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SEIU Responds to Chamber Ad Campaign With Its Own Advertisement

The Service Employees International Union responded online Wednesday to a new multi-year U.S. Chamber of Commerce marketing campaign that the Chamber says will promote the country’s “free enterprise values.—

The union’s online advertisement promotes the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that is fiercely opposed by the Chamber and the business community.

The SEIU says it will spend at least $100,000 on its online campaign.

“While Americans are losing their jobs, their retirement security and their health care, the greedy CEOs that the Chamber represents have brought us nothing more than executive bonuses and taxpayer-funded bailouts,— union spokeswoman Christy Setzer said in a statement. “It’s going to take more than a $100 [million] PR campaign to make people believe that greedy CEOs have their best interests at heart.—

The Chamber announced earlier Wednesday its new Campaign for Free Enterprise campaign, budgeted at several tens of millions of dollars, which will include a grass-roots component, radio and television ad buys and lobbying.

Chamber President Tom Donohue said in a statement that “it’s time to remind all Americans that it was a free enterprise system based on the values of individual initiative, hard work, risk, innovation, and profit that built our great country.—

In the SEIU’s new 30-second Web ad, titled “Bad Company,— the narrator states that “the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is going all out to stop the Employee Free Choice Act,— referring to the contentious legislation opposed by business groups that would make it easier for workers to unionize.

The ad concludes: “Guess it’s no surprise the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is opposing better pay and health benefits for America’s workers. Let’s pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s time the economy worked for everyone again.—

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