Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes makes nice over Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s repudiation of her previous support for the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act.
Sen. Lincoln’s announcement that she doesn’t support the Employee Free Choice Act as written is obviously a disappointment to working families in Arkansas who have supported her over the years. However, we’ve always said that we’re willing to talk to people who are legitimately concerned with workers’ freedom to bargain collectively and to join unions and we count the Senator among those people.
We’re confident that labor law reform is going to pass in 2009. Across Arkansas, hundreds of people are participating in events to show the growing support for the Employee Free Choice Act. The Employee Free Choice Act is built on the fundamental principles that workers have the choice of how to form their union, that corporations should be held responsible when they violate workers’ freedom, and that corporations must end the endless delays and stall tactics to keep workers from a contract. We believe that a bill will be passed that stays true to those principles.
Sorry, Alan. And I am truly sorry. But you can stick a fork in that turkey this year. The senator deserves a heaping amount of the credit/blame.