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* AFSCME has a new Internet promo video defending public employees. Watch…
* The Question: Effective or not? Explain.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:31 pm
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0
An even more effective AFSCME promo! Audio not safe for work, so plug your earphones in.
Comment by Chuffy Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:41 pm
In human services, state employees make about twice what comparable jobs in the non profit community agency sector pay.
Comment by gathersno Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:42 pm
Ummm, no in fact it is rather dumb. About a million different ways to make the argument then calling statements lies and offering no real counter.
Campaign season is over, there is a reason you don’t see ads about how Nike or Ford suck from Addias or GM because that sort of advertising doesn’t work outside of campaigns.
Comment by OneMan Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:51 pm
@chuffy- I was getting ready to post same video. A friend sent it to me a couple years ago and I was dying laughing.
Comment by Joe Blow Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:55 pm
No, this ad is not effective at all. In fact, it may hurt the image of public service workers even more. Rightly or wrongly, the public has this growing anger and hostility towards public service workers.
Instead of trying to gently explain why public service workers arent’ the entitled jerks like many in the public believe, this ad in my opinion instead tries to make public service employees out as like martyrs. As a result, I found the ad silly and ineffective.
whether it be due to generous pensions, ,
Comment by Cuban Pilot Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 1:58 pm
I am a supporter of public employees in general, but not in total. Making a good first impression is crucially important in every aspect of daily life and is one of the easiest things to learn to do. Unfortunately; due to the inertia of the daily grind, far too many public employees look and act like they just arrived on the set from central casting.
Dealing with the public in any job can be terribly difficult, because a large percentage of the general public is rude and ignorant, but far too often public employees return the favor in spades.
I had the opportunity to interact with a public employee (county, not state) earlier this week, and the F-bomb was used as a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb by the person as a routine partr of HER conversation, and it was not an adversarial inter-action, and it was not directed at anyone in particular, but just the manner in which she chose to speak.
All it takes is one bad apple to spoil the whole bunch, and it when it is the person at the front counter the die is cast in the eye of the patron for the rest of the employees.
Improved attitude, demeanor and appearance would go a long way to help change public perception of public employees.
Comment by Quinn T. Sential Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:00 pm
That was not effective at all for more reasons than anybody wants to read on here.
First of all, what was the point of the first part? Yes, everyone knows public employees aren’t the executive officials of AIG, but neither are nearly all taxpaying American’s. Second, they didn’t do anything to dispel the “lies.” Third, they weren’t really lies to begin with.
Anyway, it just wasn’t compelling. It was actually pretty bad.
Comment by Ahoy Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:00 pm
Well, at least they are aware of the problem. The GOP has turned public employees into the new Welfare Queens. The video is like when an alcoholic finally admits he has a drinking problem.
As a country, we’ve let big business lower our wages and diminish our standard of living. The private sector employees know this: no pension, stagnant wages, no new manufacturing jobs are ever coming back. Public employees are now facing the assault. Hang on to your pensions friends, they’re coming for them next.
They got the rest of us to work harder for less money, why shouldn’t public employees take a hit?
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:04 pm
They need to start using video from the link chuffy posted but will have to edit out a few words with beeps..
Comment by Joe Blow Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:06 pm
They obviously didn’t take their own advice to “STOP THE LIES.” Public Service employees make MORE than private sector workers when benefits and pensions are calculated into the equation.
But that doesn’t fit, so “STOP TELLING LIES–while we continue to do so!”
Comment by Logical Thinker Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:13 pm
Not very effective. You don’t erase the perception of public employee greed simply by saying “But Wall Street and the private sector are just as bad or worse.”
If I were making an PSA or ad in defense of public employees, one point I would emphasize is that public employees are taxpayers too — they pay the same income, sales, and property taxes as everyone else. When taxes go up, it hits their budget just as much as anyone else’s.
I’d also try to get a front-line, low- to mid-level employee of the kind the public deals with most often (e.g. teachers, public works, driver’s license bureau, park rangers) to talk about how it is in EVERYONE’s interest, including their own, to have a fiscally sound, sustainable, and stable government.
