A Union Belongs to its Workers

Beginning in 2001, Abernathy Associates was enlisted to help stave off an attempt by an independent union to decertify the Transport Workers Union Air Transport Division (TWU ATD) as the collective bargaining representative for 20,000 mechanics at American Airlines. The union conducting the raid, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), had been using the post-September 11 chaos in the airline industry to steal members from AFL-CIO airline unions. Over the next year and a half, the agency launched an ambitious internal and external communications campaign driven by the members themselves.

When Abernathy Associates was hired, the TWU was facing daunting communications challenges with a large membership spread out across the country. AMFA was making a lot of noise by using the Internet to get its negative messages out. Abernathy Associates counteracted their success by painstakingly traveling around the American Airlines system, creating communications teams trained in media outreach and interpersonal communications. These teams then created the basis for a union-wide group called Team TWU.

Next, Abernathy created a three-pronged message strategy – based on the results of a membership survey – and reintroduced the TWU to its members. The firm created a comprehensive direct mail component, a workplace leaflet component and, together with organizers from the AFL-CIO, a one-on-one, person-to-person component. The campaign created awareness among workers who talked about issues that were important to the majority of the members, and the agency also took the campaign to the public – once again, using the workers to put out their own stories.

The awareness strategy worked. For the first time in its history of raiding, AMFA was soundly defeated. The firm then conducted a post-campaign survey, hosted focus groups and asked members what they needed from their union in the long term. The agency took the results to the TWU leadership complete with a concrete map for continued change. And the TWU was left with a new communications apparatus.