CWA National Weekly Newsletters

May 7, 2009

• CWA Everyday Heroes -- Local 3805 Helps Seniors Get Digital TV
• Sacramento Council Vote, Overnight Vigil Boost Support for Employee Free Choice
• CWA Takes Fight for Fairness at AT&T to Elected Officials
• As Bargaining Opens at Avaya, CWA Mobilization is Underway
• New Employee Free Choice Resources
• Deadline Extended One Week Only for Newsletter Contest

CWA Everyday Heroes

This is the first in a new feature that will run from time to time recognizing the contributions of CWA members and locals to their communities. If you have a similar story to tell, contact jhartman@cwa-union.org.

Local 3805 Helps Seniors Get Digital TV

Ray Mehaffey, a CWA Local 3805 board member and AT&T technician, is one of the local's volunteers who are installing digital converter boxes for seniors in the Knoxville, Tenn., area. The nation switches to  all-digital broadcast TV on June 12.

CWA-represented technicians are making sure that senior citizens in and around Knoxville, Tenn., will be ready June 12 when the nation's transition to all-digital broadcast TV is complete.

At least 15 AT&T technicians in Local 3805 have volunteered and been trained to make house calls to install and program digital converter boxes, which are necessary for viewers who have analog-only TVs and no cable or satellite service.

Local 3805 President Debbie Helsley said she learned from a colleague on her community's United Way board that senior citizens, many of them very low income, were having trouble buying the boxes and installing them.

So early this year, Helsley paired up with the Knox County Community Action Committee, which provides services for seniors. The CAC forwards names of seniors who request help to Helsley's local, which then dispatches a volunteer.

Helsley said the CAC received grant funds to help staff the phones and pay for mileage, but CWA told the organization to reinvest the mileage money in programs for people in need.

An engineer from WATE-TV in Knoxville trained the AT&T technicians, who Helsley said can attest that hooking up the boxes and making them work properly isn't as easy as publicity about digital conversion makes it sound.

"He brought an old TV from his house – one of those old knob TVs that only has channels 2 to 13, and it worked out real well for his demonstration," she said. "But he showed us that there's a lot that can go wrong when you hook them up."

Some of the seniors have used the government's $40 coupon to buy converter boxes, but others are on such tight budgets they can't afford even the extra $10 or so that the coupon doesn't cover. Helsley said she knows of technicians who have used coupons and paid the balance themselves to provide seniors with the boxes.

So far, Local 3805 technicians have helped 15 or 20 seniors in Knox County, and Helsley expects the number to rise as the June 12 deadline nears. She's also trying to extend the program to 16 nearby counties.

Sacramento Council Vote, Overnight Vigil Boost Support for Employee Free Choice

More than 100 union members and other activists gathered at noon Wednesday to kick off a vigil for the Employee Free Choice Act that lasted all night in front of Sacramento's federal building. Dozens of people wrote letters that will be sent with their pictures to California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to ask her to support the bill.

A day after the Sacramento City Council voted 7-1 to support the Employee Free Choice Act, union members and other activists kept the momentum high by holding a rally, candlelight vigil and overnight fast Wednesday at the city's federal building

"It was a great success," said CWA Local 9421 Vice President Robert Longer, one of a dozen activists who stayed all night and fasted. "We got a lot of news coverage and we have a whole wall full of pictures of people and their handwritten notes that will go to Senator Dianne Feinstein."

Feinstein was the key focus of the events in Sacramento and at vigils the same night in Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno and San Francisco. To end the vigils Thursday morning, religious leaders led union members in prayer circles, asking that Feinstein give her support and that working Americans once again get the respect and fairness they deserve.

"It was about making a covenant between ourselves and our beliefs – that we need to make a new commitment to the working people of this country," Longer said.

CWA members were among more than 100 people from at least 10 unions who gathered for the Sacramento rally; among the speakers was State Assembly Member Alyson Huber.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, vigil organizers collected both petition signatures and handwritten letters from people asking Feinstein to support the bill. "Then we asked them to get their pictures taken to personalize the letters," Longer said.

Wednesday's activities followed a hugely successful night at the Sacramento City Council, with all but one member voting to pass a resolution of support for the Employee Free Choice Act.

"Big business came in, the Chamber of Commerce, and their lawyer spoke," Longer said. "On our side, 14 people spoke and we had at least two dozen people in the audience. The Chamber's lawyer made all the same old arguments, but it didn't sway the council. We had the facts on our side."

CWA Takes Fight for Fairness at AT&T to Elected Officials

CWA's campaign for fairness at AT&T garnered support from dozens of elected officials during a bargaining update meeting hosted by CWA and the Alameda County Central Labor Council.

