Crisis Public Relations: To Respond And Battle Or Sit Quiet? By Ronn Torossian

If you have visited Manhattans famed Central Park in the last month seeking peace and tranquility, you may have ventured elsewhere. Since 65 employees of the Boathouse restaurant walked off the job a month ago protesting work conditions, they have been busy handing out leaflets, banging drums, chanting and encouraging visitors to the park to boycott the restaurant and adjoining boats.

They are highly visible, vocal and loud; complete with the usual giant inflatable rat. They even come equipped with balloons that they hand out emblazoned with a message against the Boathouse & the owner of the Boathouse, Dean Poll. While reading union literature distributed from their many representatives strolling the park, one learns of egregious behavior the restaurant employees and representatives have allegedly committed.


Many atrocities are alleged and you learn that the union has filed a legal complaint against the restaurant seeking an order mandating the Boathouse to negotiate with the union. Visiting the well optimized professional website of the union protestors we learn even more facts. But one sides facts are often someone elses spin.


From walking through the park, or searching Google it is hard to find the other side of the story supporting the boathouse; a testament to a quandary many businesses have faced when calling a Crisis PR Agency. Do we respond, and if so, how, and when? Legal counsel often counsels clients to be quiet and await a court date, sometimes not realizing or considering the immediacy of the media and the effect of negative PR from the opponents.


Only after spending time on Google and seeing seven of the first 10 items being negative about Dean Poll, do we learn the entrepreneur started working at age 12, and there had not been an election to determine whether the restaurant's workers actually want to unionize. Of course, as with any battle, there are two sides, and as the owner of the boathouse Dean Poll said in an interview: "I can't stop them from filing unfair labor practices; the majority of the workers don't want a union."


He may very well be right when he said the union has organized one publicity stunt after another," - but it's just tough luck. In todays world negative attacks often works because people do not stick around long enough to listen to both sides of the story. The loudest noise is often heard, and facts and truth arent always the winner.


While Poll cites facts that business owners may understand not needing or employees not wanting union labor, owning a $20 Million business which is very difficult, and other factors watching customers and the public in the park it is clear that this street theatre will have a lasting response on his and the restaurants reputation.


While I dont know if Mr. Poll and the Boathouse are right in this dispute, I do know that nearly unanimously in todays media culture, if you are attacked vocally and visibly its usually best to have vibrant PR response by a PR Agency online and off-line so that every battle has two sides clearly displayed.