How NOT to go about improving your public image: (1) Hire a PR consultancy firm to produce ads on your behalf (whatever happened to grass-roots organizing). (2) In fact, go out of your way to hire PR consultancy firms whose other services include union-busting.
http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13580/unions_contract_to_pr_firms_that_work_for_anti-worker_groups ---------------------------------snip As labor seeks to communicate its message in the media and influence policy, many unions are looking to outside consultant firms. These groups sometimes provide the technical expertise, media suaveness, and necessary connections for unions to get their message out to the right audience. However, a recent joint investigation by In These Times and Republic Report reveals that several millions dollars of union members’ dues have been going to firms that are actively working against labor’s top priorities on behalf of business interests. In some cases, unions are paying consultants who are simultaneously working on behalf of union-busting causes. SKDKnickerbocker (SKD) is one of the top firms providing outside assistance to labor coalitions while raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars for work to undermine organized labor, particularly teachers unions. Led by Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director and current Democratic Party advisor, SKD has spearheaded state-based campaigns for Students First, the anti-teacher's union charter and school privatization group founded by former Chancellor of DC Public Schools Michelle Rhee. In Ohio, Rhee’s group and state groups funded by Students First pushed Senate Bill 5, Gov. John Kasich’s attempt to end collective bargaining for most public sector employees. (The bill was later repealed by labor-led ballot initiative.) In Michigan, a leaked Power Point presentation shows that Students First promoted a bill to weaken collective bargaining for teachers. And in New York, according to a presentation obtained by In These Times, a SKD executive named Stefan Friedman worked on a team to produce education reform ads to demonize teacher unions. SKD ads cast teachers’ unions as special interests that cost the state millions of dollars in taxpayer money. The strategy of using unions as a foil apparently worked by making it difficult for the unions to pressure lawmakers to support. "As a result,” notes the presentation, “rather than targeting specific [lawmakers] in a negative way, we placed all the pressure on the unions.” SKD was paid over $4.1 million for the ad campaign, which ran two years ago. For fiscal year 2011, during the same period in which SKD conducted much of its work for clients antagonizing labor, labor unions, led by the SEIU, provided $799,458 in consulting fees to the firm, according to disclosures filed with the Labor Department. Although SKD employs several former union members as consultants, most prominently Jennifer Cunningham, who was a top staffer at New York-based affiliate SEIU 1199, it’s not clear if the conflict of interest was ever revealed during negotiations. Asked if her firm’s labor clients were informed of the work her company does for groups like Students First, SKD spokesperson Rachel Racusen responded, “Why don’t you ask the SEIU?,” before hanging up the phone. She later e-mailed a clarification, noting SKDK’s contract with Students First “in no way conflicts with the work we do with other clients.” Both SEIU and SEIU 1199 failed to respond to repeated requests for comment. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) paid SKD $75,000 for help with producing ads in 2011. While CWA declined to comment for this story, it has since dropped its contract with SKD after it was revealed they were also working for anti-teacher union proponent Michelle Rhee. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