CWAers are taking AT&T mobilization to the next stage with a campaign that calls on members of Congress and elected officials at every level to support AT&T employees in the fight for fair contracts.  

CWA members have been e-mailing and calling members of Congress, urging them to contact AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and ask him to rethink his company's campaign to cut workers' standard of living and shift even more health care costs to employees and retirees.

AT&T already is getting the message.

In her letter to Stephenson, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) urged the company to "conclude negotiations quickly, with a fair and equitable agreement." She also noted that AT&T has been profitable over the last year and that "California consumers hope and expect that profitable companies will treat their employees fairly."

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) reminded Stephenson that the contributions of employees across the country are a major part of the company's continued success. In California, we "expect that these workers will be treated fairly. This includes maintaining the health benefits for employees and retirees that are essential to their families and futures." 

Go to http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/triplehealthcare/iknk5zh7x7dnnn? to send your member of Congress a message asking for support for CWA bargaining at AT&T.

Members of CWA Local 1051 show their support for bargaining.

CWA and AT&T have negotiated path-breaking health care agreements for more than 20 years, said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. "Now isn't the time for a financially successful company to try and cut working families' standard of living. Instead, AT&T should continue to work with us for real health care reform as well as sustainable AT&T health care benefits," she said.

Next week, at rallies in a dozen or more communities, CWAers will deliver nearly 90,000 petitions to AT&T locations. The petitions have been sent by activists and average citizens concerned about corporate greed through CWA's online advertising campaign and by CWA union members and supporters. The petitions call on AT&T to not copy the worst of Wall Street behavior and to support the employees who make the company so successful.

There's still time to add your voice at www.standupforworkers.com.

The campaign also is building support from local, state and county elected officials nationwide. A briefing on the negotiations hosted by CWA and the Alameda County, Calif., Central Labor Council for elected officials drew lots of support. The meeting included at least 70 participants, including mayors, city council members, university trustees and members of the Interfaith organization and religious community.

Members from several CWA locals attended and gave personal testimony about the impact AT&T bargaining proposals would have on their lives.

"It was a great meeting and we are confident that Alameda County elected officials and the Alameda County Intefaith Community understand what's at stake for us, and that we can count on their support," said CWA District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp.

In Grand Rapids , Mich. , CWAers rallied outside the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum to get the attention of Congressman Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) who was speaking at the museum as part of a town hall meeting.

Members of Local 4603 hold night vigil informational picketing outside AT&T's corporate office in Milwaukee, Wis.

CWAers have been rallying in D4 states every week; recently hundreds of AT&T workers, members of CWA Local 4108, held a night rally and march in Saginaw to build even more public support for workers’ fair contract fight.

CWA locals in District 4 also have a letter-to-the-editor campaign underway, with members submitting letters to newspapers district-wide on AT&t’s attempt to cut workers’ standard of living.

For a full roundup of the continuing AT&T mobilization actions, go to www.cwa-union.org/att.

As Bargaining Opens at Avaya, CWA Mobilization is Underway

CWA members at Avaya got ready for bargaining with informational picketing in Oklahoma City, (pictured above), Denver, Florida sites and other locations.

Bargaining for a new contract at Avaya covering about 2,000 CWA members began this week, but CWAers have been mobilizing for more than a month to show management they are united for a fair agreement.

Top issues are preserving health care benefits and reducing or stopping the offshoring of jobs to India and Central America, and the transfer of union jobs to Avaya business partners.

"Management will have little doubt where workers stand," said Ralph Maly, CWA Vice President, Communications and Technologies. "Workers built the company and keep it running, but they will do whatever it takes to get the fair contract that they deserve."
The contract expires at midnight May 23.

At worksites every day, workers stand together in unison at 10 a.m. At call centers CWAers have hung unity chains and union slogans throughout their workplaces. Mobilizing is being ramped up at all locations following the opening of negotiations, but Avaya workers started informational picketing several weeks ago. Outside the Oklahoma City call center, Avaya members braved 40-mile an hour winds at an informational picket line in early April, and their signs said it all: "Don't Touch Our Health Care," "Avaya Do the Right Thing," and "Treat us Wrong and We Will Be Gone."

Avaya is trying to use the economic crisis to cut workers' health care and benefits, said CWA's bargaining team, above. From left: Art Frindt, Local 4340; Richie Meringolo, Local 1101; Phil Pennington, Local 4340; CWA National Telecom Director Bill Bates, chair; and Kevin Kimber, Local 6016. Not pictured is CWA Staff Representative Ruth Marriott.

Avaya, like AT&T and other corporations, is trying to use the nation's economic crisis to press workers for cutbacks, especially in health care, even though the company is financially solid.

