Posts Tagged ‘Public Relations’
Card Check: Sales Vs Engineering
It’s the oldest problem around: how does a sales team pitch a product that a lot of people aren’t wanting to buy? If you’re a Dilbert fan, the answer is here. If you’re an organized labor fan, the question is much more complicated.
Apparently the head of the AFL-CIO has decided to give organized labor a PR makeover. According to US News and World Report’s website:
Richard Trumka, expected to be elected head of the AFL-CIO later this week, knows labor has an image problem. And he’s ready to take it on. “Our goal,” he says, “is to try to begin to speak again for all workers.” Already, he’s planning to reach out to blacks, young workers, and the working poor. He blames the media in part for the bad image, suggesting that editors cut or trash broader stories on the labor movement.
There’s going to be a number of problems for this re-branding campaign because there are a number of very serious and legitimate objections people have to the way union officials have set up to represent only some workers. Here are some of the not-so-small obstacles:
- Approval of unions in the U.S. is at an all-time low, with 46 percent saying unions mostly hurt the companies they organize, 51 percent saying they mostly hurt the economy, and 62 percent saying they mostly hurt non-union workers
- It will be difficult to explain how unions speak for all workers when they push for union-only Project Labor Agreements that raise costs for taxpayers and cut out most of the construction industry from vital public projects
- It’s also going to be difficult to speak for all workers when organized labor spends heavily to push an unpopular political agenda
All that — and, of course, the wildly unpopular Employee Free Choice Act. So, good luck to union officials hoping to put lipstick on this proverbial pig. We recommend that they address the core concerns of Americans before they go investing too much hope in smoke and mirrors.
