PRESS RELEASE
The Center for Union Facts Positions Huge Dinosaur Outside AFL-CIO
Fifteen Foot Dinosaur and Sign-Wielding Picketers Give Big Labor a Big Pushback
2/13/06
Washington, DC – Today The Center for Union Facts (CUF) kicked off its multimillion dollar education campaign by erecting a massive dinosaur outside of AFL-CIO headquarters. The lumbering triceratops, which illustrates the Center’s belief that union leaders are relics of the past, is a nod to the common union tactic of inflating large rats outside of buildings that do not use unionized labor.
In addition to the dinosaur, picketers marched in a circle with signs proclaiming “AFL-CIO: Colossal Fossil,” “Smart Union Leaders: Extinct?” and “Labor Leaders: Dis-organized?”
Full-page ads appearing today in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal took another shot across labor leaders’ bow with a picture of a padlocked gate and text reading, “The New Union Label: CLOSED. Brought to you by the union ‘leaders’ who helped bankrupt steel, auto, and airline companies.”
The Center for Union Facts is the first organization of its kind, having gathered an unprecedented wealth of information about the size, scope, political activities, and criminal practices of the labor movement in the United States. The organization’s database contains more than 3 million facts about unions and their leaders. From the smallest local to the largest international union, UnionFacts.com has the most comprehensive database of information available.
In 2005 alone, federal racketeering investigations resulted in 196 convictions against union officials and employees and $187 million in fines. Union tactics—including deception and intimidation during organizing campaigns, strikes that hurt members more than they help, spending mandatory union dues on political agendas, and the use of anti-democratic voting practices—are long overdue for exposure.
“This is just the beginning of a major education campaign about union leadership,” said Richard Berman, founder of the Center. “It’s time that someone holds these people accountable. For too long those in charge of America’s labor movement have been running roughshod over their own members. We’re going to tell everyone the facts that labor leaders don’t want you to know.”
The Center for Union Facts is a non-profit organization supported by foundations, businesses, union members, and the general public. We are dedicated to showing Americans the truth about today's union leadership.
For further information or to arrange an interview please call Sarah Longwell at (202) 463-7106.
Read more at LaborPains.org