The basic message would be “public employees are real people just like you with the same concerns.”
Comment by Secret Square Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:13 pm
–this ad in my opinion instead tries to make public service employees out as like martyrs–
You mean like the ones in the Murrah Building in OK City? Or the IRS in Austin? Anti-government lunacy run amok.
Highly effective. I especially like the juxtaposition with the Wall Street hustlers, who robbed us blind, got bailed out and are doing it all over again.
Are there jerks in public service? Of course. But the demonization of public employees is ignorant and wrong.
Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:18 pm
I don’t think the video was particularly effective, but, the comments here DO continue the lies. And yes, they really are lies to begin with. As a public employee, I am really sick of being blamed for the state’s financial crisis and being told that I have a huge salary with “cadillac” benefits. Believe me, those are all LIES! At least someone is defending us.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:24 pm
I’m a public sector worker and I’m now not able to see the video, but many people who own businesses are grateful I earn my little-old middle class salary.
*This paragraph does not apply to employers who had to fire people and cut people just to keep the business open or earn a modest profit; it’s directed at the wealthy corporations whose bottom lines are more important than any love of worker and country: Just because some of you were whipped by your wealthy employers, who operate in a consequence-free environment and lay you off, cut your wages, take away your pensions, outsource and relocate, don’t be angry at us. Don’t just sit by and whimper–unionize.
Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:27 pm
The video, especially the music is bizarro. In this struggling economy do the AFSME members ever tire of seeing “their” union contributions being spent on stuff like this, and on the heels of what could reasonably be viewed as obscene amounts of union money on the recent election? If this video is supposed to make AFSME members puff out their chests with pride and/or instill righteous indignation I doubt it will succeed. And definitely it won’t make points with the general public, most of whom do not understand the need for government employees to be unionized in the first place.
“Just Look For The UNION Label” Now THAT was a campaign that resonated, and which had a jingle that worked and is still remembered and hummed fondly decades later. That was the kind of work and the sort of jobs Americans were on board with in supporting the unions and their members.
Comment by Responsa Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:33 pm
Not effective. In some ways counterproductive.
Right or wrong the constant discussions of the local, state and federal retirement funds unfounded condition make the public acronym al of the poor me message .
Comment by Plutocrat03 Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:35 pm
Yeah, all of those out of work and unable to find jobs are going to love this. NOT! And neither will those who were forced to take cuts in pay or benefits.
Comment by Wensicia Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:47 pm
We should all be working to create more jobs and benefits, not continue cutting them and pitting private-sector workers against the public sector. That’s the impression I get when I read the op-ed pieces in the Chicago Tribune from the likes of R. Eden Martin of the Commercial Club of Chicago, who states that government workers should have pension reform because private-sector workers lost their pensions. Don’t we all deserve better? What will happen if there’s more and more outsourcing and export of businesses? Doesn’t this alarm you in the private sector who have to work to live?
Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 2:56 pm
Who is their real audience for this? The members of the union? Probably. The general public? I don’t think so. I think that they are preaching to the choir. This is a bunch of baloney. There are some making less but none has the job certainty that government workers enjoy. Pay freeze, yeah, but step growth is unlimited as positions open up to qualified. Increased pay as a result. Bad back ground music, with repeated stop the lies. Isn’t there a saying about repeating a lie enough times to make it become true? AFCSME appears to be running scared.
Comment by LisleMike Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:06 pm
The ad sounded like a Hollywood preview action pic with someone who just learned how to put graphics over a video background. Just needed the movie voice guy. Gotta ask - who is lying and about what? Investment bankers are too easy a generic hit. The laziness of union workers? Heard it regularly but have also seen very hard workers in public and private jobs. The salary difference between state and non-profit workers is very real due to low state payment rates to the non-profits. AFSCME is going to takes hits because cuts are coming and they are in the path. Every industry has gotten hit. It is simply the public sector’s time because there are few other places to go to cut costs. This is just the defense being set up for what is coming.
