Timothy McNulty | May 27, 2009
Can't anybody give a 79-year-old cancer survivor a break?
The Democratic left went after Specter. Then Philadelphia rabbis hit him on card-check. Now commercials are going up on religious radio stations statewide, sponsored by a Catholic labor org, also pushing him to approve the Employee Free Choice Act legislation.
The kicker: they're by the left's favorite pre-Obama president, Martin Sheen. Here's the press release:
Washington, DC - Catholics for Working Families (www.catholicsforworkingfamilies.org)
and actor Martin Sheen launched a radio ad campaign today calling on Senator
Arlen Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would allow
workers to bargain with their employers for better job security, wages and
benefits. The 60-second spot, which features Mr. Sheen's voice, will air this
week on religious radio stations across Pennsylvania.
Mr. Sheen - an active Catholic and union member since
1961 - notes in the ad that a decades-long decline in the number of unionized
U.S. workers corresponds with massive increases in executive compensation and
mounting hardships for working families. The Employee Free Choice Act, he
states, will "help build a more
just economy. An economy that promotes families, an economy that values human
life and serves everyone, not just the people at the
top."
Catholics for Working Families, a project of Catholics
United (www.catholics-united.org), is
encouraging Senator Specter to support the Employee Free Choice Act because of
his unique history with the legislation and because Catholics comprise 32% of
the population of Pennsylvania. Senator Specter voted for
cloture on the act in 2007, but has recently modified his position on the
legislation. On May 19th, representatives from Catholics for Working
Families, including Father Pat Sullivan of Wilkes-Barre, met with Senator Specter to
discuss the act. (View a video of the conversation at http://www.catholicsforworkingfamilies.org/specter-EFCA.)
"Catholics and other people of faith are part of a long
tradition of standing with working families," said Fr. Pat Sullivan, a Catholic
priest and a faculty member of Kings
College in Wilkes-Barre. "This
legislation is critical in that it will offer a more fair and democratic process
for forming a union, one that will benefit all workers, especially the most
vulnerable."
The radio ad campaign will run Wednesday, May 27 through
Friday, May 29 on the following stations: WBYN-AM Allentown-Bethlehem, WJSM-AM
WJSM-FM Altoona, WCTL-FM Erie, WWII-AM Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, WFIL-AM
WNTP-AM WVCH-AM Philadelphia, WORD-FM WPIT-AM WWNL-AM Pittsburgh, WITK-AM Wilkes
Barre - Scranton, WJSA-AM WJSA-FM Williamsport, WYYC-AM York and
WHJB-AM.
Similar ads will also run in Alaska and Louisiana.
Click here to listen to the
ads:
http://www.catholicsforworkingfamilies.org/martin-sheen-radio-ad
The text of the radio ad is as
follows:
Hello, I'm Martin Sheen, and when I joined
my first union in 1961, thirty percent of the American workforce was unionized.
Now that number is less than twelve percent.
As CEOs receive massive salaries and
bonuses, working families continue to struggle.
A bill in Congress called the Employee
Free Choice Act will provide a fair and democratic process for workers to form
unions. And that will help build a more just
economy.
An economy that promotes families, an
economy that values human life and serves everyone, not just the people at the
top.
We need laws that protect all workers,
especially the most vulnerable: the people who prepare our food, the people who
care for our children, the people who build our
homes.
Senator Arlen Specter, please, join us.
Stand with America's working families and
support the Employee Free Choice Act. Thank you.
Posted
May 27 2009, 11:17 AM
by
Timothy McNulty