BLAINE
​RUMMEL

Our Union’s Echo Chamber: Communicating with People in a Busy World

​It’s been decades since Americans relied on three television networks and their hometown paper for news. The fragmentation of media, in which cable, social media, and even subscription services like Netflix and iTunes now compete for smaller audiences ever more targeted content, isn’t going away any time soon. The way our union communicates also has evolved because we, as union activists, are also competing for members’ attention, even if its just for a few seconds in their busy lives. Instead of taking a one-size-fits all approach of a quarterly magazine, our union now creates and delivers content based on what members want from their union. We have developed the most robust presence on social media in the labor movement. And we are increasingly turning to video and interactive digital content to educate and advocate. You’ll go inside the national union’s communications operation to see exactly how and why we create the content we do, and how it gets distributed. (Hint: in a digital world, it all comes down to measuring whether content is being read and viewed, which means it all comes down to you.) 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
•    Recognize how and why our union creates the content it does and how people see it; and
•    Differentiate the types of “personas” that exist within AFSCME’s membership and what people want from their union; and
•    Realize the full breadth and depth of the union’s communications program, particularly when it comes to interactive media, video, and digital advertising

Since being sent to the principal’s office for publishing a pro-union editorial in his high school newspaper supporting striking cafeteria workers, Blaine Rummel has sought opportunities to promote the positive role that public service workers play in Americans’ lives.  Blaine currently serves as national Communications Director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Previously, Blaine served in a number of roles at AFSCME, where he drove communications campaigns to successfully organize more than 20,000 workers, led AFSCME’s communications efforts around health care reform and developed The Main Street Moment, a book that articulated AFSCME’s vision for restoring the middle class.  While at AFSCME, Blaine has greatly enhanced the union’s digital and video capacity, a move that helped the AFSCME win numerous awards as well as its designation as “the funniest union in America.” 
 
During the 2008 presidential election, Blaine served as the Democratic National Committee’s press secretary for the Midwest and Northeast, coordinating communications in 17 states, including the battlegrounds of Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  He also has served in a number of communications capacities for both non-profit organizations and private public relations firms, including Edelman New York