At CCI, Unions Aren't The Only Good Cause



	At CCI, Unions Aren't The Only Good Cause Corporate Campaign, Inc. (CCI) is widely recognized as the nation's No. 1 strategist for unions, but it has also provided important advice and services to many other organizations and causes. In 1994, the National Asbestos Victims Legal Action Organizing Committee (NAVLAOC) needed help to publicly expose a proposed asbestos settlement sponsored by the Center for Claims Resolution (CCR), an organization set up by 20 asbestos company defendants. The settlement would have bailed out a lot of companies and enriched a few attorneys at the expense of millions of asbestos victims. CCI helped the committee raise money and win support from medical experts, labor leaders, trial attorneys and Ralph Nader. CCI also prepared comprehensive background research and literature that described the settlement and what was wrong with it. Serious questions were raised about the motives of the companies, lawyers and labor leaders promoting it. Next, CCI generated extensive media coverage across the country — ranging from front-page stories in the *Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer* and *National Law Journal* to detailed coverage by CNN, the *Washington Post, and the Associated Press. NAVLAOC Executive Director Myles O'Malley later wrote to colleagues: "What a difference a few months make. Many of us were pessimistic about doing anything to stop the CCR steamroller. It appeared that the settlement would get approved without any public attention to the unethical and unfair elements of the plan. "Now the situation is quite different. Our side still faces an uphill battle in the law courts, but we've been scoring a number of blows in the court of public opinion. With the help of Corporate Campaign, Inc., we held protest demonstrations in Philadelphia (around the theme, "Punish Corporate Criminals, Not Their Victims") and we got the anti-CCR position out to the media across the country. This has resulted in a series of articles and broadcasts that have helped to raise serious questions about the CCR plan…" On May 11, 1996, The New York Times* reported the outcome under the headline, "Court Tosses Out An Asbestos Deal." The newspaper said that a federal appeals court in Philadelphia threw out the CCR-sponsored settlement "that would have limited future health claims of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families against 20 major asbestos producers." Canada's leading business newspaper, *The Globe and Mail, displayed another side of CCI's versatility with a headline (May 12, 1992) saying, "Greenpeace* raises the stakes… Replacing guerilla tactics with corporate maneuvers, a major environmental group is hitting business where it hurts — at its money supply." According to the newspaper, "Such tactics bear the unmistakable stamp of… Ray Rogers… New York Labour consultant brought in by Greenpeace…" CCI helped Greenpeace develop its campaign to challenge DuPont, the world's largest manufacturer of chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons) which destroy the ozone layer shielding the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. CCI provided in-depth research, analysis and strategic advice, led workshops and produced campaign literature. Seagram's Co. Ltd. of Canada, the liquor company, became a target in the campaign when CCI's research revealed that Seagram's owned 24.5% of DuPont's common stock and had five members of their respective boards of directors in common. Business Week (June 24, 1991) reported that Infact, the Boston-based activist group that successfully challenged Nestlé's marketing of infant formula to the Third World with a seven-year boycott campaign, was now challenging General Electric Company's involvement in the nuclear weapons business. CCI advised Infact, produced literature and helped promote its Academy Award-winning documentary film, "Deadly Deception," which exposed the terrifying human and environmental cost of GE's nuclear weapons production. Noting that Infact had "enlisted Ray Rogers, who is well-known among unionists for bringing sophisticated marketing techniques to bear" against labor's opponents, Business Week said GE was already "chang(ing) some of its sales practices" because the public was beginning to realize "the irony that (GE) makes both lifesaving medical devices and parts for nuclear weapons." By 1993, GE took itself out of the nuclear weapons business. Other non-labor organizations for which CCI is working or has worked are the Campaign to Stop the Corporate Takeover of Pacifica, Campaign ExxonMobil, Chemical Industry Responsibility Project, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Gamaliel Foundation, the National Training and Information Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Presbyterian Church USA and the Rainforest Action Network.

