CEOs Want To Use Bailout $$ To Bust Unions

by Dollars and Sense

Regardless of how you feel about the Employee Free Choice Act, you should be outraged that recipients of the bail-out are using that money to lobby Congress against the measure.

Wikileaks managed to get its hand on an hour long phone call between some "Captains of Industry" in which AIG and Bank of America took part. In that phone call lobbying efforts were discussed to tank "card check legislation."

I've listened to the call once, and from what I've caught it's been a lot of discussion about industry fear of "becoming France." The real kicker, and Sam Stein heard the same thing I did, that:

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don’t believe it."

The comment's owner was Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, who apparently missed the irony of blaming unions for an "end of civilization" event at a time when the "captains of industry" were witnessing and responsible for the beginning of a recession that's so far accounted for the loss of more than a third of the value of the stock market.

Mr. Marcus then goes on to talk about establishing PAC's so that retailers can make donations in amounts up to $2 million and "avoid McCain-Fiengold." Marcus also went on to make some other nonsensical accusations, that Obama promised to establish EFCA as the first priority of his administration (it was healthcare before the recession began, economy after it). He goes on to complain about an end to the "12 hour work day."

Labels: bailout, Bank of America, Bernie Marcus, Employee Free Choice Act, Home Depot, Rick Berman, Wal Mart

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1/29/2009 11:29:00 PM