RAY ABERNATHY has been an advertising, public relations, political and labor consultant for more than 40 years. The firm, which he founded in 1978, specializes in strategic communications for advocacy campaigns and crisis management, with extensive experience in framing and creating messages.

Radicalized by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he got involved in the civil rights movement, handled media strategy for Atlanta’s striking sanitation workers, and became a PR consultant to Mrs. King, helping her organize a succession of MLK birthday celebrations.

In the 1980s, Abernathy founded a boutique communications firm in Washington D.C. that continues to exclusively serve labor unions and left of center nonprofits. The firm limits the number of clients it represents, which means “they don’t get relegated to a second string,” he says, “because there is no second string.”

Abernathy’s strategic approach to communications has played a vital role in many labor movement victories. He engineered communications for the successful airline strike of American Airlines flight attendants in 1993, building member consensus and public support long before contract talks, so that people cheered in airports when the flight attendants went out on strike.

In the Bridgestone-Firestone rubberworkers strike in 1996, he created advertising and publicity that helped the Steelworkers union reach a settlement for 40,000 workers. His radio commercials featured an original bluegrass song, “They are Rolling Over the American Dream,” about the Japanese-owned tiremaker.

Recently, Abernathy brought mass media into a union organizing campaign by SEIU 1199NE at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. He directed the production of powerful TV commercials that are building regional support for a fair union representation process in one of the country’s most prestigious – and anti-union –hospitals.

He is co-author of “The Inside Game: Winning With Worksite Strategies” and author of “A Practical Press Guide for Local Labor Unions” and “Bargaining in the Sunshine,” a guide in the use of public media techniques in contract negotiations. Ray divides his time between the D.C. and New York offices.