A Moral America: Rebuplicans and their goal to end democracy in the United States

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Dummy Organizations for Dummies
Sunday, January 22, 2006 @ 2:14 PM CST

On my Google personalized home page, I have a number of rss feeds in place that I read every day. One of those is from Congress.org -- the rss feed pertaining to Civil Rights Action. For the last several days, one of the headlines on the feed reads:

Want to get rid of your union? not pay dues? union bosses intimidating you?

Interesting, I thought to myself, that something like this would show up in a civil rights feed.

So I clicked on it, and it takes me to a site called the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights -- NAWAR. The web address for the place is http://www.freeworkplace.org/. Free work place. Hmm.

Here is the mission statement from NAWAR:

Our Mission:

To bring dignity and the promise of freedom back to Workers and Employers ending the tyranny of the Unions by protecting Business growth and Employee rights.
The National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights is a fresh conservative voice on the Hill on behalf of our broad membership of Workers and Businesses in the States.
The National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights pledges a replacement of unjust labor laws and legislative programs pushed onto the American people by an ever more radical hierarchy of American labor organizations.
That end of Union's over reaching political power is near, the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights through its National office and in every district of every state that is affected will turn the battle for our freedoms in the workplace.

Interesting. An organization that pledges to promote "dignity" and "freedom" for workers by working to eliminate labor unions in the United States as we know them, and by pledging to "replace" unjust labor laws "pushed" onto the American people.

I guess this organization is out to eliminate the indignities represented by these statistics:

Union workers’ median weekly earnings $781
Nonunion workers’ median weekly earnings $612
Union wage advantage 28%
Union women’s median weekly earnings $723
Nonunion women’s median weekly earnings $541
Union wage advantage for women 34%
Union workers with access to guaranteed (defined-benefit) pension 73%
Nonunion workers with access to guaranteed (defined-benefit) pension 16%
Union pension advantage 356%
Union workers whose jobs provide access to health insurance 92%
Nonunion workers whose jobs provide access to health insurance 68%
Union health insurance advantage 35%
Union workers without health insurance coverage 2.5%
Nonunion workers without health insurance coverage 15%
Union advantage 500%
Union workers’ average days of paid vacation 15 days
Nonunion workers’ average days of paid vacation 11.75 days
Union paid vacation advantage 28%

Yeah, I can see where someone might think that union members suffer intolerable indiginities and cruel lack of basic freedoms after looking through these stats.

Now, in all fairness, while I do not agree with people who think that unions are destroying the country, I can understand why some people would have strong feelings against unions. I understand why some people do not trust unions, and hailing from the Chicago area, I can understand why there are a lot of folks out there who see unions as corrupt, or nothing more than violent and extortive extensions of the mafia underworld. I get that. You don't grow up in a city so close to Chicago that one psychic believes that Jimmy Hoffa is buried under a street there and not get that. I also understand why people might fear unions, because of so many horror stories floating out there about people losing their jobs -- or worse -- because of their union activities. I get that, too. A lot of us might think of Karen Silkwood as a hero, but when push comes to shove, most of us would never have wanted to trade places with her.

But while I understand why some people are vehemently opposed to unions, I am a strong believer in union representation. Why? Well, the stats above, for starters. Also, I have been a union member, off-and-on, for the last fifteen years (I have changed jobs numerous times over the last fifteen years, and some of my places of employment did not extend union representation to my category of worker), and I have seen firsthand how important union representation can be to a positive, just and safe working environment. The way I see it, the union is one giant democracy: you gotta take the bad sometimes with the good if you want to ensure that all peoples' rights are protected. If someone is morally opposed to the principals of a union, I would challenge that person to find a way to justify a democratic method of government without overlapping at least some of the basic tenets of a union.

But the whole union debate is beside the point of this article, anyway. The point of this article is dummy organizations -- like NAWAR.

Now, you might think -- as I initially did -- that NAWAR was founded by some disgruntled ex-union members, or workers who are vehemently opposed to unions. People working for industry who are upset about paying union dues, or about what a union is, or more likely, is not, doing for them. Working people with firsthand experience with unions and, as a result, are opposed to their very existence.

You'd be wrong.

The more I surfed around NAWAR's web site, the more curious I became about who exactly runs the organization. You won't find a single place anywhere on the site that tells you who any of their "broad membership of Workers and Businesses" are. There is no executive committee or board listed. There are no contacts listed by name. When you call the phone number listed on the bottom of their web site, you get redirected to a voice mail for a William Fine.

