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==Council of State Chambers==
The [[Council of State Chambers]] (COSC) is a little known 501(c)(6) organization<ref name="2014 990"> Council of State Chambers of Commerce, [http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/350/827/2014-350827885-0c228925-9O.pdf IRS Form 990 2014], ''Internal Revenue Service'', November 13, 2015.</ref> that helps the top lobbyists for state chambers of commerce get on message about the national political agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It works closely with the U.S. Chamber, which is a member along with most state chambers.<ref name="Mary article"> Mary Bottari, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13074/luntz-poll-american-ceos-shows-deep-support-progressive-policies Highlights of Luntz Poll of American CEOs Shows Broad Support for Progressive Policies], ''The Center for Media and Democracy'', April 4, 2016.</ref>
According to its website, "The Council of State Chambers (COSC) is the national organization for state chamber CEOs and their executive leadership. The purpose of COSC is to promote cooperation among state chambers of commerce, strengthen existing state chambers, and promote the extensions of the state chamber of commerce movement throughout the country."<ref> Council of State Chambers, [http://www.statechambers.org/ Home page], organizational website, accessed April 28, 2016.</ref> The group is part of an extremely powerful network of organizations that serve, effectively, as arms of the U.S Chamber.
The polling showed that 80 percent of the state chambers' own business members supported minimum wage increases, while 73 percent support [[Paid Sick Days|paid sick time]]. Yet over the last three years 48 state chambers have publicly opposed minimum wage increases. And in the last 5 years, 75 percent of the country's state chambers have opposed paid sick leave policies. Both measures are explicitly opposed in the U.S. Chamber's 2016 policy platform.
"This webinar reveals just how deeply corporate interests and their lobbyists are influencing the priorities of state Chambers of Commerce, even when that agenda contradicts the opinions of their local business members," said Lisa Graves, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy. "Rather than listening to its members and crafting a policy agenda that reflects their priorities, Chamber lobbyists pick their policy positions behind closed doors and then figure out how to convince their members to fall in line." She added, "It's a warped, undemocratic process, and the Chambers should be held accountable for their claims to the public, press, and elected officials that businesses oppose raising the minimum wage, paid sick leave, increased family and medical leave and other common sense policies, when in fact substantial majorities of business executives actually support these public policies."<ref name="Editor article"> PRWatch Editors, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13075/top-gop-pollster-chamber-commerce-lobbyists-poll-shows-your-members-support Exposed: Most CEOs Support Paid Sick Leave, Increased Minimum Wage, and More But Chamber Lobbyists Told How to "Combat" These Measures], ''The Center for Media and Democracy'', April 4, 2016.</ref>
====Key Documents====
*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/files/cmd_prwatch_markup_of_01-05-16_state_chambers_topline_poll.pdf The poll, marked up by CMD]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CtmWcvX81E Short video on the webinar by CMD]
*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/files/01-10-2016_cmd_mark_up_of_cosc_presentation.pdf Copy of the slideshow marked up by CMD]*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/files/03-31-16_luntz_poll_transcript_re_business_support_for_increasing_minimum_wage_and_other_policies.pdf Transcript of the webinar, highlighted by CMD]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoafI3hfzmg Full version of the webinar]
*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/files/03-31-2016_cmd_on_chambers_whos_who_re_webinar.pdf Information about who spoke during the webinar]*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13075/top-gop-pollster-chamber-commerce-lobbyists-poll-shows-your-members-support CMD's press release] summarizing key information about the materials*[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13074/luntz-poll-american-ceos-shows-deep-support-progressive-policies Analysis of the polling results by CMD]
*[http://www.npr.org/2016/04/06/473244707/from-fracking-bans-to-paid-sick-leave-how-states-are-overruling-local-laws Interview on NPR's Fresh Air] about the materials and the efforts to preempt local efforts to increase the minimum wage, paid sick, family leave, predictive scheduling and other popular measures
=====Preemption=====
State Chambers along with the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] (ALEC) have been pushing [[Preemption|preemption]] of living wage, minimum wage, prevailing wage, and other progressive policies promulgated by localities for some time.<ref>Brendan Fischer, "[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/02/13029/2016-ALEC-local-control Corporate Interests Take Aim at Local Democracy]," Center for Media and Democracy, ''PR Watch'', February 3, 2016.</ref> Multistate Associates has been supportive of these state preemption efforts.
In the Luntz Global poll CEOs were asked: "All of these issues may be important but when it comes to where an elected official stands, which issue is the MOST important to you?"
