RESEARCH REPORT

Political coalitions and working women: how the tobacco industry built a relationship with the Coalition of Labor Union Women

Edith D Balbach¹, Abby Herzberg¹, Elizabeth M Barbeau²

¹ Community Health Program, Tufts University, Medford, USA
² Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor E D Balbach
112 Packard Avenue, Medford, MA 02155, USA; edith.balbach{at}tufts.edu

Objectives: To assess how the tobacco industry established a political relationship with the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) and to learn from this example how tobacco control advocates can work more effectively with organisations with which working class women are affiliated.

Methods: The study reviewed tobacco industry documents to determine Tobacco Institute strategy, using the CLUW News and other published material to corroborate our findings.

Results: The Tobacco Institute was effective at framing excise tax and smokefree worksite issues in a way that facilitated CLUW’s support of industry positions on these issues. The Tobacco Institute was also willing to reciprocate by providing financial and other kinds of support to CLUW.

Conclusions: While tobacco control missed an opportunity to partner with CLUW on smokefree worksites and excise taxes in the 1980s and 1990s, tobacco control can also use issue framing and reciprocity to form coalitions with organisations representing the interests of working women.

Abbreviations: TI, Tobacco Institute; CLUW, Coalition of Labor Union Women; LMC, Labor Management Committee; TDO, Tobacco Documents Online; UCSF, University of California at San FRancisco

Keywords: tobacco; public health policy; coalitions; organised labour

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