I cannot find much on William Fine, except that he seems to like to occasionally post messages on that bastion of conservative taste, the Free Republic, and that he has founded a Yahoo! group called Sanhedran, whose written goal is to "act as a network and watchdog of Jewish organizations worldwide...as a forum for independent and free thinking people who seek understanding and demand change."

There isn't anything in my search of him that would explain why he works for NAWAR, if in fact he does work for NAWAR (Which I assume he does, since his is the voicemail you get when you call them). In his Yahoo! profile, he describes his occupation as "politics."

I guess, then, that he isn't the disgruntled factory worker that we're looking for.

I guess it isn't that unusual for an organization to hire a pol or a lobbyist for their organization -- especially if that organization is comprised of "common folks,' people who are not savvy to the ways of politics, but want to be heard. Maybe that's the case here: our digruntled factory-worker founders of NAWAR hired one William Fine to run their organization, since none of them know anything about legislative activism and all.

Nope. Wrong again.

I did a little more research, and found out who specifically registered the site on the web. WHOIS, a company that keeps a database on who buys domain names and administers web sites, lists both the registrant and the technical contact of NAWAR's web site as a David Kralik. Okay, this David Kralik must be our hero, our disgruntled factory worker who one day decided to take matters into his own hads and speak out against labor unions!

Nope. Wrong again.

David Kralik is actually an employee of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). In the company directory, he is listed as "Manager, Internet Programs & Web Content Editor."

In case you are not familiar with NAM, it is the nation’s largest industrial trade association, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the NAM has 10 additional offices across the country. The NAM's mission is to "...enhance the competitiveness of manufacturers by shaping a legislative and regulatory environment conducive to U.S. economic growth and to increase understanding among policymakers, the media and the general public about the vital role of manufacturing to America’s economic future and living standards."

Not a peep about advocating for workers.

In fact, on just some of the issues that involve the health and/or welfare of workers, here is where NAM stands:

Retirement Security Issues: The NAM believes that our nation’s voluntary, private pension system plays a critical role in ensuring a secure retirement for American workers. Manufacturers traditionally have provided generous pension benefits for their employees ... we need to avoid imposing unreasonable restrictions and funding obligations on employers....
American Jobs Creation Act of 2004: In October 2004, Congress approved landmark legislation that repealed the export tax provision and provided the most significant tax relief for businesses in more than a decade. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who did not vote on the bill this week, called it the "worst example of the influence of the special interests I have ever seen." Will it create new jobs? "Jobs for tax professionals, yes," says Bob Scharin, editor of RIA's Practical Tax Strategies.
Asbestos: There is broad and bipartisan agreement that asbestos litigation needs to be reined in. There are simply too many people who are not sick taking money...and financially ruining companies with little or no liability. There are at least 8,400 active defendants, more than 70 bankruptcies caused by asbestos litigation...These stark statistics call for Congress to “do something.”
Health Care - Patients’ Bill of Rights: The Patients’ Bill of Rights debate (a.k.a. managed care reform) was one of the biggest health care fights...In reality this fight was not about patients but instead was about trial lawyers and their efforts to encourage workers to sue their employers for claims denied by their health plan....The NAM led a number of successful efforts to defeat the Patients’ Bill of Rights through the years, helping to prevent its enactment into law despite Congress passing several versions. The NAM will again oppose this unnecessary and dangerous legislation as introduced in any form in future years.
Health Care - Prescription Drugs: The NAM ... oppose[s] efforts to apply price controls to pharmaceuticals or other health care services. We also oppose efforts to facilitate the importation of prescription drugs, which would ...in effect, import foreign price controls into the United States.
Clean Air - Mercury: ...The NAM's goal is to defeat any regulation of mercury emissions at levels beyond what can be achieved as a “co-benefit”....

Now, I can't legally say that the National Association of Manufacturers is the proprietor and single founder of the National Association of Worker and Employer Rights, because I don't have the proof of that. I cannot legally say that David Kralik is acting as an employee of the National Association of Manufacturers when he bought the domain name for NAWAR and listed himself as the technical support. I cannot legally say that NAWAR is in fact just a shill for the National Association of Manufacturers. I can't legally say that NAWAR is a cleverly disguised way for big bidness to try to convince the little guy that unions are bad for him. I don't have proof of any of that.

All I have is David Kralik, who is listed as the registrant of NAWAR's web site, and also, by sheer coincidence, just happens to be employed by the NAM as their "Manager of Internet Programs & Web Content Editor." Of course, David may have started NAWAR all of his own accord, in his personal free time, because of his strong opinions about unions. He may also have been hired as a moonlighter to put the web site together.

Yep, these things are possible. It's also possible that it will snow in Honolulu, too.

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