Thousands Sign Petition Telling GM to Cut Ties With Controversial Lobby Group ALEC

Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Contact: Jessica Tramontana, jessica@progressmichigan.org, 517-974-6302

Online petition calls on GM to “do the right thing,” drop ALEC membership

LANSING – Today citizen’s group Progress Michigan announced that over 8,800 Michigan residents have signed an online petition calling on General Motors to drop its membership with the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In recent weeks, corporations including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble have all dropped their memberships with ALEC, a lobbying front group that gives corporations a “VOICE and VOTE” in shaping “model bills” for state legislators to submit as their own.

“GM is leading Michigan’s economic turnaround, but now it’s time for GM to show real leadership by dropping its ALEC membership,” said Zack Pohl, Executive Director of Progress Michigan. “Citizens are calling on GM to cut ties with this controversial corporate bill mill, which is responsible for pushing ‘Stand Your Ground’ gun laws and voter suppression legislation in state capitols across the country. It’s time for GM to drop its ALEC membership and focus on what it does best – building great cars and trucks.”

Progress Michigan’s online petition calling on GM to do the right thing and cut ties with ALEC can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/GMdropALEC.

According to documents obtained by Common Cause, GM is a member of ALEC’s Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development Task Force. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Task Force recently adopted three anti-collective bargaining “model bills,” which were introduced by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Earlier this year, GM announced it would no longer fund the Heartland Institute, a controversial think tank which had attacked global warming as “junk science.” A GM spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Mr. Akerson said he’d look into it. And we’ve looked into it, and we’ve decided to discontinue it.” Progress Michigan is calling on GM to do the same by canceling its membership with ALEC immediately.