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The Center for Union Facts (CUF) is an American interest group that is critical of labor unions. It is one of several advocacy and public relations groups founded by Richard Berman, whose Washington, D.C.-based public affairs firm, Berman and Company, specializes in research, communications and advertising. CUF has commissioned studies about workers and unionization and has been a key supporter of various pieces of legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act and the Employee Rights Act. It has placed advertisements around the US that have been critical of unions. Its representatives have appeared on major broadcast and cable channels to discuss labor issues, and have written commentaries in leading newspapers and on news and opinion websites. In recent years, CUF has made a major point of the decline in union membership and the waning enthusiasm of union members for organized representation. CUF has been especially critical of teachers' unions, which in response have mounted campaigns to counter CUF's messaging. ==Advertisements== CUF was launched in February 2006 via full-page advertisements in major U.S. newspapers, including ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. In May 2006, the organization aired its first television advertisement. The 30-second spot, running on Fox News Channel and local markets, featured "actors posing as workers" saying "what they 'love' about unions", like paying dues, union leaders' "fat-cat lifestyles" and discrimination against minorities. The advertising campaign cost US$3 million, raised "from companies, foundations and individuals that Mr. Berman won't identify". Another TV advertisement (aired on CNN and other stations) shows actors posing as large, burly "union leaders" muscling their way into a worker's home and "intimidating" him into joining the union. the labor and economics professor Harley Shaiken said the effort "to create an antiunion atmosphere" more generally, as opposed to business-funded advertising against a particular union organizing drive or strike, "is a new wrinkle". An AFL-CIO spokesperson called the advertisement's accusations "unfounded and outrageous".〔 In August 2006, the CUF ran a series of advertisements in Montana, Oregon, Michigan and Nevada attacking public employee unions. It appears that this may have been connected with ballot initiatives in those states proposing public spending caps. The CUF ran an ad in 2008 noting that the Service Employees' International Union had been the largest contributor to the 2006 gubernatorial campaign of corrupt Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who, after his election, had signed the state's first-ever contract with the SIEU. The ad also noted the SEIU's donations to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and its ties to ACORN. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Center for Union Facts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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