Jim Hoffa, General President of the Teamsters Union, has
written a column
for the Huffington Post about battling ALEC at the state level.
Here’s what he had to say about ALEC, or the American
Legislative Exchange Council:
Funded
in large part by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, ALEC is casting a
wide net as it attempts to empower CEOs while undermining democracy. ALEC wants
to make it harder for workers to contribute to political campaigns and causes.
They want to alter telecommunications laws so that large phone companies can
increase consumer costs while reducing consumer protections. They want gut
public education by cutting student funding and implementing a voucher system.
These are but a small sampling of ALEC's work across the country.
The column
talks about paycheck deception in Missouri, last week’s ALEC protest and rally
in Oklahoma City and the Indiana “ag-gag” bill.
ALEC's
goal is clear. It wants less regulation and fewer worker protections in order
to boost corporate profits. To do this, ALEC is strategically working to strip
workers and middle-class families of their fundamental rights. They are trying
to destroy safeguards that protect us from harm and ensure that we have a voice
in our state capitals. That's why it is critical that our legislators hear a
diversity of voices. If they don't, ALEC and its friends in big business will
push through their agenda at our expense.
ALEC
boasts that it has more than 1,000 bills introduced by legislative members
every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. Let's make that
number zero. I urge you to sign our petition and tell ALEC that we won't stand for a
corporate takeover of America.
