CASE STUDY
MEDIA RELATIONS & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION
The Challenge
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) hired The TASC Group to work on several international, national and local campaigns to generate media interest and public support for the rights of its union members.
The Challenge
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) hired The TASC Group to work on several international, national and local campaigns to generate media interest and public support for the rights of its union members.
The Strategy
TASC set up informational interviews with top reporters covering transportation, labor and politics to introduce them to the challenges that ATU members face. To humanize the issues, the team identified employees who could share their personal stories about the injustices they encounter on the job every day. TASC organized and prepared ATU leaders and members for a series of press conferences and helped draft and issue press releases and public statements to make sure ATU was part of the conversation on a variety of major transportation and labor topics. TASC also set up meetings with editorial boards and drafted and placed op-eds from ATU leadership.
The Results
TASC’s efforts generated hundreds of placements in outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Yahoo! News, Fast Company, BuzzFeed and the New York Daily News, earning more than an estimated 120 million media impressions. The
work also contributed to the introduction of the Bus Operator Safety and Security Act and the Pedestrian Protection Act in Congress, which aimed to make city buses safer for drivers, pedestrians and riders by redesigning drivers’ workstations. The campaign to improve public transit and defend transportation workers’ rights in the Metro DC area was recognized with a PR News Nonprofit Award for Public Affairs and Issues Management.
MEDIA COVERAGE
