Union Proponents Take Message to Airwaves
Last night, while watching Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN, I saw a television commercial by proponents of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If memory serves, this commercial has run before. Now that EFCA has been introduced into Congress, expect to see this campaign escalate.
SCRIPT:
SCREEN: Headline: Frantic Day on Wall Street as Banks Fail (Herald Tribune, 9/15/08) Ticker: Bear Stearns… Lehman Bros… AIG… Merrill Lynch
NARRATOR: Corporate greed… it’s caused a meltdown of our economy. Just look at the news or your retirement account. Now greedy CEOs want to prevent workers from joining unions to level the playing field. Their new scheme to keep wages low?
SCREEN: CEOs spreading lies
NARRATOR: Spreading lies about the Employee Free Choice Act.
SCREEN: Employee Free Choice Act protects workers’ right to choose a secret ballot election
NARRATOR: The truth is the Employee Free Choice Act absolutely protects workers’ right to choose a secret ballot election
SCREEN: workers choose, not bosses
NARRATOR: but the choice would be the workers, not their bosses.
SCREEN: www.FreeChoiceAct.org
NARRATOR: That’s the secret big business doesn’t want you to know.
SCREEN: Paid for by American Rights at Work
What’s the Message?
Two are apparent from this ad:
- Corporate greed
- CEOs lie
I believe I have seen these same themes employed elsewhere. That would not surprise me, but I need to confirm before making any pronouncements. One imagines that union proponents would adhere to key messages in a coordinated effort. Already, that trend had occurred to me when seeing other advocacy pieces using variations on the same language, “(EFCA) protects the middle class.”
As I told a staunch conservative, who fiercely disputed my opinion, big business (and specifically, financial institutions) gave unions an open door with the financial scandals of late 2008 that continue to plague our economy. The average employee, without access to bonus money and corporate jets, is likely to feel resentful and think that the pendulum of capitalism has swung too far.
His rebuttal centered on union support for Democrats. That’s true too. Seldom is there but one driving force behind a major change like EFCA. Conditions have to be just right… the alignment of multiple factors.
Communicators would be wise to use the reverse tact in internal vehicles, to counter these themes and help establish that:
- This company runs for everyone’s benefit, not for the greed of a few (catalog why the employer is a good one and tell that story)
- Our CEO is trustworthy and supports fair wages and benefits, transparency, disclosure, open communications, et al.
The Conclusion of the Ad is Accurate
While you may not like the set-up, the premise about greed and lies, the conclusion of the ad is accurate. Under EFCA, workers would still be able to choose to have an election – just don’t count on it. Proponents are fiercely aligned on this point because it’s a technicality that has been mis-characterized as “no choice.”
The key to this is to understand that the choice would shift to employees under EFCA. Companies would lose the control they have under current law to call for a federally supervised election. Once union authorization cards are signed (“card check”), it’s not likely that employees would call for a vote of confirmation unless they disputed the signatures on those cards.
And therein lies the major change… control. Under EFCA, control would shift to employees and away from management. That pretty much sums up what this entire issue is about. Who will control corporate America?
