Prior to my departure to work with a client at the ends of the Earth (aka Abu Dhabi), I was supporting another in blocking the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. It was a pretty interesting campaign and—being public affairs—was right up my alley. So when I came across this article from PRWeek, it was an instantaneous marriage of excitement and nostalgia!! Not really, it was just a relevant issue to me that I wanted to share with the world…
Basically, there’s a battle on the Hill over EFCA, which would essentially make it easier for employees to unionize. There’s much controversy surrounding the legislation because it could take away certain rights workers currently have (a line right out of our message doc). So you have the labor groups going head-to-head with employer groups in a mad dash PR blitz.
It’s the standard lobbying/public affairs 101 tactics, but the Chamber of Commerce’s Workforce Freedom Airlift program is pretty cool. It’s essentially a series of fly-ins of small business owners to DC so they can voice opposition to the bill. Generally, it’s the big corporate execs who are jetting into Washington, but to bring in the little guys who are affected as well can be pretty compelling.
It’s a decent read that reminds me of “how a bill becomes a law.”
