Mark Warner – Seeking To Undermine Virginia’s “Right To Work” Law

Mark Warner, in his own words. Obviously he isn’t the same person he portrays himself to be when he thinks that the cameras are off and the media isn’t watching.

From the Jim Gilmore campaign:

A Mark Warner Secret Revealed

Mark Warner & Barack Obama.

While Mark Warner was in Denver this week hobnobbing with the big labor bosses, the liberal Hollywood elite that is contributing to Warner’s campaign and the Barack Obama team that is trying to take down John McCain, Virginia voters were learning about Mark Warner’s secret commitment to the AFL-CIO to help the labor unions gain passage of the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” — legislation that would undermine Virginia’s Right to Work law.

Warner has been refusing to respond to business and community leaders who have asked him about his position on this important piece of liberal legislation. He was asked directly in Martinsville — where he was campaigning for the election of Barack Obama — on August 20th, Warner refused to respond. But now his secret is out! Mark Warner met with the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council’s union activists in Annandale on July 4th and privately pledged his support. Unfortunately for him, he was being recorded.

For more information see the Virginia Chamber of Commerce email below:

FROM THE VIRGINIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:

For starters, ask the Virginia congressional candidates, as they make their rounds this fall, where they stand on the EFCA.

Be especially attentive to candidates for the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by our good friend John Warner. Jim Gilmore has indicated he opposes the EFCA, but attempts to pin down candidate Mark Warner have not been successful.

At least one internet source indicates that Mark Warner “will support the EFCA…” Click here to read the blog post.

Here is a direct link for the AFL-CIO video featuring Mark Warner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmQuEMFCzeI

And, here’s a another posting with — from the AFL-CIO website — that quotes Mark Warner saying basically the same thing he does in the above video — Warner credits the union movement with electing him governor of Virginia in 2001 and says the energy and enthusiasm of union volunteers and voters will create great opportunities to pass legislation that will help working families. “We are going to do great things come January 2009, in terms of getting this country back on the right path and making sure that working families have the right to organize in a way that’s free and fair.”

Check out the full post at this URL — http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/07/15/candidates-in-key-races-pledge-to-support-employee-free-choice/print/

 

WHERE DOES JIM GILMORE STAND
ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE?
Read his Op-Ed below

 

Card Check Legislation Would Weaken Virginia’s Important Right to Work Laws

By Jim Gilmore

If Barack Obama is elected President this fall, and the Democrats get a filibuster proof Senate as they hope to do with the election of Democrat Mark Warner, one of the first causalities of the new Obama Administration may well be Virginia’s historic Right to Work law.

The AFL-CIO and liberal Democrats allied with Big Labor are making it known that one of their major goals following the 2008 election is the enactment of the so-called Employee Free Choice Act which would strip workers of the right to vote by secret ballot on whether or not to join a union. The legislation would also leave workers subject to threats and intimidation by union organizers.

If this legislation – which Mark Warner supports — becomes law, workers in Virginia and across the nation will no longer have control over their employment. For one thing without a secret ballot they will lose control over whether they have to belong to a union. Under this legislation, many workers would not even know a union organizing campaign was underway — something I do not believe can be tolerated.

The legislation would mandate compulsory binding arbitration, would provide excessively punitive penalties that apply only to employers and not to unions and would deny working Virginians and other workers across the country the opportunity to express their opinions about union recognition.

Like many long standing liberal ideas which have been offered by Barack Obama and Mark Warner, including the continued restriction of America’s domestic oil production, this idea is one whose time has passed. In fact, the card check idea was used for union organizing in the 1940s but was abandoned as a failure.

The Employee Free Choice Act, if enacted, would strip away workers’ privacy and workers’ rights and would undermine Virginia’s long standing tradition of Right to Work. That is unacceptable to me and certainly should be unacceptable to the vast majority of working Virginians.