New Employee Free Choice Resources

The Center for American Progress has released a new animated video, ""How Not to Form a Union: How Labor Law Gives Workers a Raw Deal."  The video is a simple but effective explanation of how employers thwart the efforts of workers who try to exercise their right to form unions and bargain collectively. Check it out at http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2009/05/union_animation.html.

Separately, Catholics for Working Families is asking its members to help finance a radio ad that features actor and Employee Free Choice supporter Martin Sheen.

Sheen, who came to Washington, D.C., to lobby for Employee Free Choice with two of his costars from The West Wing, has recorded four radio ads focusing on key senators – Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Dianne Feinstein of California and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

The four versions of Sheen's ads are on the Catholics for Working Families website at http://www.catholicsforworkingfamilies.org/node/117.

Deadline Extended One Week Only for Newsletter Contest

Locals have one more week, until Friday, May 15, to get in their entries for the 2009 CWA newsletter contest.

Locals that haven't yet sent materials are urged to use overnight mail to submit entries. Information, rules and entry forms are online at http://www.cwa-union.org/newslettercontest.

May 15 is also the deadline for the website competition. Awards will be given for best local website, best electronic newsletter and best local online advocacy campaign. Entry forms are available at http://www.cwa-union.org/ecom.

April 30, 2009

• CWA's AT&T E-Meeting a Huge Success
• CWAers Stand Strong for Fair Contracts at AT&T
• Military Veterans Proud to Join Fight for Employee Free Choice
• Administration's First 100 Days Show Real Progress for Working Families
• Obama NLRB Nominees Return Pro-Worker Majority to Board
• New DOL Leaders Join Unions to Mark Workers Memorial Day
• It's Official: Pro-Worker Candidate Wins Upset in NY  
• More Verizon Business Technicians Join CWA
• TNG-CWA Members Among Winners of Pulitzer Prizes
• Last Call for Newsletter, Web Contests

CWA's AT&T E-Meeting a Huge Success

More than 20,000 CWAers tuned in for CWA's first-ever online union meeting last Thursday night, and another 10,000 people watched it on the web site later. If you haven't seen it, check it out at http://www.cwa-union.org/att/att-unity-e-meeting.html.

The e-meeting gave AT&T members an opportunity to hear from CWA's top officers, to hear field reports on mobilization and events planned for the AT&T annual meeting, set for the next day, and to have their questions answered.

CWA members also had the chance to show their solidarity by recording a message that declared, "We are the Network, standing together at AT&T." More than 1,000 AT&T members recorded the message and the solidarity display runs for more than five hours.

CWAers Stand Strong for Fair Contracts at AT&T

In Columbus, Ohio, the message on this member's shirt summed up the feelings of hundreds of AT&T workers who rallied for a fair contract.

CWA members' determination to gain fair contracts at AT&T is stronger than ever, as workers continued to mobilize across the country to show solidarity, strength and support for their bargaining teams.

Tens of thousands of CWA members also logged on to the first-ever e-union meeting. (See first story for more details.)

Last Friday, nearly a thousand CWAers gathered in Dallas outside the AT&T annual meeting, where they distributed a special "We Are the Network" report which underscores the critical role CWA members have in AT&T's profitability, growth, and quality service.

Inside the meeting, Vice Presidents Andy Milburn, District 6, and Ralph Maly, Communications and Technologies, criticized AT&T for dragging its feet in negotiations and for its demands that will lower workers' standard of living.

In Los Angeles, more than 700 CWA members and union supporters filled the city streets as they marched from Union Station, where they attended a town hall meeting with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, to AT&T Center. Los Angeles police stopped traffic as the marchers passed and bystanders and motorists waved and honked their support.

Marine Corporal and CWA member Jordan Eash with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and CWA District 9 VP Jim Weitkamp.

The town hall meeting focused on joblessness among veterans, and Solis heard from Jordan Eash, an AT&T worker and member of CWA Local 9400. Eash, a Marine corporal, told Solis and participants that AT&T was terminating his job as a cable splicer because it insisted on counting the time he served during his last tour in Iraq as part of his three-year contract with AT&T.

"When I got back home, I had about six months left on my contract and the company pretty much said they are not going to hire me back and they'd do nothing for me," he said. Eash, 26, got married just a few months after returning from Iraq and was planning to buy a house with his new wife. CWA is fighting to make sure that Eash doesn't get penalized for the time he spent serving our country.

As hundreds rallied in Los Angeles, Dist. 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp called on AT&T to stop using the nation's economic crisis as an excuse to cut workers' standard of living. Left is Marine Corporal Jordan Eash who is losing his job at AT&T.

