Radio Commercial Calls Bernero A "Bully"
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Updated: 7:24 PM Mar 31, 2008
Radio Commercial Calls Bernero A "Bully"
The ad introduces a contest to create videos poking fun of Mayor Virg Bernero
Posted: 5:27 PM Mar 31, 2008
Reporter: Lauren Zakalik
Email Address: lauren.zakalik@wilx.com
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If you listened to the radio on your Monday morning commute, you might have heard something a little out of the ordinary.

A commercial debuted Monday morning, calling out Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero for being-- quote-- a bully.

And the ad, now playing on three different local radio stations, urges people to create videos poking fun of the mayor-- and to send them to the Local 580 Teamsters Union to win a prize.

It's called "Purge Bernero," and though it's in jest, they mean what they say.

"Basically we're calling it what it is," says Local 580 Secretary-Treasurer Mike Parker. "We're having fun doing it, standing up to a bully we think is unfair to people-- not only to his workers but members of the public."

Bernero is asking city workers to pay 5 percent of their health care costs-- something Parker says is unreasonable. But he says Bernero won't budge, so they've gone to the airwaves. Parker says it's a different approach than usual, but it's in their legal rights, he says.

The mayor heard the commercial bright and early Monday morning. Bernero chuckled, he said, but is standing by his budget.

"You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette," Bernero explains. But he says everyone is making sacrifices, and he's not willing to burden taxpayers with the city's budget problems.

But until he convinces the union of that, the commercials are going nowehere.


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