It is unfortunate that we all expect to be subjected to lie and smear advertising during a campaign. It certainly doesn't have to be that way, but it often is. So here we are, the campaign season is just starting and a corporate group has put out TV and newspaper ads from Norm Coleman attacking Al Franken that are just brimming with lies. We know because the lies are about something important to us -- "The Employee Free Choice Act" or EFCA.
The ads claim that Al Franken and other supporters of the EFCA are trying to eliminate secret ballots for workers. This is a lie. The act does not eliminate the secret ballot. Since 1935 there have been two options for choosing a union -- majority sign-up or a National Labor Relations Board election. Under the EFCA, these two options will still exist. The only change is that instead of management making the decision for the employees, the employees make the decision.
Norm Coleman opposes the EFCA even though he knows that the act will help working people make their own decisions about joining together to bargain for better wages and working conditions. Until working people can exercise a free choice, their living standards will continue to suffer and our middle class will continue to decline. The EFCA will give workers a real choice. They don't have it now, and Norm Coleman knows it.
