The Community Word

The Chamber of Commerce presents itself as a civic group promoting business, but in aggressive campaigning against Democrats, lobbying against equal pay for women and consumer protection, and pushing for restrictions on victims’ right to a day in court, the Chamber shows another side.

Of course, there often are conflicts between individuals and bureaucratic organizations that purport to represent them: churches and positions on civil unions for gays, for instance, or the Farm Bureau and its seeming preference for Big Ag at the expense of family farmers, or political parties who say they’re Green but favor nuclear energy, or talk fiscal conservatism and increase the national debt from $6 trillion to $9 trillion in eight years. Whether you’re a member of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) annoyed that they backed the Medicare Part D drug plan or a member of the Painters union that endorsed Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton even though you preferred Ron Paul and John Edwards, it happens.

Increasingly, though, the Chamber seems to advocate for positions that may surprise some of its members, despite its mission to “advance human progress through an economic, political and social system based on individual freedom, incentive, initiative, opportunity and responsibility.”

Obviously, it’s okay that the Chamber is a serious lobby, and it’s fine that it targets issues of public concern. But its stances are arguably in opposition to some of its own members – especially if they happen to be working women, consumers, injured parties or employers with good relations with unions.

It’s a matter of degree, sometimes.

Few U.S. businesses, women’s groups or unions support frivolous lawsuits, “equal pay for lousy work,” or union coercion as bad as some employers’ captive-audience meetings and threats of retaliation. But the Chamber has moved in the opposite extreme.

* The U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to spend more than $73 million lobbying against labor-backed Democrats this election, concede Chamber officials concerned that a Democratic President and Congress might pass the Employee Free Choice Act. That would restore balance to labor law lost in the last few decades by providing union recognition if a majority of workers sign cards supporting it, and by increasing penalties for companies that bully workers with loss of jobs or other intimidation in close-door meetings and other illegal acts.

The House passed the measure last March but President Bush threatened to veto it and Senate Republicans killed it.

“What’s going on on Capitol Hill is nothing short of a rapid rewrite of our nation’s labor laws,” said Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits, talking to the news site Politico.com.

The Chamber plans to advertise extensively in states with competitive Senate races, targeting members who supported the Employee Free Choice Act, and aiding opponents of the bill from states with a lot of union families.

“The Chamber has tremendous resources to dedicate to any issue they choose to get involved in,” said Chamber general counsel Steven J. Law. “We’ll certainly do so now.”

The Chamber spent $73 million on lobbying in the 2006 election, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which reports that the Chamber spent $283 million in 2001-07, a yearly average of $40.5 million. Organized labor spent $32 million in 2006 and $45 million last year, CRP says.

* Testifying to Congress on behalf of the Chamber, lawyer Camille Olson last July opposed equal pay for equal work because it would “interfere with private companies’ valuation of the work performed for them,” among other reasons.

“When it comes to anything that benefits workers, even if aiding workers aids employers, too, the Chamber always says ‘no’,” comments Mark Gruenberg of Press Associates, a union news service. “Worker health and safety? ‘No.’ Equal pay for equal work? ‘No.’ Social Security – keeping it and keeping it intact? ‘No.’ Taxing business to pay its fair share of the nation’s expenses? ‘No.’ Medical care coverage for workers? ‘No.’ Pensions, except for those ear-marked for corporate executives? ‘No.’ Fair trade with worker rights, not free trade without them? ‘No.’ No discrimination by race, sex, religion, handicap, or gender orientation? ‘No.’ Family and medical leave, unpaid or paid? ‘No.’

“Unions?” he continued. “‘No, never.’”

“Her words were so strong and repeated so often that we can come to only one conclusion,” he added about Olson. “The Chamber of Commerce is for sexual discrimination.”

* The Chamber in April at tacked the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would protect consumers, workers and others from having binding arbitration imposed as the only way to settle disputes.

Lisa Rickard, president of the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) claimed, “The sweeping legislation pending in Congress would effectively eliminate arbitration.”

Public Citizen’s Barry Boughton disagreed, saying, “The legislation does nothing of the sort. It simply prevents business and employers from forcing arbitration on unsuspecting customers and employees who don’t know they ‘agreed’ to it all, or agreed only because it was a condition of having a job, getting necessary medical care, buying a car, opening a bank account, getting a credit card, and the like. Oftentimes, because of the deliberately fine print used, consumers are not even aware that they have given up their rights.”

* The Chamber last October supported Bush’s veto of the SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act), arguing that SCHIP “should focus on poor children and the expansion [would be] a move towards government-run health care.”

* In its long campaign for “tort reform” (limiting people’s Constitutional right to seek redress for injuries negligently or intentionally caused), the Chamber has gone beyond ignoring that most lawsuits are brought by corporations. In the last few years, the Chamber has reportedly bought interests in newspapers in Illinois, Texas and West Virginia to push its interest in limiting lawsuits.

St. Louis lawyer and writer Evan Schaeffer commented that publications like the Chamber-linked Madison County Record “breached the trust of its readers. Its backers should be embarrassed and ashamed.”

* Also in Illinois, Douglas L. Whitley, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber, has written that the state should balance its budget by, among other things, cutting public employee pensions for new teachers and government workers.

“Illinois needs a two-tiered system where new employee benefits and contributions are aligned with private-sector standards,” he said.

Again, it’s certainly not unknown to be involved in an organization that occasionally spends money to work against some member interests. In fact, Peoria-area members of the Chamber of Commerce include food stores with unionized workers; the City of Peoria, which employs members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union; churches, charities and hospitals employing hundreds of women; groups employing union musicians; and even contractors whose labor forces are made up of union carpenters, roofers, plumbers, etc.

Even the West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council is a Chamber member.

Claiming a Chamber membership of 3 million nationwide, the Chamber’s Olson said about 1,000 business people develop positions on national issues – a participation rate of 3/100ths of 1%. So any disconnect may stem from too little grassroots involvement.

Others may adhere to the old saying, “Hold your friends close and your enemies closer.” Still others appreciate the structure the organization offers.

“If you’re not involved, you’d miss great networking opportunities,” says Don Johnson, interim general manager for the last several months at the Radisson Hotel Peoria on Western, where employees are unionized. “Every town’s Chamber is different, too. Some are very responsive and receptive to members’ opinions, and others aren’t. Ideally, they promote commerce, and hopefully that’s in the best interest of each location.”

Jim Hein of Hein Construction Co., a unionized Peoria contractor, said some members belong because it gives them a sense of being in the loop – despite positions the U.S. Chamber takes.

“I want to be part of the business community and I am a member, but sometimes I wonder why,” he said, laughing. “I’m a Democrat and see some of what’s done – especially by the national Chamber – and I just shake my head.

“I just get my name in their directory,” he continued. “I don’t support it; I don’t really participate.”

Peoria Chamber Chief Operating Officer Roberta Parks couldn’t comment because she was in Washington, D.C., with a Chamber group visiting the Capitol. Dan Silverthorn, executive director of the Building Trades Council, couldn’t be reached either. He was out of town – with that Chamber tour.

Bill Knight is an award-winning journalist who teaches at Western Illinois University. Contact him at bill.knight@hotmail.com.