At the rally, speakers included CWA District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp; Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation and other union leaders, and state assemblywoman Judy Chu. All called on AT&T management to stop its cynical attempt to use the nation's economic crisis as a means to force cutbacks on employees.

In Sacramento, CWAers participated in the state Democratic Party convention and also had time to set up informational picket lines outside the AT&T office across the street from the convention site.

In Ohio last week, in addition to a rally of hundreds of CWAers on the steps of the state capitol in Columbus, Zanesville CWA members rallied in front of the Muskingum County Courthouse, carrying signs and shouting "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Corporate Greed Has Got to Go."

Members of Local 2204 at the AT&T Relay Center in Norton, Va. hold an informational picket.

Workers gained the support of Zanesville Mayor Howard Zwelling, who said, "I've always been a firm believer in collective bargaining. But you deserve to have a fair contract."

In Connecticut, members of Local 1298 are planning a solidarity rally in New Haven on May 15 that will focus on protecting workers' jobs and hard-won benefits. Workers are angry that company officials are using the economy as an excuse for huge health care cost shifting while AT&T remains very profitable.

For a full roundup of AT&T mobilization actions, go to www.cwa-union.org/att.

Military Veterans Proud to Join Fight for Employee Free Choice

U.S. veterans have joined the long list of supporters outside the union movement who are calling on Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

In a dozen states, the organization VoteVets and the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council are teaming up to host rallies, roundtable discussions and other events to talk about economic priorities, with an emphasis on Employee Free Choice.

"The freedom to organize is an American value, one of the many values we veterans fought to protect," said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chair of VoteVets.org. "Past generations of veterans were able to enter the middle class because unions were there to fight for fair wages and benefits. The Employee Free Choice Act ensures that veterans and civilians in the workforce will continue to get a fair shake, which is why we're proud to support it."

That's the message veterans will carry to the events nationwide. "I fought for my country and it's not right that those of us who did are denied basic rights on the job and are just scraping by," said Chris Lane, president of CWA Local 2201 and a veteran of campaigns in Iraq, Kuwait and Somalia.

"When I signed my enlistment papers, my signature was my pledge to fight for freedom and the honor of my country," Lane said. "If my signature was good enough for that, it should be good enough for my government to show that I want a union in my workplace."

Retired Air Force Col. Richard Klass, president of the Veterans Alliance for Security and Democracy, said, "fairness is a fundamental American value and the current system is unfair to employees seeking to form a union."

The first of the veterans' events took place Wednesday in Virginia, with veterans across the state writing letters and calling their senators and representatives. Similar efforts will be underway soon in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Indiana, Montana, Maine, Alaska, and other states.

Administration's First 100 Days Show Real Progress for Working Families

In its first 100 days, the Obama administration has advanced many of the issues that are important to CWA working families.

"For the first time in a long time, working Americans have a president who acknowledges the vital role that workers and their unions have in our nation," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "When President Obama says, 'I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem, to me, it's part of the solution,' we know that President Obama and Vice President Biden are determined to work with us on Employee Free Choice and other critical issues, from health care to jobs to securing our families' future," Cohen said.

On health care, President Obama took real, immediate steps to move toward health care reform, by:

• focusing on health information technology to gain additional cost savings.
• expanding funds for prevention and wellness programs and training for health care professionals.
• setting aside a $634 billion "down payment" on real health care reform.
• covering another 4 million children through the state children's health insurance program.
• expanding health care protections for jobless workers.

President Obama's choices for top positions in his administration – Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor, Linda Puchala, a former flight attendant and one-time president of AFA-CWA, to head the National Mediation Board, and new nominations to the National Labor Relations Board (see separate story) also indicate real, positive change for workers.

The White House task force on middle-class working families, lead by Vice President Joe Biden, continues to explore ways to protect income and retirement security, restore labor standards, expand education and training opportunities and help workers balance their work and family responsibilities. Biden met with members of CWA Local 7304 in St. Cloud, Minn., to help expand quality, green jobs. Information on task force's work is available at www.astrongmiddleclass.gov.

President Obama's economic recovery plan, passed by Congress, also included $7.2 billion in grants to help bring high speed broadband networks to areas and citizens who are now unserved. The plan also included funds to carry out the broadband mapping initiative passed by Congress last year.

Obama NLRB Nominees Return Pro-Worker Majority to Board

President Obama's nomination of two new members to the National Labor Relations Board finally restores fairness for workers.

