Union foe questions effectiveness of AFL-CIO ads

The AFL-CIO has heard enough bad mouthing by conservatives. Now, the national labor organization wants to portray its image on its own terms.

Reeling from proposals in various states requiring unions to gain permission from members before spending dues on political causes -- and the negative portrayals of unions that go along with such campaigns -- the AFL-CIO is taking its message directly to the citizenry via a television ad campaign launched in Las Vegas Tuesday.

"They've (conservatives) positioned themselves to speak for us," AFL-CIO Executive Director Linda Chavez-Thompson said. "They've positioned themselves to tell union leaders they should be silent, to tell us the paycheck protection act is good for us."

The organization launched its Las Vegas media effort with a press conference at First AME Church highlighting the commercials, including one ad that features Treasure Island employee Erin McCarthy. The slots have appeared in five cities thus far.

Union leaders say the purpose is to reinvigorate existing members, polish the union image and, to some extent, increase numbers. The slick, rapid-fire image commercials show workers of various trades on the job and with family.

However, national organizations devoted to union-free companies say the effort has accomplished little in other cities.

"We're unaware that it has made any difference," said Charles Hawkins, national executive vice president of Associated Builders and Contractors, a non-union contractors organization. "'It's more shoring up the existing troops."

Hawkins said the numbers bear that out: more people are still choosing to be non-union. U.S. Department of Labor statistics show about 14 percent of the work force is unionized.

Still, union members say they have a message that will hit home to working families. They point to Labor Department figures that show union members earn an average 34 percent more nationally than their non-union counterparts. And they also highlight the availability of health insurance through union membership -- something McCarthy says attracted her to join.

McCarthy said she worked at a non-union property where health insurance was expensive before joining Culinary Union Local 226 in 1989.

"You had to pay so much fo it, and when you have kids it's more expensive," McCarthy said.

That's the kind of message the AFL-CIO wants to get out. Chavez-Thompson said she wanted union members to be "sales people" of the union cause.

It won't be cheap. The ads in Las Vegas are to run for eight to 12 weeks at a cost of about $350,000. The national campaign cost the AFL-CIO $3 million.

The ads are running during an election year -- which Chavez-Thompson insists is mostly coincidence.

"If it happens to be an election year, that's a message politicians need to hear," she said.

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