Kelber Offers New Media Plan to Fill Void, As AFL-CIO Drops Its Monthly Magazine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Harry Kelber, a distinguished labor journalist and editor, has proposed a new media plan to help union organizers reach out to the millions of workers who say they would like to join a union. His plan comes at a time when the AFL-CIO has scrapped its official monthly publication, America@Work, and, given the federation’s budgetary restraints, is making no effort to replace it.

Commenting on the refusal of the AFL-CIO to establish a national media strategy, with a weekly, professional-level newspaper, as well as radio and television programs, Kelber asks: "If you can't talk to non-union workers, how are you going to organize them?"

Kelber, who is thus far the first and only candidate for Executive Council, says: "A steady stream of anti-union propaganda, some of it true, pours forth from editorial writers, commentators, right wing politicians and corporate 'consultants,' who demonize unions and their leaders. Yet workers who read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television never get the union 'message.' They tend to believe all the anti-union arguments because in only very rare instances do they get convincing answers--or any answers at all--from the AFL-CIO leadership."

Kelber's career dates back to 1939, when he was editor of two weekly labor papers, the Trade Union Record and the Building Trades Union Press. He was both an observer and an active participant during a period that saw the rise of the CIO and enormous growth of unions in the mass production industries.

In the 1940s and 1950s, he helped set up official publications for locals of the hotel workers, machinists, furniture workers, teamsters and transit workers, while assisting them in their publicity efforts.

Kelber says that unions that give the highest priority to organizing must accept the fact that communicating with the public and unorganized workers is an essential part of their recruiting efforts. They must establish a committee of experts to draw up plans for a weekly newspaper, better use of the Internet, and weekly radio and television programs.

"Improving labor’s media structure will ensure that the AFL-CIO has a sustained presence and voice in the national debate on economic, social and political issues. It would also strengthen labor’s media influence if it established a coordinated relationship with the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA), which has several hundred affiliated publications, as well as with Workers’ Independent News (WIN), which has more than one hundred radio outlets," he adds.

"I believe there should be at least one person on the Executive Council of 51 members who has the knowledge and experience to deal with media problems. I think I fit the need," Kelber says.