$1 Million Anti-Worker Ad Campaign Likens Teamsters To The Mafia
In a new ad, Rick Berman's misnamed Employee Freedom Action Center portrays union representatives as mobsters.
Yesterday, the Employee Freedom Action Center -- one of lobbyist Rick Berman's many corporate front groups -- launched a $1 million campaign targeting centrist Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), whose vote could be crucial in reaching cloture on the Employee Free Choice Act. "The ad campaign is designed to urge Nebraskans to tell Ben Nelson to oppose closing debate on the Employee 'Forced' Choice Act," Berman said.
One of the ads portrays an employee named "Joe" engaging in pleasant negotiations with his supervisor until two union representatives -- who appear to be modeled after characters from The Sopranos -- interrupt with unreasonable demands and threats. At the end of the ad, Joe is shown struggling in his chair, his mouth covered with duct tape. Watch it:
While Nelson opposes the Employee Free Choice Act in its current form, he has spoken out against similar ads in the past. Last December, he denounced ads referring to the bill as the "union boss bailout," calling them "sleazy...smear tactics that insult me and my fellow Nebraskans."