The nominees – Mark Pearce and Craig Becker – have years of experience in advocating for and defending workers' rights. The nominations must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Pearce, a member of the New York State United Teachers union, has represented workers as a lawyer and also served as a member of the New York State Industrial Board of Appeals and trial specialist for the NLRB's regional office in Buffalo from 1979 to 1994. CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said Pearce had done good work for CWA members as well.

Becker currently serves as associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union. He has practiced and taught labor law for more than 25 years.

Once confirmed, Pearce and Becker will join board member Wilma Liebman, a longtime supporter of workers' organizing and bargaining rights. The Board's other member, Peter Carey Schaumber, was appointed by former President Bush. One position remains vacant and will be filled with a Republican member.

New DOL Leaders Join Unions to Mark Workers Memorial Day

Family members holding photos of workers killed or injured on the job mark Workers Memorial Day. They were joined by acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab.

After eight years of leaders who put corporate profits ahead of workers' health and safety, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis made good on her promise that "there's a new sheriff in town" as she and the acting head of OSHA joined union members for Workers' Memorial Day events in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Helping to dedicate the new workers' memorial at the National Labor College in Maryland on April 28, Solis announced the creation of a "severe violators' enforcement program" to penalize employers who willfully endanger their workers.

"We will not be controlled by ideology," Solis said. "When workers are in danger, we will act."

Scores of CWA locals across the country also held Workers Memorial Day events, from memorial ceremonies to workshops to help their members stay safe and well on the job. Some activities are continuing throughout the week.

Outside the Department of Labor in Washington, Jordan Barab, acting head of OSHA, pledged that the agency was vigorously renewing its commitment to workplace safety.

"Welcome to the new Labor Department," Barab said, to applause from union members and families of workers who had died or been gravely injured or sickened at work.

Many people at the gathering, which preceded House and Senate hearings on workplace safety issues, held large photos of those who had been killed on the job. Barab offered special thanks to the victims and their families, saying "your voices and your tears" are making a difference for all workers. "We want to make sure that no one goes to work and is afraid of not coming home alive," he said.

The annual AFL-CIO report tallying workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses, released for Workers' Memorial Day, showed that there were 5,657 fatal workplace injuries in 2007, the latest data available.

Although the total shows a slight decrease from 2006, union health and safety specialists say underreporting of workplace injuries and illness was a persistent problem during the Bush administration. While there were 4 million reported incidences of workers injured and sickened on the job, experts say it could be three times that number.

On average, 15 workers a day were fatally injured in 2007. Annually, another 50,000 to 60,000 workers die of occupational diseases.

This year's report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, also examined enforcement in cases of worker deaths, finding that nationwide, the average total penalty in fatality investigations was just $11,311.  Utah had the lowest average penalty in fatality cases, with an average $1,106 penalty assessed, followed by South Carolina, with an average penalty of $1,383 per fatality, and Louisiana with an average penalty of $1,453.

The report, which includes state data and comparisons, is available online at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/doj_2009.cfm.

It's Official: Pro-Worker Candidate Wins Upset in NY  

In a huge political upset, voters from New York's most conservative congressional district elected pro-worker businessman Scott Murphy to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  Murphy was ahead by 399 votes when his Republican opponent conceded.

Murphy, who was some 25 points down in the polls when the special election campaign got underway in February, unseated long-time state assemblyman Jim Tedisco with a message of support for Employee Free Choice, health care reform, and President Obama's economic recovery plan.

The tremendous level of political activism by CWA members from Locals 1118, 1120, 1113, and 1104, made a huge difference in the race. CWAers organized more than 60 volunteer shifts, knocked on more than a thousand doors and made some 3,000 phone calls.

The Republican Party tried to make the election a referendum on the new Obama administration and Obama's support for working families.

More Verizon Business Technicians Join CWA

Verizon Business technicians want a CWA voice. That's the message they keep sending to management, despite the company's anti-union campaigns intended to stop workers from gaining union representation.

Last week, 13 technicians at Verizon Business's international group in New York City voted overwhelmingly for representation with CWA Local 1101, by a 10-3 margin. Workers withstood management's campaign, which included scare letters, captive audience meetings (five held within 3 weeks), and even a last minute meeting with the company's executive vice president.

The Verizon Business techs were assisted by Local 1101 Chief Steward and Organizer Keith Hogarty, along with Local Secretary Jim Trainor and District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau.

More than 600 Verizon Business technicians were able to join CWA last January as part of the 2008 contract settlement.

TNG-CWA Members Among Winners of Pulitzer Prize

Three Newspaper Guild-CWA members – a reporter, arts critic and photographer at The New York Times – were among the individual winners of the Pulitzer Prize this year. They are members of TNG-CWA Local 31003.

