Did corporations use bailout funds to plot against workers?

Now, a coalition of five major government-reform groups is asking Congress to fulfill its duty of overseeing the bailout funds and making sure they aren’t being used for political purposes like fighting the freedom to form unions.

In a letter sent to Congress Thursday, leaders of Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, Change Congress, Democracy Matters and Public Campaign asked for an investigation into whether taxpayer dollars are being spent on political influence-peddling.

"This story may be the tip of the iceberg," the groups wrote. "That’s why we’re calling for Congress to investigate whether Bank of America, AIG, or other recipients of billions in bailout money used taxpayer dollars to send \’large contributions\’ to any political organizations.

It\’s not clear what political donations were made or whether any laws were broken as a result of the conference call, but raising funds to defeat the pro-worker bill was clearly a central focus of the call. Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus said that business leaders who did not give money to anti-Employee Free Choice Senate candidates "should be shot," and at least one participant on the call, according to the Huffington Post, recommended that those taking part give major donations to anti-union corporate front groups like the ones led by lobbyist Rick Berman.

At one point, another individual on the call suggested that participants send major contributions to Berman\’s organization as a way of affecting the election without violating the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

This article is reprinted from the AFL-CIO news site, http://blog.aflcio.org  

For more information
Read the full report, with audio from the secret CEO discussion, on the Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/bank-of-america-hosted-an_n_161248.html