Comment by zatoichi Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:14 pm
The message isn’t bad. The ad needs refinement.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:16 pm
Any AFSCMA member should wonder why they take money out of his/her check to produce stuff like this.
Comment by Anonymous Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:35 pm
Logical Thinker @ 2:13PM - the Center for State and Local Government Excellence (http://www.slge.org/) did a study on this topic, covering over 20 years of compensation for public sector compared with their private sector counterparts. The study included things like pension and other benefits and covered at least 7 states, including Illinois.
One of their findings is that today (when the report was released) in Illinois, state workers earn 12.5% less than their private sector counterpart; and local government workers earn 13.3% less then the private sector. And that’s taking into account things like the pension, deferred compensation, and so forth. I’m not a statistician or an economist, but from reading the study - it seems their numbers and conclusions are well grounded. I didn’t find where SLGE is any kind of partisan group or ‘affiliated’ with a particular political party, so it seems that their information is at least worth evaluating.
My favorite part is the last paragraph in the conclusion
“Although the current recession calls for equal sacrifice, the long-term pattern indicates that state and local workers are not, on average, overcompensated. If the goal is to compensate state and local sector employees in a manner comparable to those in the private sector, the data do not call for reductions in state and local wages. If anything, they call for increases.”
I’ll agree that the fact that the state hasn’t been paying its bills is a problem, but that’s not the fault of the ‘typical’ state worker. That needs to be taken up with those at the top of the food chain.
Comment by NameWithheld Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:41 pm
“today (when the report was released)”
I mistyped. The report wasn’t released today. I meant that at the time the report was released, those numbers were current as of that day.
Comment by NameWithheld Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 3:43 pm
Last year during the state budget crisis, we in AFSCME were demonstrating in Springfield in June at a rally for ourselves and for organizations that are not unionized and get government money to provide their services. We did that rally and another one at the Thompson Center in Chicago. We saw severely-disabled people in wheelchairs who feared that their non-profit service providers would be laid off, and they would lose their vital services. We saw government-paid non-union workers who either lost their funding or were about to, who provide services to orphaned children. We were not solely self-serving.
My union local fought back against layoffs/cuts the best it could last year. I had Rep. Mell come to my office to observe the understaffing, and a colleague and I had Sen. Steans come to my colleague’s office for the same reason. I met with several elected officials last year, so I’m satisfied that I did what I could for many people’s livelihoods.
It’s really sad that blanket hatred of public-sector workers is so prevalent, and that the economic downturn for the middle class has us prey on each other, especially in light that during the last several years, the incomes of the wealthiest few per cent increased substantially while the rest of us collectively lost.
Comment by Grandson of Man Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 4:03 pm
State workers, the ones who actually do the work, the union members, are in fact woefully underpaid. They always have been. Most of them are dedicated, hard working, and really care about the public they serve. How much are they worth to the people of the state of Ilinois? I don’t know, but certainly more than the $30-45K that most of them work for. The constant bashing of them, their benefits, and the work they do must be very disheartening to them. The state is most certainly not overstaffed and the workers are not overpaid. The fiscal problem is not their fault but they will probably have to bear the brunt of the pain no matter what solutions are implemented going forward. If the commercial makes them feel a little better about themselves and their jobs then its fine with me.
Comment by Bill Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 4:04 pm
Good post Bill @ 4:04 p.m. I generally think the public thinks union state employees have the same benefits as the legislative employees; Reps, Senators, GA, etc. They don’t. I work for the state and hold another “private” sector job of 25 hours a week at minimum wage because when layoffs come, the workers get laid off and the politicos stay. I didn’t much care for the ad, it was much to brash. Thanks for the vote of confidence Bill.
Comment by Ain't No Justice Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 4:58 pm
thank you Bill!!!
Comment by Ain't No Justice Friday, Dec 3, 10 @ 4:59 pm