Times reporter David Barstow won in the category of investigative reporting. The Pulitzer judges said his "tenacious reporting revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended."

Holland Cotter won the prize for art criticism. Judges praised his "wide ranging reviews of art, from Manhattan to China, marked by acute observation, luminous writing and dramatic storytelling."

Photojournalist Damon Winter won for feature photography "for his memorable array of pictures deftly capturing multiple facets of Barack Obama's presidential campaign," the judges said.

Two additional awards went to New York Times staff: the breaking news award for its "rapid-fire" coverage of the Eliot Spitzer scandal, and the award for international reporting, for "masterful, groundbreaking coverage of America's deepening military and political challenges in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

The staff of the Detroit Free Press, also a Guild-represented newspaper, won for local reporting on Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that eventually led to jail terms for him and his female chief of staff.

Last Call for Newsletter, Web Contests

It's last call for entries to this year's newsletter and web competitions.

The contests recognize the hard work of all editors, webmasters and others who devote their time and energy to membership communications.

The deadline to enter the 26th-annual newsletter contest is Friday, May 8. Information, rules and entry forms are posted online at http://www.cwa-union.org/newslettercontest.

The web contest deadline is Friday, May 15. Awards will be given for best local website, best electronic newsletter and best local online advocacy campaign. Entry forms are available at http://www.cwa-union.org/ecom.

April 23, 2009

• AT&Ters Unite in National Online Membership Meeting
• Busloads of CWA Members Head to Dallas for AT&T Annual Meeting
• ADE, Connected Nation, CWA Meet to Expand Broadband Efforts
• State Workers Tell Corzine: 'Don't Balance NJ Budget on Our Backs!'
• Hospital Workers, Bus Drivers, Admin. Managers, Printers Join CWA
• CWA Made the Difference in N.Y. Special Election
• Guild Fights Back as Albany Paper Cancels Contract, Pursues Outsourcing
• Workplace Safety Hearings Highlight Workers Memorial Day

AT&Ters Unite in National Online Membership Meeting

Tonight, in an unprecedented demonstration of unity and support behind union bargaining teams at AT&T, thousands of CWA members will join together from coast to coast at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time for the union's largest ever membership meeting.

During the 30-minute online meeting, broadcast over the Internet at www.cwaunion.tv, CWA members will get an update on negotiations, hear field reports on mobilization and learn what else can be done to support bargaining.

CWA President Larry Cohen, Executive Vice President Annie Hill, and Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach will be on hand and will answer questions from members about bargaining and other issues.

Members can pre-register at www.cwaunion.tv.  Tune in at 9 p.m., EDT.

Busloads of CWA Members Head to Dallas for AT&T Annual Meeting

Hundreds of CWA members from all over District 6, and some from even further away, are making the trek to Dallas by bus and van, to arrive Friday morning for AT&T's annual shareholder meeting.

Members will leaflet outside the meeting, calling attention to the company's demand for huge health care cost shifting and other proposals that will cut workers' standard of living, despite the company's $12.9 billion profit in 2008.

Inside the meeting, CWA District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn will address company executives and shareholders and ask why the company's biggest asset – its employees – are being treated so poorly at the bargaining table.

AT&T's positive financial outlook continued into the first quarter of 2009, with analysts and the company's own executives agreeing that its $3 billion profit beat expectations because of strong growth in video, data

Above: Columbus, Ohio, was the scene of a big CWA rally outside the statehouse.  Below: Members of Local 7250 in Minneapolis, Minn., mobilize for a fair contract at AT&T during "doctor-patient" day.

services and wireless, all part of the integrated network supported by CWA members. "For this economy, it was an outstanding performance," one analyst said.

"This week's earnings report reinforces the fact that AT&T is well-positioned to lead the telecommunications industry into the future digital age," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "AT&T also is well-positioned to help move our nation out of economic crisis and back into prosperity. If successful companies like AT&T don't step up in this economic recession, and instead hide behind it to force more cost shifting to workers, how will our economy recover?" AT&T's demands would double and triple health care costs for some workers.

CWA contracts covering nearly 100,000 workers at AT&T expired April 5 and members have voted to authorize a strike if there is not significant movement at the bargaining tables.

Milburn criticized AT&T for "dragging its feet in bargaining, its ridiculous take back demands and its comparing AT&T, a company that made $3 billion this first quarter of 2009, to the troubled auto companies. Tomorrow they will hear from the people who build and maintain this network, the people whose work enables this company to move ahead into even newer technologies."

Mark Franken, CWA District 6 administrative director for organizing, said at least 500 CWAers will be rallying outside the meeting, with some planning to go inside and participate.

