PURE INTIMIDATION - AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

The labor movement is taking square aim at Wall Street with a new tool in its fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act: the hundreds of billions of dollars in pension funds it manages for union workers and retirees, some of it held by the same firms that are fighting the provision known as "card check."

"Has your company made any public statements in support or opposition to EFCA?" asks one of nine pointed questions in a polite, detailed four-page questionnaire.

"If 'Yes,' please explain."

The detailed questionnaire has three parts. The first asks about fund managers' public positions, lobbying and political contributions. The second asks managers to "disclose any relationships during the past five years between your company and any organization(s) opposing the passage" of EFCA. The form lists 14 organizations, from anti-EFCA organizations like the Workforce Fairness Institute to trade groups that oppose it, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Roundtable.

A third passage asked whether other any trade association to which the fund managers belong has taken a position on the bill.

COMMENT:  A message is clearly being sent:  Cooperate, or lose huge amounts of business from pension funds. 

I think this is unwise, from the unions' standpoint.  They begin to look like bosses, and the unpopular EFCA issue is hardly the one on which to make a stand.  It would, in the view of its opponents, eliminate free elections in union organizing. 

(Full disclosure: I am a member of a union, required in the film and television industries.  I have no problem with responsible union activity.  I think this questionnaire pushes things into areas that are very murky.)

May 24, 2009