Public Relations

The Department of Public Relations is the voice and face of PEF. The PR department also provides technical communications and graphic arts services to members as requested, and serves as the union’s in-house advertising agency.

Our responsibilities fall under four broad categories: Media Relations; Advocacy Services; Member Relations; and Community Relations.

The Department of Public Relations works to:

• help implement the union’s goals by publicizing PEF’s positions on issues affecting members and the citizens they serve;

• increase the public’s understanding of PEF’s positions, policies and programs;

• provide fast, accurate responses to news media inquiries and initiating coverage of noteworthy PEF activities;

• conceptualize and produce advocacy ad campaigns;

• write and produce the members’ monthly magazine The Communicator;

• design and oversee information booths for member-sponsored and community events; and,

• design and typeset newsletters, special brochures and publications, promotional items, other print materials.

This department also produces revenue for PEF through the sale of advertising space in The Communicator and on the PEF web site.

During the past 12 months the union’s battle to win a fair PS&T contract dominated the PR Department’s activities. We focused on creating and delivering the messages and images needed to help keep the contract issue on the front burner of news organizations around the state, until a tentative settlement was reached. We were especially busy writing and designing scores of informational and promotional materials used in dozens of rallies, pickets, parades, news conferences and other events from Brooklyn to Buffalo.

Staff of the PR Department aggressively pursued positive media coverage of the union’s views on the drawn-out contract negotiations, issuing a torrent of news advisories and press releases publicizing all of the members’ rallies, pickets and confrontations with the governor that took place around the state and arranging interviews for union leaders. As a result, PEF members and leaders made headlines and prime time newscasts in dozens of news organizations including: the New York Times; the Associated Press wire service; the New York Daily News; Newsday; Gannett News Service; the Albany Times Union; the Daily Gazette (Schenectady); the Troy Record; the Syracuse Herald Journal; the Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester); the Sun-Press Bulletin (Binghamton); the Poughkeepsie Journal; Metroland; the Legislative Gazette; the Empire State Report; The Discovery Channel; WHEC-TV; WNBF-FM; ABC-AM; FLUX-AM; WGBB-AM; WBLS-FM; WXXI-AM; R-NEWS; WROC-TV; WSTM-TV; WIXT-TV; WTVH-TV; WSYT-TV; WSYR-AM; WHEN-AM; WRGB-TV; WNYT-TV; WMHQ-TV; WXXA-TV; Inside Albany; WAMC-FM; WGY-AM; WROW-AM; and NY Channel One, among others.

PR Department staff responded to more than 200 press calls regarding contract negotiations and a range of other issues and also initiated news coverage of several issues critical to the membership. We wrote and distributed over 75 media advisories, official statements and news releases, and conducted several news conferences and other special events to draw media coverage to the contract fight. For example, in December we spoofed the governor’s tight-fisted contract raise offer with a “Pataki Coal box” and “Scrooge Pataki” holiday greeting card”, and arranged a media event featuring a Pataki look-alike played by PEF activist Ed Lucas. Transformed with heavy stage make-up, Lucas handed out gift-boxed lumps of coal as "Holiday Bonuses". That event gained positive news coverage -as far away as Rochester - of PEF’s contract demands. The payoff for all those efforts during the past year has been overwhelmingly positive coverage for the union in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and columns and on radio and TV broadcasts.

The Public Relations department created, wrote, produced, directed, edited and launched a quarter-million dollar statewide radio ad campaign for the contract battle, featuring the governor’s voice praising public employees and promising them a fair deal, contrasted with a narrator noting the governor was failing to keep his word. We also continued the fairness theme in print ads in the Capital District.

During the past year staff of the department researched, wrote, edited and designed each issue of the Communicator and its advertising supplements, including a digital edition that can be found on PEF's website, as well as several other special supplements and special publications. These included Frontline, the quarterly newsletter for labor/management representatives and other leaders; Connections, the quarterly newsletter for political action activists; and the Health and Safety department newsletter.

Department staff also photographed most of the pictures used in the magazine, took photos of members for use in other publications and informational exhibits, and supervised the scheduling and production of photos taken by our member-volunteer photographers and freelance photographers.

In 2000 the PR department earned eight awards from the AFT Communicators Association (AFTCA), the Metro Labor Press Communicators Council and the International Labor Communications Association for our articles and graphics in the Communicator, and won a First Place award from AFTCA for the PEF Web site.

The PR Department assisted with coordination of the “Contract Justice” and the huge COLA rallies, producing flyers publicizing the events, as well as hundreds of signs, rally placards, whistles, hats, T-shirts and hand fans bearing the PEF logo and rally message.

We also designed for the 2000 SEIU Convention a variety of displays featuring PEF members on the job.

We handled a slew of graphic arts and production projects including typesetting, designing and producing camera-ready artwork for:

· the 48- ft. stage backdrop and all the publications, forms, informational and other graphic materials needed for the annual PEF Convention;

· buttons, mugs and handouts for the State Fair;

· lobbying fact sheets for the Legislative Department and PEF’s PAC;

· materials for the scores of contract rallies held around the state;

· souvenir journal ads;

· retirement and outstanding service certificates and plaques; and,

· dozens of promotional items requested by members and other PEF departments. This department also conducted the competitive-bid processes to select the vendors who manufactured the products.

Staff of the PR Department updated the union’s hotline every week and more frequently as needed with news on contract issues, rallies, union-related events, or special programs or activities.

We arranged for the union’s participation in the annual Northeast Regional Food Bank Holiday Drive, as well as the “Somos El Futuro” legislator’s conference and the annual Association of Black and Puerto Rican legislators’ conference in Albany, and prepared informational materials for distribution to the public and lobbying materials used by members visiting legislators. We also assisted members in staffing the information booths.