Center for Union Facts

The Center for Union Facts is an advocacy group critical of union officials’ activities. It is one of several advocacy and public relations groups created by Richard Berman. Berman’s Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm, Berman and Company, specializes in research, communications and advertising. Berman’s website says he founded the CUF "to make employees and the general public more aware of the questionable activities of labor officials.” Sources used are from primary documents taken from government sources, including the Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission.

Activities

CUF was launched in February 2006 via full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. In May 2006 the organization launched its first television advertisement campaign. The 30-second spot, running on Fox News Channel and local markets, featured "actors posing as workers" saying what they 'love' about unions," like paying dues, union leaders' "fat-cat lifestyles," and discrimination against minorities. The ad campaign cost USD$3 million, raised "from companies, foundations and individuals that Mr. Berman won't identify." cite news | publisher=Wall Street Journal | title=Anti-Union Group Takes Message to the Airwaves | author=Kris Maher | url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114799623004157251.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace | date=2006-05-19] Another TV ad (shown on CNN among other stations) shows large, burly "union leaders" muscling their way into a worker's home and "intimidating" him into joining the union.cite web | title="Union Facts": Pure Fiction | author=Tom Chamberlain | url=http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/08/union_facts_pur.html | publisher=Blue Oregon] Labor and economics professor Harley Shaiken said the effort "to create an antiunion atmosphere" more generally, as opposed to business-funded ads against a particular union organizing drive or strike, "is a new wrinkle." An AFL-CIO spokesperson called the ad's accusations "unfounded and outrageous."

In August 2006 the CUF ran a series of advertisements in Montana, Oregon, Michigan and Nevada attacking public employee unions. It appears that this may have been connected with ballot initiatives in those states proposing public spending caps. cite web | url=http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/pressclip.php?view=3103 | author=Dave Hogan | publisher=The Oregonian | date=2006-08-26 | title=Anti-union ads appear in media in Oregon]

The Center for Union Facts is active in fighting the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. cite web | url=http://www.unionfacts.com/news.cfm?id=41 | author=UnionFacts.com | title=Congressman Miller: Voting to End Voting | date=2/7/07]

Funding

United Press International noted "the group's spokesman refused to release the names of its donors or say where its funding came from."Fact|date=October 2007 Berman told "Bloomberg" reporter Kim Chapman he had raised "about $2.5 million from companies, trade organizations and individuals, whom he declined to identify." cite web | date= February 14, 2006 | title="New group launches anti-union drive" | author=Kim Chapman | publisher=Bloomberg News | url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/259366_antiunion14.html] Sarah Longwell, a CUF spokeswoman, echoed Berman's comments: "The reason we don't disclose supporters is because unions have a long history of targeting anyone who opposes them, whether it be in a threatening way or by lodging campaigns against them," she told the "Detroit Free Press". Longwell is also associated with the PETA Kills Animals campaign, is listed as director of communications for the Center for Consumer Freedom, [ [http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/nervous_nelly_nation_opedcolumnists_sarah_longwell.htm?page=0 NERVOUS-NELLY NATION] ] , Managing Director of the American Beverage Institute [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA-wAu8I3ag Sarah Longwell on Sobriety Checkpoints] ] , and a spokeswoman for the Indoor Tanning Association [ [http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liskin0712,0,6236455.story Increase in melanoma skin cancer blamed on tanning] ] , all run by Berman & Co. The paper reported that while Wal-Mart stores denied funding the group it stated that "it has a relationship in which it exchanges union information with Berman, the group's head." [Stringer, Kortney, "Antiunion ad campaign in Detroit's face today", "Detroit Free Press", May 24, 2006]

References

ee also

*Center for Consumer Freedom

External links

* [http://www.unionfacts.com/ UnionFacts.com] website
* [http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Center_for_Union_Facts SourceWatch profile]

Articles

* "Anti-union group launches media campaign", United Press International, February 13, 2006
* Amy Joyce, "Full-Page Ads Launch Anti-Union Drive - Lobbyist Aims to Show Labor Groups to be 'Duplicitous'", Washington Post, February 14, 2006.Fact|date=October 2007
* Steven Greenhouse, "Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign", New York Times, February 14, 2006.Fact|date=October 2007
* Kim Chapman, [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/259366_antiunion14.html "New group launches anti-union drive"] , "Seattle Post Intelligencer", February 14, 2006.
* Kris Maher, [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113803860071853820-VdTeMQG0x5M_9SOFLy455VbL0xk_20070214.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top"Taking on the AFL-CIO"] , "Wall Street Journal", February 13, 2006.
* Kortney Stringer, "Antiunion ad campaign in Detroit's face today", Detroit Free Press, May 24, 2006.
* [http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=66532 "New evidence shows Wal-Mart working closely with right wing attack group"] , WakeupWalmart.com, May 26, 2006.
* Marcus Kabel, "Wal-Mart denies funding anti-union ads", Businessweek, May 26, 2006.