More than 40 percent of the work force in the United States cannot take [[Paid Sick Days|sick days]] without losing wages or possibly their jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Major cities such as Washington DC, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, as well as the state of Connecticut, have put paid sick day laws on the books; New York City will soon follow suit.<ref name="BF"/> The initiative is quickly moving to cities across the country "and in each case, the state and local branches of the National Restaurant Association, the NFIB, and the Chamber are actively opposing it" as they did in Philadelphia.<ref name="BF"/> Philadelphia was not the first instance where these special interest groups came together to thwart this legislation. City of Milwaukee voters passed a paid sick days referendum with over 70 percent of the vote in 2008 but when [[Scott Walker]] became Wisconsin's governor in 2011, the state affiliate of the National Restaurant Association and the local Chamber lobbied Walker to back "a bill to overturn this expression of local democratic will and preempt any local paid sick day ordinance."<ref name="BF"/>
In Wisconsin, a local representative of the US Chamber of Commerce called the [[Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce]] lobbied together with the [[Wisconsin Restaurant Association]] for the adoption of Senate Bill 23, which overturned a local ordinance requiring paid sick leave for workers. The law "specified that paid sick leave could be used if a worker is ill, needs to care for a sick child, or obtain counseling if raped or battered, for example. The law also barred companies from penalizing workers for exercising their rights and from erecting unreasonable barriers to impede the fair use of sick leave." <ref>Rebekah Wilce, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/10/11079/flu-burger-alec-wants-sick-people-serving-you-food Flu with that Burger? Alec Wants Sick People Serving You Food], PR Watch, October 19, 2011.</ref>
In March 2013, the Philadelphia City Council passed, by an 11 to 6 vote, a paid sick days bill that would have allowed employees without sick leave to earn up to four paid sick days per year.<ref name="NBCP">Dan Stamm, [http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/Paid-Sick-Leave-Bill-Veto-Stands-202535031.html "Paid Sick Leave Veto Override Falls 1 Vote Short"], ''NBC Philadelphia'', April 11, 2013</ref> Over 180,000 workers in Philadelphia do not have access to paid sick days and would have benefited from this measure. <ref name="BF"/> However, major opponents of the paid sick leave bill, special interest groups aligned with the [[American Legislative Exchange Council]] (ALEC), successfully lobbied Mayor Nutter to veto it<ref name="BF">Brendan Fischer, [httphttps://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/04/12059/paid-sick-days-defeat-philadelphia-followed-familiar-script "Paid Sick Days Defeat in Philadelphia Followed Familiar Script"], ''PRWatch'', April 17, 2013</ref>. The bill died when the council was unable to sway enough nay votes to override the mayoral veto; they needed just one more.<ref name="NBCP"/> These groups, the [[National Restaurant Association]], the [[U.S. Chamber of Commerce]], and the [[National Federation of Independent Business]] (NFIB) are all tied to [[ALEC]].<ref name="BF"/> The case of Philadelphia was unique in "the participation of telecommunications giant [[Comcast]], Philadelphia's highest grossing company and an [[ALEC]] member."<ref name="BF"/> The corporation spent over $108,000 on lobbying, most of which went towards opposition to the paid sick days bill.<ref name="BF"/>
''See also the Sourcewatch article [[Paid Sick Days]].''
''See [[Scott_Walker#Second_John_Doe_Investigation.2C_February_2012-July_2015|here]] for more information about the John Doe investigation.''
A long-running investigation into whether the campaign of Wisconsin Governor [[Scott Walker]] illegally coordinated with outside groups, including the Chamber's Wisconsin affiliate [[Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce]], was led by a Republican prosecutor and included the participation of elected county District Attorneys from both political parties. But ''Legal Newsline'', an outlet funded by the U.S. Chamber, cited an unnamed source to "break the news" on September 9, 2014 that one of the DAs, John Chisholm, "may have had personal motivations for his investigation," since Chisholm's wife was a public school teacher and union member who "frequently cried when discussing the topic of the union disbanding" as a result of Walker's signature Act 10 legislation. The story was commissioned by the right-wing reporting group the [[American Media Institute]]. As the Center for Media and Democracy reported, the allegation was quickly repeated by right-wing media, including the [[Bradley Foundation]]-funded Media Trackers and Wisconsin Reporter, ''The Wall Street Journal'', and the UK-based ''Daily Mail'', which ran the headline: "Wife's weeping over anti-union law drove Democratic DA to target Republican governor's staff and conservative activists."<ref>Brendan Fischer, "[httphttps://www.prwatch.org/node/12599 US Chamber Attack on Wife of Walker Prosecutor Falls Apart]," Center for Media and Democracy, ''PR Watch'', September 15, 2014.</ref>
The story fell apart shortly afterward. On September 12, the ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' reported that the unnamed source described as a "former staff prosecutor" was actually Michael Lutz, a former unpaid intern who previously made death threats to the prosecutor and his family. Lutz's involvement was confirmed by the American Media Institute, but Lutz himself declined to comment, saying that he wanted "to stay out of this firestorm." The ''Journal Sentinel'' described Lutz's past as "troubled," noting that he had previously worked as a police officer, but had filed for disability in 2006, "saying he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his physical injuries and past media coverage of his actions."<ref>Daniel Bice, "[http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/source-who-accused-chisholm-of-vendetta-has-troubled-past-b99350187z1-274905441.html Source who accused Chisholm of vendetta has troubled past]," ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', September 12, 2014.</ref> In July 2015, Lutz died in an apparent suicide.<ref>Bill Glauber, "[http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/former-aldermanic-candidate-michael-lutz-dies-in-apparent-suicide-b99544888z1-318568561.html Former aldermanic candidate Michael Lutz dies in apparent suicide]," ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'', July 26, 2015.</ref>