Union launches LV television ads

Call it basic Public Relations 101.

Labor union membership has steadily declined over the past 20 years. In an attempt to reach America's mass media-believing culture, the AFL-CIO is using a modern tool to combat that trend -- television.

The AFL-CIO today unveiled a new television advertising campaign aimed at the Las Vegas market. The ads, coming during an election year and shortly after unions averted a battle over paycheck protection proposals in Nevada, will run throughout the summer.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson was to be joined by local labor leaders, clergy and union members at a press conference at First AME Church to kick off the campaign.

"The ads are essentially the faces and voices of today's union coming into living rooms across the country," AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said. "It really puts a face to unions."

Windham said the purpose of the commercials is twofold -- to increase membership and to reinforce the presence of existing unions.

Messages of higher wages and an organizational ally in disputes with management will be the topic of many of the ads.

"That's a strong message, and we really haven't been getting it out," Windham said.

The strong union presence in Las Vegas made it a natural market for the union message, Windham said. The television ads have been aired in five other cities during the past year and will be complemented by what the AFL-CIO is calling an "aggressive field operation" in the Las Vegas Valley this election year.

Windham said a proliferation of pro-union bumper stickers, buttons and events such as union picnics will be slated to coincide with the television campaign.

The ads cover five different occupations and the Las Vegas campaign will feature an example of the city's largest union -- Culinary Union member Erin McCarthy, a Treasure Island employee, and family will be the topic of one of the ads.

Initially, the AFL-CIO will spend $350,000 for about eight to 12 weeks worth of air time.

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