Abernathy Associates has been at the forefront of the struggle for economic and social justice since it was founded in Atlanta, Georgia in 1978. For 25 years, the firm has helped its clients fight against racism and sexism and for human rights and progressive values by creating successful communications strategies.

Best known for its work with labor unions, Abernathy Associates has been involved in hundreds of struggles for workers’ rights. The firm masterminded the communications strategy behind the successful strike of 20,000 American Airlines flight attendants in 1995 and helped lead the Steelworkers’ successful international corporate campaigns and strikes against Bridgestone/Firestone, Wheeling-Pitt Steel and Rocky Mountain Steel. Abernathy Associates helped build the Service Employees International Union into the largest and fastest-growing union in the AFL-CIO. The agency played a vital role in helping elect then-SEIU president John J. Sweeney and his “New Voice” slate to the top offices in the AFL-CIO in 1995, and now serves as a consultant to the AFL-CIO.

Abernathy Associates also assists community action and progressive advocacy groups. The firm helped to defeat ballot initiatives like Proposition 9 (Jarvis II) in California, which would have slashed the state income tax in half, and Proposition 226, which would have crippled labor’s ability to have an impact on the California political process.

Key victories in recent years include defeating a major attempt at decertifying the Transport Workers Union at American Airlines, upholding strong contracts and decent living standards for casino workers in Atlantic City, and using a groundbreaking television advertising blitz to build community support for workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. In the buildup to the 2004 presidential election, the firm spearheaded the communications strategy for the AFL-CIO’s voting rights protection program. In the aftermath, the firm helped build a small, all-volunteer inauguration protest into a major media presence at the Bush inauguration.

To learn more about Abernathy Associates’ successful communication strategies over the past three decades, see our complete timeline.

VIEW 25 YEARS OF SHAPING SOCIAL JUSTICE