ADE, Connected Nation, CWA Meet to Expand Broadband Efforts

Top leaders from CWA, the Alliance for Digital Equality and Connected Nation met this week to advance efforts to bridge the digital divide for millions of Americans in rural and urban communities.

ADE, Connected Nation and CWA are working together to expand access to 21st century broadband networks, technology and applications for all citizens.

Mark McElroy, left, chief operating officer for Connected Nation, Julius Hollis, chairman of the Alliance for Digital Equality, and CWA President Larry Cohen met at CWA headquarters to continue work on bridging the digital divide.

ADE has been establishing Digital Empowerment Teams and Councils in several cities, bringing together elected officials, community leaders, business and labor and others, to determine ways to close the digital gap. Connected Nation works to map broadband availability especially in rural areas and to help communities that want to bring high speed networks to their areas.

As part of the Speed Matters campaign real true high speed Internet access for residents of rural and small communities, where applications such as tele-medicine and job creation are critically needed, and in underserved urban areas, where residents can't take full advantage of the promise of Internet Age technology. CWA joined the Alliance partnership last year.

CWA's Committee on Equity also participated in a briefing on the Alliance's mission to bridge the digital divide and plans to share information on the project in its convention report.

State Workers Tell Corzine: 'Don't Balance NJ Budget on Our Backs!'

At more than a hundred work locations from Cape May to Sussex County, over 5,500 New Jersey State Workers took to the streets on Apr. 7, sending a loud, clear message to Governor Jon Corzine:  "Don't balance the state budget on our backs!"

Corzine, who faces re-election this fall, has proposed that state workers be hit with a wage freeze and 12 unpaid furlough days in the fiscal year 2010 budget which must be adopted by June 30.  For a typical state worker making $51,000 a year, Corzine's plan translates into a pay cut of over $4,100 or 8.1 percent.  Meanwhile, wealthy New Jerseyans making nearly ten times as much – $500,000 a year – will make no sacrifice whatsoever in terms of increased taxes.

"We're out here to let the governor know that we want to help with the budget crisis, but we're not willing to take the budget on our backs," Kathy Taddei, vice president of the Rowan University branch of Local 1031, told the Gloucester County Times. Some 75 members of Local 1031 picketed at Rowan on Apr. 7.

"There are other places where he can get the money," Jackie Friedman Collins, a shop steward for CWA Local 1037, told the Bergen Record at a picket line in north Jersey.  "We are the middle class. Tax the rich, not us. We have people living paycheck to paycheck, how are they going to pay their rent with this?"

In addition to the blatant unfairness of Corzine's budget proposals, CWA members in both state and local government are furious with the Administration for ramming an emergency rule change through the Civil Service Commission that stripped public sector unions of their rights to bargain over the effects of furloughs.  Hundreds of CWA members turned out for the meeting on a day's notice to protest the rule and four leaders – Local 1032 President Patrick Kavanagh, Local 1037 President Ken McNamara, Local 1034 Staffers Paul Alexander and Shawn Ludwig – were arrested when police overreacted to the angry crowd.

"The Corzine Administration claimed they had to have the emergency rule change because the state faced 'imminent peril' from the financial crisis.  But any projected savings from the May and June furlough days are insignificant and could be achieved in half a dozen other ways," said CWA Area Director Hetty Rosenstein.  "There is no 'imminent peril.' This is just an excuse for what may be the worst assault on public worker collective bargaining rights we've seen in 25 years.  To have it come from a Governor who once posed as a champion of collective bargaining is just appalling." 

CWA is preparing a major media and mail campaign against the Governor's budget to force him to come to the table and to negotiate with state workers over a fair way to resolve the budget crisis.  In addition, state workers are preparing by the thousands to turn out on Apr. 23 for a public hearing on the proposed Civil Service Commission rule change.

Hospital Workers, Bus Drivers, Admin. Managers, Printers Join CWA

In separate organizing victories in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, more than 860 workers gained CWA representation in March and April.

Earlier this week, 303 service employees at St. Joseph Hospital near Buffalo voted for CWA Local 1168 representation by a 123-103 margin. Negotiations will get underway immediately, the local also represents registered nurses at the hospital.

Ron Hosinski and Elaine Lopez from Local 1168 led the workers' campaign, assisted by Locals 1122 and 1133 and District 1 Staff Rep Debbie Hayes. District 4 Organizing Coordinator Jeff Lacher also assisted in the campaign. AFA-CWA member Michelle Quintus, a United Airlines flight attendant, provided tremendous assistance in the final weeks of the campaign.

In New York City, CWA Local 1180 was recently certified as the bargaining representative for more than 400 Administrative Managers who work for agencies through the city government. Over the past three years, the local has won representation for more than 1,700 city employees, said Local President Arthur Cheliotes.

