The Center for Union Facts

One of Washington's most well-known -- and industry-funded -- lobbyists takes on labor unions

Mr. Berman runs a public affairs firm in Washington and helped to create the American Beverage Institute and the Employment Policies Institute, which has helped the restaurant industry fight increases in the minimum wage.

Mr. Berman said various companies and a foundation had contributed to his nonprofit group, but he refused to identify them.
He said he hoped to spend more than $5 million a year on the campaign.

He has faced criticism in recent years for arguing on behalf of his clients that drinking a lot of soda does not contribute to diabetes and that Americans have been "force-fed a steady diet of obesity myths by the 'food police,' trial lawyers, and even our own government." Mr. Berman was also criticized for fighting a push by Mothers Against Drunk Driving to tighten rules on alcohol limits for drivers.

Mr. Berman said his center hoped to help enact a Republican-backed bill that would prohibit unions from organizing workers through card checks.

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.

But I would like to turn briefly to the multi-billion dollar union-busting Goon industry. I saw a Washington Post from last Wednesday and there was a large advertisement from Unionfacts.com. A line-up of three pictures showed Kim Jong Il and Fidel Castro, and the less known UNITE-HERE President Bruce Raynor. A quote above states "There's no reason to subject the workers to an election," and the reader is supposed to guess who this comes from. What it doesn't say is that the article Raynor was quoted in was about his union's struggle against the huge multi-national and ideologically anti-union Cintas, and whether to do balloting or to sign unionization cards. When a corporation has already veilingly threatened to eliminate pro-union employees, an open ballot naturally doesn't make the most sense, in my honest opinion.

And while the Center for Union Facts claims on its website (that gives no background information or details on the group) that it is not anti-union, it is in fact headed by Rick Berman, a lobbyist who works for the food, alcohol and tobacco industries, which are among the industries in which UNITE-HERE operates.

Union "Facts" -- NOT

Unionfacts.com is a project of the Chamber of Commerce, according to an anonymous source which claims that, in a meeting of the State Chambers of Commerce National Conference held on Sanibel Island in Florida on January 26, the State Chambers announced they were spending $8 million a year ($2 million a quarter) to launch this anti-union campaign.

It's no accident that the Chamber and its members are launching a major initiative as the AFL-CIO and its unions are launching Fair Share health care in 30 states, helping record numbers of workers win unions outside the flawed NLRB process (like at Cingular), and taking on giant corporations, like WalMart.

Unionfacts.com is a project of The Center for Union Facts which is run by Richard Berman of Berman and Company. Here are examples of the types of campaigns they run:

Attacking MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) on behalf of the alcohol industry. (consumerdeception.com)
Representing the tobacco lobby against the CDC (Centers for Disease Control.) (consumerdeception.com)
Berman has been accused of falsely attributing to the EPA a minimization of the risk of ALAR, a pesticide used on apples that is especially harmful to children and which has since been banned, when, in fact, the information he used was from the company he represented that made ALAR. (Sourcewatch.org)
Other organizations reportedly attacked by Berman and his organizations include: Action on Smoking and Health; American Medical Association; Center for Food Safety; EarthSave International; Environmental Working Group; Friends of the Earth; Harvard School of Public Health; National Association of High School Principals; and the Surgeon General. (consumerdeception.com)

Described Mothers Against Drunk Driving as a group of "professional fund-raisers" who try to "scare us away from even responsible drinking."
Characterized former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's proposal to confiscate the vehicles of people convicted for drunk driving as a "car-theft ring."
Criticized the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for its warnings about salmonella-related food poisoning "For nearly three decades, [CDC] has been whipping up fear over food while remaining virtually unchallenged by the press or the scientific community. By generating more heat than light, [CDC] helps create fear . . . over . . . food products."

"[There is a] lack of evidence that second-hand smoke causes cancer."
—Rick Berman http://www.consumerfreedom.com/oped_detail.cfm?oped=123