labor

The Ohio state legislature has seized $230 million from to the state's Tobacco Prevention Foundation and diverted it other uses. In the late 1990s, Ohio and other states sued the major tobacco companies to recover billions of dollars spent treating sick smokers. Tobacco companies settled the suit by signing the historical 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), and agreeing to pay billions out to the states. The tobacco companies and the National Association of Attorneys General originally claimed that the purpose of the MSA and its payments was to reduce smoking, but on May 7, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland signed a bill to abolish the state's Tobacco Prevention Foundation and confiscate most of its money. Legislators claimed the money was going to an economic stimulus package, but shutting down the Foundation caused the layoff of 27 advertising employees who handled the Foundation's anti-smoking ad campaigns.

Author Eric Schlosser editorializes about "the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying," citing Burger King Corporation's spying on the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers through Cara Schaffer and her private security firm, Diplomatic Tactical Services. "The Bill of Rights was adopted to protect Americans from the abusive power of their government. I've come to believe that we now need a similar set of restrictions to defend against irresponsible corporate power. Today companies like Wal-Mart and ExxonMobil have annual revenues larger than the entire budgets of some states, and they employ former agents from the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and the Secret Service to do security work," Schlosser writes. "John Chidsey, the chief executive of Burger King, knew about the use of Diplomatic Tactical Services. Mr. Chidsey should get a chance to raise his right hand and tell members of Congress why he thinks this sort of behavior is acceptable." Meanwhile, Burger King says it is "investigating online postings made by one of its vice presidents vilifying the Coalition of Immokalee Workers," reports the Fort Myers News-Press.

Amy Bennett Williams, following up on her previous article reports, "As the Coalition of Immokalee Workers prepares to deliver more than 60,000 petitions to Burger King headquarters in Miami today, the daughter of Burger King's vice-president Stephen Grover confirmed her father is responsible for online postings vilifying the coalition. The Immokalee-based group is asking Burger King to improve tomato harvesters' working conditions and pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes, which could add about $20 to a daily wage of $50, workers say. ... [O]ften during the past year, when articles or videos about the coalition were posted on YouTube and various Internet news sites, someone using the online names activist2008 or surfxaholic36 would attach comments coalition member Greg Asbed has called 'libelous.' ... [E]arlier this year the alliance had been infiltrated by Cara Schaffer, who said she was a student at Broward Community College interested in organizing campus events in support of farmworkers. In reality, Schaffer owns Diplomatic Tactical Services, a Hollywood, Fla.-based security and investigative firm that advertises its ability to place operatives in the ranks of target groups."

From MAD magazineIf Cara Schaffer contacts you, be wary. Take emails and online comments from "activist2008" and "stopcorporategreed" with a grain of salt. Londoners, be on the lookout for Toby Kendall, a.k.a. "Ken Tobias." And activists everywhere should think twice before putting documents in the recycling or trash bins.

Over the past week, reporters and activists outed three different corporate spying operations. As John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote in their 1995 book "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!": "Movements for social and political reform have often become targets of surveillance. ... The public relations industry has developed a lucrative side business scrutinizing the thoughts and actions of citizen activists, using paid spies who are often recruited from government, military or private security backgrounds."

Last week's revelations show that these underhanded tactics are very much in use today. And they don't just impact the groups being infiltrated. By privileging corporate interests, effectively giving them the first and last word on an issue, they distort vital public debates.

An AFL-CIO ad opposing the free trade dealClumsy maneuvering by Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn -- who met with Colombian officials about the U.S. - Colombia Free Trade Agreement while serving as the chief campaign strategist for trade deal opponent Hillary Clinton -- drew unwanted publicity to the controversial pact.

Colombia's $300,000 a year contract (pdf) with Burson-Marsteller stated the PR firm would "provide ongoing strategic communications counsel to the Ambassador and key Embassy officials"; develop "key messages, talking points and briefing materials"; give "advice and communications counsel to the Ambassador and Embassy staff"; and "co-ordinate media interviews and public events with relevant news media in Washington D.C. on behalf of the Embassy."

