ALCOA: 'We do not agree with the chamber on this issue and would ask that the governor veto the bill'

Americablog, which broke this story and continues to cover it like a blanket, reports that ALCOA, the Pittsburgh-based aluminum producer and member of the board of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, has now publicly repudiated HB 600/SB 632, a Tennessee state law which would strike down Nashville's recently-enacted gay rights protections and preclude the enactment of other similar laws by Tennessee municipalities.
     The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce lobbied for the law after secret meetings with right-wing religious activists in Tennessee. Other board members who have issued statements are AT&T, Nissan and FedEx (a senior vice president of which gave a large contribution to the antigay Prop 8 campaign in California and which disingenuously refers to itself as a mere "member" of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce when in fact FedEx has a seat on the board.) None of those companies has repudiated the law. Their statements are sheer PR.
     Other board members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce (Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, and United HealthCare) didn't even bother to issue press releases about the matter. (Of course if you're Caterpillar, supplying multimillion-dollar equipment to oil companies strip-mining an England-sized chunk of the pristeen forests of Alberta, Canada to get at tar sands oil, why would the concerns of gay people matter to you? They're really not your primary customers, are they?)
     On the other hand, Pfizer's drugs (like Viagra) have many worthy competitors (like Cialis) manufactured by companies which aren't lobbying for laws which squelch local gay rights ordinances...

Kansas City to be home of new affiliate of National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce

Dan Nilsen. Photograph by Kansas City Star

Diane Stafford of the Kansas City Star reports that city soon will be home to the Mid-America Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, a new affiliate of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.
     Formation is due largely to Dan Nilsen, founder and CEO of Bishop-McCann, a $46 million Kansas City-based agency that specializes in producing meetings, events and incentive programs.
     Nilsen last month received a $5,000 grant as winner of the 2010 NGLCC/Wells Fargo Business Owner of the Year Award, and is using the grant to help establish the affiliate chamber.
     “There are 61 NGLCC affiliates around the country,” Nilsen said. “We’re kind of behind in Kansas City. But it’s all about building business relationships, about bringing people together. It’s not about waving a flag.”
     Nilsen was selected for the award on the strength of his volunteer history, which includes fundraising for health clinics and medical missions, as well as the size and strength of his business.
     Since receiving the award, Nilsen has begun forming an advisory board to represent the chapter in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma and most of Missouri. (St. Louis already has the St. Louis Business Guild, a similar organization.)
     In addition to encouraging big companies to do business with gay and lesbian small-business owners, Nilsen said he hoped the new chamber would help build business loyalty among the gay and lesbian population.
     “It’s a market that builds loyalty and that has a lot of value,” he said.
     Nationally, Bloomberg Businessweek reported, the gay market encompasses nearly 16 million people with an annual buying power exceeding $500 billion.

Darth Vader of Boosterism pissing off more members; Almost all major Iowa chapters of Chamber of Commerce distance themselves from Tom Donohue

Recently a string of major corporations have quit the national Chamber of Commerce, citing differences with the organization over the issue of climate change. They included electric utilities PNM and Exelon, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Apple. Nike has stayed but stepped down from the board of directors.

Reaction from President Tom Donohue was that he was "not particularly worried" about the companies' departure, blaming their actions on an "orchestrated pressure campaign" by environmental groups.

Now local chapters are becoming disgusted with Donohue's $75,000,000 campaign to elect Republicans to the House, according to Jeanne Cummings of Politico.

More than 40 local chambers issued statements during the midterms distancing themselves from the U.S. Chamber’s campaign — including nearly every major local chamber in Iowa and New Hampshire, key states for the presidential campaign.

Other chambers plan to take the extraordinary step of ending their affiliation with the U.S. Chamber.

The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce in Pennsylvania was seriously considering dropping its affiliation with the national group after its leaders reported being inundated with angry — and sometimes profanity-laced — telephone calls from people objecting to the U.S. Chamber-backed ads, according to an official familiar with the internal discussions. On Wednesday, the Philadelphia group announced that it has decided to maintain its membership.

Tony Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, said “it all kind of backfired in Connecticut. All of our Democratic congressmen won. Now, we have to deal with the fallout.”

In Iowa, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley survived an onslaught of U.S. Chamber attack ads in part because he circulated disclaimers issued by his local chambers.

To be sure, local chambers are not abandoning the national office in droves, and some of those complaining don’t belong to the national group, according to POLITICO reporting and information assembled by U.S. Chamber Watch, an anti-Chamber website.

2,600 state and local chambers belong to the national body.