Template:ALEC News

ALEC News Wisconsin Introduces Word-for-Word ALEC Right to Work Bill by Brendan Fischer Wisconsin Republicans have called a special session to take up a "right to work" measure attacking private sector unions--and the text of the bill, the Center for Media and Democracy has discovered, is taken word-for-word from American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) model legislation. See the side-by-side of the Wisconsin legislation and the ALEC bill here. Read the rest of this item here. “Death by a Thousand Cuts” and ALEC’s Local Strategy for Attacking Unions by Brendan Fischer File:Union.jpg The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) made headlines last week after Wisconsin Republicans introduced a virtually word-for-word copy of the ALEC “model” Right to Work Act, following on the heels of Michigan and other states that have taken up the ALEC-inspired anti-union measures in recent years. But ALEC and its allies have also been pushing a new and unprecedented approach to defunding unions on a city-by-city basis through an ALEC offshoot, the American City County Exchange (ACCE). Since ACCE’s most recent meeting in December, so-called right to work laws on the local level have been enacted in several Kentucky counties, and discussed in other states such as Illinois and Ohio. Read the rest of this item here. ACCE Wants Your Town to Subsidize ALEC-Style Corporate Lobbying by Jessica Mason File:Alec350.jpg As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported previously, the American City County Exchange (ACCE) was formed in 2014 as a local government version of the state legislature-focused American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The new group's structure mimics its parent organization, with corporate lobbyists paying between $10,000 and $25,000 to sit side-by-side with city and county elected officials and vote on legislation that all too frequently benefits ALEC's corporate members. Early reports suggest that ACCE's agenda is a familiar one: introducing local "right-to-work" bills that undermine collective bargaining, blocking local minimum wage campaigns, and privatizing government services to benefit for-profit corporations. Read the rest of this item here. ALEC Helps Philip Morris Block Plain Packaging Tobacco Rules by Rebekah Wilce Brandie Davis, lobbyist and Director of Corporate Affairs at Philip Morris International, urged lawmakers to adopt a measure in opposition to "plain packaging" laws that ban trademark labels on cigarette packages, branding them as illegal advertising and replacing them with images like the diseased lung featured on Oliver's show that alert smokers to the danger of smoking cigarettes. ALEC's International Relations Task Force took up the issue at the 2010 annual meeting (p. 14), and with corporate lobbyists like Davis voting as equals with state lawmakers to make it part of ALEC’s legislative agenda, "The resolution passed unanimously and was subsequently approved by ALEC's Board of Directors." Reynolds American, another global tobacco company, was co-chair of the task force at the time. After approving the resolution, ALEC sent a letter to the Australian Senate opposing plain packaging initiatives and suggesting that "plain packaging can result in an increase in tobacco use due to the proliferation of cheaper, counterfeit products" in October 2010. Read the rest of this item here. Republicans Call for Imposing ALEC Zones on Poorest Neighborhoods of Milwaukee by Brendan Fischer Sen. Alberta Darling and Rep. Dale Kooyenga Two suburban Wisconsin lawmakers have unveiled an economic development plan for the lowest-income neighborhoods of Milwaukee, and their "solutions" for the Wisconsin communities hit hardest by deindustrialization come directly from a national right-wing playbook. Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) represent two of the wealthiest districts in Wisconsin and have no background in economic development, yet have proposed a 23-page plan targeting the majority-minority communities with the highest unemployment rates in the state -- and have done so without consulting any of the elected officials who actually represent the area. "I don't understand how two suburban legislators can tell Milwaukee what they need without talking to Milwaukee legislators," said Sen. Nikiya Harris Dodd, a Democrat who represents Milwaukee. "It's really hurtful." Read the rest of this item here. eBay Becomes 100th Company to Cut Ties to "Controversial" ALEC by Rebekah Wilce "We are not renewing membership in ALEC," eBay tweeted on the afternoon of December 18. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) had joined the climate change awareness group Forecast the Facts, Credo Action, and others in asking eBay to leave what Reuters called the "controversial political group ALEC" in recent weeks. A Twitterstorm on December 17 was followed by the delivery of a petition containing nearly 100,000 petitions to eBay's headquarters in San Jose, California on December 18. eBay's announcement came shortly after. "After our annual review of eBay Inc's memberships in trade associations and third party organizations we've decided not to renew our membership with American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)," eBay Senior Director of Corporate Communications Abby Smith confirmed. Read the rest of this item here.