Colombia ended the contract after Penn described his meeting as "an error in judgment." But the country isn't hurting for lobbying power in Washington, D.C. -- especially among Democrats.

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at what Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and Chile's Patagonia region have in common, and how Unilever is adjusting its cause-related marketing. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we remember one of Burson-Marsteller's old front groups. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign announced that Burson-Marsteller (B-M) CEO Mark Penn was no longer its chief strategist, the PR firm distributed a set of talking points for "clients and staff." The memo states that "it is more important than ever for us as leaders of this firm to communicate that we are more focused than ever on achieving our clients' goals." The memo claims that B-M lost the $300,000-a-year contract with the Colombian government because "our work for them was reported in the media." However, the Embassy stated that the contract was canceled because of Penn's comment that it "was an error in judgment" to meet with the Colombian ambassador, which they believed demonstrated "a lack of respect to Colombians." The memo states that Penn "will continue to advise the Clintons and the campaign" but that no longer being "chief strategist" will "afford him more time" to advise B-M clients.

Mark PennWhen labor leaders complained about Burson-Marsteller's union-busting work, Burson CEO Mark Penn remained as chief strategist for Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. When Penn blogged that his role in Clinton's campaign was "good for business," it wasn't a problem. But it was a serious "error in judgment" -- according to Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams -- when Penn met with Colombian government officials as part of his firm's work to promote a free trade agreement between Colombia and the United States. Clinton had previously criticized Senator Barack Obama over reports that his "economic adviser had met with Canadian officials," to assure them that Obama's "campaign rhetoric was harsher than his real beliefs about the North American Free Trade Agreement." Penn was "all but forced out" as Clinton's chief strategist, after news of the Colombia meeting broke. However, Penn and his polling firm "will continue to provide polling and advice to the campaign." According to Marc Ambinder, on April 7, "Penn took part on the campaign's morning message call ... as usual. This afternoon, he is also scheduled to be on a call with Clinton and other aides to begin to prepare for Saturday's presidential debate in Philadelphia." On O'Dwyer's PR Daily, one reader commented, "This is not only a huge black eye for Burson, [but] for all of us in the profession. ... Where are the Council [of Public Relations Firms], Arthur Page [Society, and] PRSA on this?"

Mark Penn runs the labor-busting PR giant Burson-Marsteller and is the top strategist and pollster for Hillary Clinton's campaign for president. His mixed loyalties have been a continuing image problem for Clinton, to the degree his conflicts makes the news.

The Wall Street Journal first reported, on April 4, that Penn had "met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate (Clinton) opposes." Burson-Marsteller "has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal."

The New York Times later noted that Penn apologized for his conflict of loyalty saying "the meeting was an error in judgment." But that was not enough. Saturday, April 5, Colombia fired Penn (and B-M his company) for his embarrassing bumbling. Still, Hillary Clinton is sticking by her man Mark - for now.

"I've never been on the opposite side of the NAACP," said Dr. Alicia Fernandez, an associate professor of clinical medicine. "I've been a big admirer of the SEIU" labor union. "But now these drug companies are going to the good guys for cover." In particular, the SEIU affiliate International Association of EMTs and Paramedics (IAEP) recently sent two letters to its members promoting Pfizer's cholesterol drug Lipitor. "IAEP leadership stands behind LIPITOR as the lipid-lowering agent of choice," read one letter, which was signed by IAEP director Matthew Levy and printed on IAEP letterhead, but with a Pfizer copyright at the end. IAEP stated it "does not endorse specific drugs," but refused to say whether the union has any financial relationship with Pfizer. In a similar case, the NAACP's New England branch accused Medicare of racism for refusing to cover the heart medication BiDil. (NitroMed, BiDil's manufacturer, has donated $1.5 million to the NAACP.) BiDil is a combination of two generic drugs that won "patent protection for treating African-American patients with heart failure." Fernandez believes NitroMed's "real goal" is "selling an expensive 'new' pill made from two cheap old ones." Meanwhile, she warned, "the argument over coverage of BiDil deflects attention from the real issues involved in health disparities."