Center for Union Facts

This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. It is part of lobbyist Rick Berman's family of front groups including the Employment Policies Institute. The domain name www.unionfacts.com was registered to Berman & Co. in May 2005.

Berman's Non-Profits

A November 1, 2012 article in Bloomberg shows CCF in the following chart of non-profits created by Berman & Co. at the center of an IRS complaint filed in 2012 (used with permission):

Campaigns

Video ads by the Center for Union Facts portray union organizers as thugs who invade workers' homes to intimidate them into joining.

In May 2006 the Center for Union Facts launched its first TV ad campaign. The 30-second spot, running on Fox News and local markets, has "actors posing as workers" saying "sarcastically what they 'love' about unions," like paying dues, union leaders' "fat-cat lifestyles," and discrimination against minorities. The ad campaign cost $3 million, which was raised "from companies, foundations and individuals that Mr. Berman won't identify." [1]

The group planned to film another TV ad in June 2006. Labor and economics professor Harley Shaiken said the effort "to create an anti-union atmosphere" more generally, as opposed to business-funded ads against a particular union organizing drive or strike, "is a new wrinkle." An AFL-CIO spokesperson called the ad's accusations "unfounded and outrageous." [2]

In June 2007, the group campaigned heavily against the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation which "would give employees at a workplace the right to unionize as soon as a majority signed cards saying they wanted to do so." The Center for Union Facts has spent "$500,000 on newspaper and broadcast advertisements this week alone," reported the New York Times on June 20, 2007. [3] The group's print ads for the campaign compared union leaders to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling the bill a "scheme to eliminate workers' right to a secret ballot." [4]

The Center for Union Facts is behind the billboards with the web site TeachersUnionExposed.com which have been put up around Newark, New Jersey[5].

In August 2008, the group's "political arm," the Employee Freedom Action Committee, ramped up its campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). It launched a $30 million campaign, including radio, television, print and online ads and "a substantial grassroots organizing effort." The group's anti-EFCA ads were slated to run in Maine, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Colorado, Oregon and Minnesota. At the same time, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is comprised of "virtually hundreds of businesses, chambers of commerce and trade associations," was also spending millions to defeat the bill. "The folks behind the ad campaign fear that if Sen. Barack Obama, an Employee Free Choice Act sponsor, is elected president and power shifts to the Democrats in the Senate, the bill will become law," according to a New Hampshire paper.

In 2011, The Center for Union Facts spent $212,904 in lobbying, and $947,192 in total lobbying from 2008-2011.

In 2011, CUF also spent $870,182 on its president's company, Richard Berman and Company Inc., for "advertising, research, lobbying & accounting," according to its 2011 tax return. They also spent $125,851 advertising on Fox News.

Personnel

• Rick Berman, President & Executive Director. [6]
• William Tattersall, Secretary-Treasurer & Director
• Daniel Cronk, Director
• Todd Diener, Director
• Ronald Petty, Director
• Richard Klemp, Director

The contact person on the initial media release is Sarah Longwell who has worked in public relations for Rick Berman at his Employment Policies Institute as well as for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and its Collegiate Network.

Funding

United Press International noted that "the group's spokesman refused to release the names of its donors or say where its funding came from." [7]

In 2011, the Center for Union Facts reported $3,239,543 in total revenue, and $3,238,574 in gifts, grants, and contributions received.

Berman told Bloomberg reporter Kim Bowman in 2006 that he had raised "about $2.5 million from companies, trade organizations and individuals, whom he declined to identify." [8]

Sarah Longwell, a spokeswoman for the Center for Union Facts, echoed Berman's groups standard claim for secrecy on who funds their front groups. "The reason we don't disclose supporters is because unions have a long history of targeting anyone who opposes them, whether it be in a threatening way or by lodging campaigns against them," she told Detroit Free Press. [9]

The paper reported that while Wal-Mart Stores denied funding the group it stated that "it has a relationship in which it exchanges union information with Berman, the group's head." [10]

Contact details

The Center for Union Facts
1090 Vermont Ave NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 463-7106
Fax: (202) 420-7862
Email: Sarah Longwell (longwell AT unionfacts.com)
Web: http://www.unionfacts.com
Blog: http://laborpains.org

Articles and Resources

Related PRWatch Articles

• Anne Landman, Rick Berman's For-Profit Non-Profits Under the Microscope, PRWatch.org, June 20, 2010.
• Anne Landman, Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society, PRWatch.org, February 17, 2010.
• Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Berman & Co.: "Nonprofit" Hustlers for the Food & Booze Biz, PRWatch, First Quarter 2001, Volume 8, No. 1.

Related SourceWatch Articles

• ActivistCash.com
• American Beverage Institute
• A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site
• Berman & Co.
• Bob McAdam
• Center for Consumer Freedom
• Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
• Criminalising civil disobedience
• David Martosko
• Defeat the Debt
• Disinformation
• Employee Free Choice Act
• Employment Policies Institute
• Employment Roundtable
• FishScam.com
• "Government intervention" (as a propaganda theme)
• Intimidating democracy
• Intimidating foundations
• Intimidating public interest groups
• LaborPains.org
• Lee Culpepper
• Propaganda techniques
• Rick Berman

External Resources

• Humane Society of the United States, Richard Berman's Apparent Tax Scam, organizational IRS complaint website, launched November 2012.
• "The Center for Union Facts Launches Multimillion-Dollar Campaign and Comprehensive Website to Expose", Media Release, January 10, 2006.
• The Center for Union Facts, "The Center for Union Facts Positions Huge Dinosaur Outside AFL-CIO", News Release, February 13, 2006.
• "Union Facts Calls on Wal-Mart to Begin Funding Education Campaign", Media Release, May 27, 2006.
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)'s web site, www.BermanExposed.org

External Articles

• "Anti-union group launches media campaign",United Press International, February 13, 2006
• Amy Joyce, "Full-Page Ads Launch Anti-Union Drive - Lobbyist Aims to Show Labor Groups to be 'Duplicitous'", Washington Post, February 14, 2006.
• Steven Greenhouse, "Group Starts Anti-Union Campaign", New York Times, February 14, 2006.
• Kim Chapman, "New group launches anti-union drive", Seattle Post Intelligencer, February 14, 2006. (This is a syndicated Bloomberg story).
• Kris Maher, "Taking on the AFL-CIO", "Incident Report", Wall Street Journal, February 13, 2006.
• Kortney Stringer, "Antiunion ad campaign in Detroit's face today", Detroit Free Press, May 24, 2006.
• WakeUpWalMart.com, "New Evidence Shows Wal-Mart Working Closely With Right Wing Attack Group, Says WakeUpWalMart.com", Media Release, May 26, 2006.
• Marcus Kabel, "Wal-Mart denies funding anti-union ads", Businessweek, May 26, 2006. (This is an Associated Press story).
• American Rights at Work, "Center for Union Facts", Profile, accessed June 2011.
• American Rights at Work, "Who Is Rick Berman?", accessed June 2011.
• Steven Greenhouse, "Clash Nears in the Senate on Legislation Helping Unions Organize," New York Times, June 20, 2007.
• Michael P., "Metro Center Advertising - Front Groups ," blog "Infosnack Headquarters," September 24, 2008.
• Stephanie Strom Nonprofit Advocate Carves Out a For-Profit Niche, New York Times, June 2010
• Mark Drajem & Brian Wingfield, Union Busting by Profiting From Non-Profit May Breach IRS, Bloomberg, November 1, 2012.