More effective communications can help the union respond to privatization and other major challenges facing public employees today, says the AFT Public Employees newly created communications task force. In addition to contracting out public services, the union is facing attacks on employee healthcare and retirement benefits, shrinking state revenues and a lack of public understanding about the role and contributions of public employees.

Developing and delivering a coordinated message to address these issues at the national, state and local levels—both internally with members and externally with the press, policymakers and the public—was the focus of the task force's first meeting last week in Washington, D.C.

Composed of 13 communications specialists from AFT Public Employees affiliates nationwide, the task force was created by the division's program and policy council last July to examine how to improve message development and communications capacity at all levels of the union. The task force includes representatives of affiliates from Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, New York, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

Through better communications, affiliates and the national can work to persuade the public and decision-makers that contracting out of public services frequently leads to sharp declines in the quality, value and accountability of those services; that public employee healthcare and retirement benefits play an important role in recruiting and retaining a talented, well-qualified workforce; and that demand for quality services across most states and communities is escalating.

Communications experts from both within and outside the union provided practical advice and guidance to the task force during its Feb. 23-25 meeting. AFT staff led sessions aimed at identifying successful internal communications strategies; the essential elements of a comprehensive union communications program; criteria for an effective union Web site; strategies for strengthening public employee health plans; and ways that AFT communications tools, such as LeaderNet, GetActive and the Working Families Toolkit, can be used to increase member mobilization and activism.

Neal Flieger of Edelman Public Relations in Washington, D.C., presented a model for external communications that challenges union leaders to carefully identify their goals, audience, message, strategic approach and tactics. The task force then applied this model to the issues of privatization and public employee health plans.

In addition, Guy Molyneux of Peter Hart Research Associates in Washington, D.C., shared polling research on what messages work best in making the case for investments in public services. Among his recommendations was that union leaders show how such investments meet specific needs (such as healthcare or transportation), benefit society generally and often pay for themselves by reducing costs down the road.

The task force created five subcommittees centered on electronic communications, print communications, face-to-face member communications, political communications, and the media. Subcommittee members will confer over the next several weeks and report back to the task force at its next meeting in April.

The task force also considered the possibility of a coordinated campaign to demonstrate the superior quality, value and accountability of public services relative to those performed by private contractors. A key component of the campaign would be encouraging state federations and locals to promote, introduce and/or pass "clean-contracting" bills in state legislatures nationwide. (Clean-contracting legislation requires that private firms meet strict cost, quality and accountability standards before being granted government contracts, among other rules.) A good example of such an effort is the "Go Public" campaign against privatization recently launched by the New York State Public Employees Federation.

The task force's work will culminate in a set of recommendations to the program and policy council on how union communications can be improved among affiliate state federations and locals nationwide. [Dan Murphy]

March 1, 2005