Corporations Taking Bailout Money, Spending It Opposing Unions

Corporations are taking taxpayer money -- contributed by the workers of America, as most corporations in this country don't pay taxes -- and using it to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act so they can keep workers under their thumbs. During an October 17th conference call hosted by Bank of America involving AIG, Home Depot and other US corporations, the corporate thieves suggest giving millions to a lobbying organization so they can get around the McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws. So, they've taken our money, and they're using it to lobby against us.

I've signed Change Congress's donor strike pledging not to donate to any federal candidate unless they support legislation making congressional elections citizen-funded, not special-interest funded.

HuffPo: Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.

Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.

Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

You can listen to the call here on Wikileaks. Just click the blue "audio-recording" at the top of the page.