UnitedWorkForce.org might sound like a good source for learning about or advocating for unions. But in reality, it is a wacky mix of overt pitches for Christianity, tacky patriotic messages and the logos of major unions, including the UFCW, Steelworkers and AFSCME.
A button for “current” union and government news features Yahoo links from 2003. The “Discounts” button leads to ads for insurance agencies, Sony, stress management, Redwing shoes and “Motorcycle Attorneys.”
The site is truly bizarre, but as Andy Zipser wrote recently in The Guild Reporter, there are a number of other sites like it and they are no laughing matter. These are fake union-friendly sites created by entrepreneurs to sell over-priced ads to businesses desperate to be seen as union-friendly. The links to legitimate unions, campaigns and union news sources like WIN give them a veneer of credibility, though one that can be pierced with just a few clicks.
Zipser worries these phonies siphon off potential advertising funds from real union-friendly news sources, and generally could contribute to confusion about and derision toward unions at a time when unions are already under attack by blue chip public-relations firms.
Real union publications don’t take direct advertising because of another breed of scams 60 years ago, which Zipser says were run by some of the “same miscreants” behind fake union websites today. In Zipser’s words:
Years ago, a notoriously persistent scam involved selling ads in flimsy or non-existent “union newspapers.” Buying such an ad, businessmen were told, would prove they were “friends of labor” – and it wasn’t unusual for those who wouldn’t be friends to run into hard times, including vandalism and roughed-up employees.
Because of these scams, Zipser reports, the AFL-CIO banned ads in union publications in the 1950s, and instead created the International Labor Press Association, now the International Labor Communications Association (ILCA). ILCA vouches for the credibility of legitimate union publications and also sponsors awards each year for the best union publications in various categories, among other things.
ILCA’s stamp of approval helped greatly in differentiating real union print publications from the impostors. But the Internet opened up new frontiers of opportunity for the scammers, allowing them to freely link to real unions and union content without needing any approval or mutual agreement.
They obviously aren’t masters at manipulating search engines, as the fake union sites Zipser points out don’t come up readily when one Googles “unions” and related phrases. But the companies – including major ones – who apparently pay big money for ads on these sites seem to be fooled or at least willing to bank that enough regular people will be fooled.
Zipser writes that on Unitedworkforce.org, ad rates run “$20,000 for a top-of-page banner on its home page, but banner ad rates of $2,000 to $5,000 are common and even a simple Yellow Pages-style listing runs $199 — and judging by some complaints, becomes an invitation for a hard sell to upgrade.”
Unionfriendly.com and Unitedunions.org are two other fake sites, according to Zipser, that appear to be drawing significant web traffic. Unionfriendly.com appears to be a legitimate and useful site, with current news including Spanish articles from Latin America, current job listings from the separate site unionjobs.com and messages of support for the Employee Free Choice Act. But there are only a few bland paragraphs under “Stewards Corner” and “Workers Rights,” and the technicolor world map offering union news in 23 languages doesn’t work at all. Unitedunions.org makes big promises but acknowledges that the site is still under construction.
These two sites may not be thinly disguised Trojan horses for anti-union, right-wing propaganda, but rather plain old American schemes to make money.
This article was updated on November 11, 2011, to remove all references to unions.org.
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Kari Lydersen is a Chicago-based journalist, author and assistant professor at Northwestern University, where she leads the investigative specialization at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Her books include Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%.
