How The Inventor Community Came To Lobby Congress About Northwest - NO NorthWorst Air
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From: "Ronald J. Riley" <rjriley@rjriley.com>
2-28-99
The art of lobbying Congress.
Effective lobbying is at least partly finding common ground with
the legislator or their staff. It is useful to discuss a
"safe" ice breaker subject before getting into the main
topic.
About 24 months ago I started using terrible NorthWorst service as the ice breaker. I spend a week at a time in DC, and typically call on 25-30 congressional offices per trip, talking to between one and five staffers per visit. I generally mention NorthWorst in most offices. This was a great topic, because a big percentage of staffers had their own NWA horror story, and if they did not have a NWA story they usually had one about another airline.
In any event the issue caught on like wildfire. This was before NWA held all those passengers hostage. But that incident was like dumping gasoline on a smoldering fire. The issue flared up and gained considerable momentum. And then the AA sick-out added even more fuel to the flames. Great timing.
Northwest was blissfully ignorant of what was happening. And continued to aggravate more customers. While Northwest is not the only bad player, they are by far the worst of the top ten airlines, hence the common term NorthWorst Air.
One example being when NWA broke my notebook computer and then ran me around in circles denying liability. This incident simply made me shift from just congressional activity to include a media PR campaign to build support for holding NWA, and any other airline with similar attitudes accountable for their actions. I encouraged many other people who were lobbying Congress to join in - and they did. I sent hundreds of newspapers and magazines a copy of the Professional Inventor's Alliance advisory to not use NWA.
I believe that the evidence is now overwhelming that NWA is mostly responsible for the proposed legislation. The legislation, and the bad PR associated with it, will cost NWA millions of dollars. Compare that to the $6 to $8 thousand (includes lost time) they cost me with three consecutive botched flights. And several tens of thousands of of dollars worth of lobbying time.
This is a perfect example of how citizens with a common cause can influence government. You have seen the process in action. Watch as the legislation is passed.
NWA's lobbying attempts are just as well managed as their airline. They are going to lose big time.
Ronald J. Riley
 Northwest
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Ronald
J. Riley
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 Wasted Time & Money |