Pass The Labor Rate Bill

Please pardon the CAPITAL LETTERS and the exclamation points! We don't mean to yell at you. But, we can't hide how we feel about what we have ahead of us during the next several months of 2010.

   We begin our new campaign to pass the Auto Body Labor Rate Bill knowing that the work we've already done has made the entire State Legislature aware that there has been a terribly unfair situation going on in our industry for over twenty years. And, that our industry has come together to finally seek a fair method of stopping it.

   As you review our updated website, you'll realize that you have all of the resources at your fingertips to help make this twenty year nightmare finally go away. This site helps you answer the one question we get all of the time, "What can I do to help get the Labor Rate Bill passed into law?" Here, on our home page, we offer our "Action List" to you to print out by using the print icon in the upper left corner of the page.

GET EDUCATED ABOUT THE BILL.

Take 20-30 minutes to read the documents on this site. The Auto Body Labor Rate Bill is written pretty much in plain English and is easy to understand. Don't rely on insurance company appraisers to tell you how you should feel about the bill. Their job is to create fear, not to educate you. This site contains the answers you need, even a page about the legislative process in Massachusetts. And, if you have more questions, feel free to call our office at (617) 484-0205 for your answers. We're doing all of this for your benefit.

GET ORGANIZED FOR ACTION.

   Once you understand what this is all about, it's time to take action. But, before you do that, take a few minutes to plan your actions. You do have options. You can just make a couple of phone calls or send emails to your elected representatives at the State House, or you can EXPAND your action to include your spouse (or significant other), your employees and their spouses, adult age children living in Massachusetts, other collision shop owners or employees whom you know, local town officials whom you may know, and even your customers.

   Yes, you can expand the number of "voices" our legislators hear from, just by taking a few moments to plan your actions. We have created a couple of simple forms for you to do just that.

TAKE ACTION!

    Now that you know about the bill and you've considered whom you're going to work with on your "Action Team," it's time to take action. Basically, we are operating what is known as a "grassroots" campaign to push our bill over the top. Since we don't have the financial resources to fight the insurance companies at the State House, we will use our many voices (and potential votes) to get what we need. First, you should read over our Lobbying 101 document understand that you (and your team) are the best lobbyist(s) for your cause.

    To make things easy, we have included a sample letter for you to use if you and your team are mailing, faxing, or sending an email to your elected representatives. Plus, we have a list of "talking points" for you to use as a "script" for telephone conversations.

    Once you have made a list of your "Action Team," communicate with all of them about how to use the letter and the script, and let them know it's time to put it all into action. Ask them to report to you what they've done by using the "Action Tracking Worksheet." Then, fax those sheets into our office at (617) 484-0568. This helps us calculate the number and type of contacts that each legislator has received from our industry on this bill, and it gives our lobbyist an important advantage when seeking votes. And, lastly, you can get your customers involved in supporting your cause by using our "Customer Letter" when they come in to pick up their repaired vehicles.

  We help you make this easy by providing a sample letter, a helpful script to use with customers, and a simple set of instructions to get their letters of support to the right people.

STAY COMMITTED TO THE CAUSE. After you've taken your own actions or coordinated the actions of your entire team, we ask that you remain committed to what our industry is trying to accomplish. Over the next several months, we will have many events, both local and statewide, that will help our cause. We expect to arrange small group meetings between shop owners and local legislators, host "Legislative Days" at the State House, and we'll probably hold a big rally at the State House, much like we did in the Spring of 2008, that got the attention of EVERYONE! Many people said that this event was extremely exciting and, perhaps, the best one our industry has held in many, many years. In the next several months, we will have our own industry meetings around the state. So, please attend as many of these events as possible. But, there's even more you can do. You can help us communicate directly with more people like you when you print and distribute our "Add My Name..." to other shop owners and employees. (If you are a jobber or supplier salesperson, you can be an extremely helpful in distributing this form.)

Also, we ask that you print a copy of our "Call On Me" Survey, fill it out, and fax it to our office. And, finally, we ask that you consider becoming a "Local Area Coordinator" who will work directly with our office and with other shops in your area to help get our bill passed into law.

SUPPORT FUND-RAISING EVENTS FOR ELECTED OFFICIALS. Elected officials generally establish campaign funds for the purposes of getting elected. From time to time, fund-raising events are held for them and people who wish to support them make contributions, in limited amounts, to their campaign committees. Our effort will likely include participating in fund-raising events for certain legislators. If you can, we ask that you participate in these fund-raising events as a contributor and to attend them, when convenient.

Thank you for all that you've done in the past to support the Labor Rate Bill and we look forward to working with you to pass the Auto Body Labor Rate Bill into law in 2010!