At CCI, Unions Aren't
The Only Good Cause

Corporate Campaign, Inc. (CCI) is widely recognized as the nation's No. 1 strategist for unions, but it has also provided important advice and services to many other organizations and causes.

In 1994, the National Asbestos Victims Legal Action Organizing Committee (NAVLAOC) needed help to publicly expose a proposed asbestos settlement sponsored by the Center for Claims Resolution (CCR), an organization set up by 20 asbestos company defendants. The settlement would have bailed out a lot of companies and enriched a few attorneys at the expense of millions of asbestos victims.

CCI helped the committee raise money and win support from medical experts, labor leaders, trial attorneys and Ralph Nader. CCI also prepared comprehensive background research and literature that described the settlement and what was wrong with it. Serious questions were raised about the motives of the companies, lawyers and labor leaders promoting it.

Next, CCI generated extensive media coverage across the country — ranging from front-page stories in the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and National Law Journal to detailed coverage by CNN, the Washington Post, and the Associated Press. NAVLAOC Executive Director Myles O'Malley later wrote to colleagues:

"What a difference a few months make. Many of us were pessimistic about doing anything to stop the CCR steamroller. It appeared that the settlement would get approved without any public attention to the unethical and unfair elements of the plan.

"Now the situation is quite different. Our side still faces an uphill battle in the law courts, but we've been scoring a number of blows in the court of public opinion. With the help of Corporate Campaign, Inc., we held protest demonstrations in Philadelphia (around the theme, "Punish Corporate Criminals, Not Their Victims") and we got the anti-CCR position out to the media across the country. This has resulted in a series of articles and broadcasts that have helped to raise serious questions about the CCR plan…"

On May 11, 1996, The New York Times reported the outcome under the headline, "Court Tosses Out An Asbestos Deal." The newspaper said that a federal appeals court in Philadelphia threw out the CCR-sponsored settlement "that would have limited future health claims of hundreds of thousands of workers and their families against 20 major asbestos producers."

Canada's leading business newspaper, The Globe and Mail, displayed another side of CCI's versatility with a headline (May 12, 1992) saying, "Greenpeace raises the stakes… Replacing guerilla tactics with corporate maneuvers, a major environmental group is hitting business where it hurts — at its money supply." According to the newspaper, "Such tactics bear the unmistakable stamp of… Ray Rogers… New York Labour consultant brought in by Greenpeace…"

CCI helped Greenpeace develop its campaign to challenge DuPont, the world's largest manufacturer of chemicals (chlorofluorocarbons) which destroy the ozone layer shielding the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. CCI provided in-depth research, analysis and strategic advice, led workshops and produced campaign literature. Seagram's Co. Ltd. of Canada, the liquor company, became a target in the campaign when CCI's research revealed that Seagram's owned 24.5% of DuPont's common stock and had five members of their respective boards of directors in common.

Business Week (June 24, 1991) reported that Infact, the Boston-based activist group that successfully challenged Nestlé's marketing of infant formula to the Third World with a seven-year boycott campaign, was now challenging General Electric Company's involvement in the nuclear weapons business. CCI advised Infact, produced literature and helped promote its Academy Award-winning documentary film, "Deadly Deception," which exposed the terrifying human and environmental cost of GE's nuclear weapons production.

Noting that Infact had "enlisted Ray Rogers, who is well-known among unionists for bringing sophisticated marketing techniques to bear" against labor's opponents, Business Week said GE was already "chang(ing) some of its sales practices" because the public was beginning to realize "the irony that (GE) makes both lifesaving medical devices and parts for nuclear weapons." By 1993, GE took itself out of the nuclear weapons business.

Other non-labor organizations for which CCI is working or has worked are the Campaign to Stop the Corporate Takeover of Pacifica, Campaign ExxonMobil, Chemical Industry Responsibility Project, the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Gamaliel Foundation, the National Training and Information Center, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Presbyterian Church USA and the Rainforest Action Network.

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