Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, desperate in their efforts to kill the proposed legislation that would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, have come up with another line of attack. They are making a lot of noise over the bill’s arbitration provision. The argument is just another straw-man attempt at gutting legislation that would enable more workers to have a voice on the job.

Arlen Specter (D-RD-Pa.) is born again. But unlike most converts, he’s not exactly zealous about his new religion.

In the same breath that he announced his switch to the Democratic Party last week, Specter was quick to assert his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. The legislation, which would level the playing field for workers seeking to form unions, depends upon 60 votes for cloture in the Senate (that is, we need 60 senators to agree to let the bill come to a vote).

The faux tea party events yesterday served many purposes for the wealthy Foxocrats who shamelessly promoted them, including distracting from the real perpetrators of waste: Greedy CEOs.

Even as the U.S. economy tanked, the median salary for CEOs of 200 large companies increased 4.5 percent to $1.08 million in 2008, according to a survey by The Wall Street Journal.

It was tragic enough that her 11-year-old son became a quadriplegic after gunshots hit him while he was playing outside. But now Alberta, a single mother, worries every day because she can’t leave her job to take care of her son. Without her job, she has no way to get, or pay for, health coverage for her son.

Alberta told us her story as part of the AFL-CIO and Working America 2009 Health Care for America Survey.

Corporate opponents of workers’ freedom to form unions repeatedly have shown they are not interested in the welfare of their employees or any of the pseudo-lofty ideals they cite while fighting the Employee Free Choice Act.

Now, they’ve made clear they will do anything—even destroy jobs, communities and harm the U.S. economy—to ensure that more American workers do not have a voice on the job.

It’s no surprise Rush Limbaugh opposes the Employee Free Choice Act with the same old “sky is falling” rhetoric that amasses him millions of dollars and helps pay for all those, um, medications he inhales takes. After all, why would scrum like him be on the side of hard-working employees getting better treatment at work, not to mention pensions and affordable health care?

But the hyperbole spewing forth against the Employee Free Choice Act from more straight-laced representatives of the Big Business elite is a sure sign the Corporate Gods are afraid, reaaaaalllly afraid, that with the Employee Free Choice Act, America’s workers would have a fair playing field to get a voice on the job by joining unions.

Join me in welcoming AFL-CIO Government Affairs Director Bill Samuel, who provides a reality check for the media spin around the Employee Free Choice Act. Bill was on NPR today in a discussion of the issue with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Check it out here.

As most of you know, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate this week.

Make no mistake: This is a big deal.

There’s too much going on this week to focus on one topic. So here’s a rundown from the world of working people and their unions.

-Hilda Solis made her first public appearance as labor secretary during the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Miami, where she toured an Electrical Workers (IBEW) union training facility and held a meeting in the inner city with 700 community members.

Opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress made their Big Lie into a bill Wednesday, when Republicans John DeMint (S.C.) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.) introduced the so-called Secret Ballot Protection Act.

Before we go further, let’s clear up the bill’s false implication right now:

The Employee Free Choice Act would not—repeat after me—would not, take away the secret ballot National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process if workers seeking to form a union wanted to use it.

Here’s what you saw today if you’re a Member of Congress. This afternoon, more than 2,000 working people rallied outside the Senate in support of an important part of our economic recovery: the Employee Free Choice Act. Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress, CEOs are having their “Executive Lobby Day” so they can spread lies and misinformation in order to keep wages down and perpetuate inequality.