward getting President Obama elected and $6.6 million to defeat [John McCain]. " That's $51.9 million!

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Tags: American workers, bribes, Card Check, EFCA, free speech, labor unions, union contributions To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!