In Somerset, New Jersey, 160 school bus drivers for the county's school system joined CWA Local 1040 through majority sign up. Thanks to an energized inside organizing committee, the workers gathered more than 140 signatures within two weeks. District 1 organizers Connie English and Chris Young worked on the campaign, with the help of rank and file organizer Walter Mayes.

In Youngstown, Ohio, all employees at the Print Factory gained CWA representation through voluntary recognition, joining Erie Mailers Local M128/CWA Local 14840, said Printing Sector Staff Representative Dan Wasser. Everyone at the shop, including the owner, recognized the value of a union voice and having a CWA label in the printing industry. The workers recently signed a new, three-year contract with the owner.

CWA Made the Difference in N.Y. Special Election

A pro-worker candidate, Scott Murphy, is now leading in the closely-watched ballot count to fill the U.S. House seat vacated by New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  A tremendous level of political activism by CWAers in the weeks leading up to the March 31 special election helped make the election a close one.

Electing a worker-friendly candidate to the House seat for New York's 20th Congressional District seemed like a long shot, given that some 70 percent of voters in the district are registered Republicans, but that didn't deter members of CWA Local 1118.

"The race should not have been close when you look at our district's political registration," said Mike Carmel, Local 1118 political coordinator. "But the high level of activism by our members shows what can be accomplished," he said. During the brief, 5-week campaign, local members, supported by CWAers from locals 1113, 1120, and 1104, organized more than 60 volunteer shifts, knocked on more than a thousand doors and made some 3,000 phone calls.

Currently, Murphy, a Democrat, businessman and supporter of Employee Free Choice, is leading Republican Jim Tedesco, a 30-year assemblyman in the New York State legislature, by 364 votes, Carmel said. There are about a thousand contested ballots still to be resolved.

Guild Fights Back as Albany Paper Cancels Contract, Pursues Outsourcing

Ignoring pleas from concerned readers and refusing to budge on layoffs outside of seniority and potential outsourcing, the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York has cancelled its contract with The Newspaper Guild-CWA.

Members of the Albany Newspaper Guild in New York hold an informational picket and rally after Hearst Newspapers canceled the union's contract after months of bargaining.

Although negotiations that began nine months ago are continuing, management so far is determined to cut jobs and benefits and send work out of state.

"The company is hellbent on wanting to lay off employees regardless of how loyally they have served, and to outsource jobs," said Tim O'Brien, president of the Albany Newspaper Guild, TNG-CWA Local 31034. "And because it could not convince our members of the rightness of its cause, it launched an unprecedented attack on our union."

The paper, which employs about 250 TNG-CWA members, wants to cut at least 65 jobs, most of them from union ranks. It wants the right to proceed with layoffs without regard to seniority, and is demanding the right to outsource any TNG-CWA work at any time. Potentially, the paper's layout could be outsourced to Texas, putting some copy editors out of work. Guild leaders say advertising and circulation representatives, feature writers and business office staff are also at risk.

The company is refusing to offer any wage increase, but only a lump-sum payment that wouldn't become part of workers' base pay. It also wants workers to pay more out of pocket for health care.

Writing about the cancellation on their website, Guild leaders said, "You might as well change the name of the paper to the Times Anti-Union." The newspaper is owned by the Heart Corporation. The Guild contract expired last Aug. 1.

Because of the cancellation, union members have the right to picket, strike, and launch boycotts. The day the contract was canceled, 70 TNG-CWA members and union allies picketed in front of the newspaper offices.

"What's sad is that there has been a long-term positive relationship between the Guild and management," TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said. "Hearst Corporation is bent on destroying that in the name of control."

With financial help from TNG-CWA international, the Albany Guild has begun an advertising campaign and other community outreach. "The reality is this is a union town," O'Brien said. "The Times Union can expect the phones to start ringing off the hook with calls canceling the newspaper. We told the company the day it first threatened this that it was the dumbest thing the company can do. They ignored us at their peril."

Workplace Safety Hearings Highlight Workers Memorial Day

As CWA members and other activists across the country join together to commemorate Workers Memorial Day 2009, Apr. 28, important health and safety hearings will be taking place on Capitol Hill.

On April 28, two members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee will be hearing testimony on meaningful incentives for safe workplaces and roles for victims and their families.

This Workers Memorial Day 2009 poster, "Good Jobs. Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for a Change," can be ordered for 75 cents from the union shop at www.aflcio.org.

Some testimony may focus on the Family Bill of Rights, which would give victims and family members rights in the investigations of workplace accidents and other health and safety incidents. Democrat Patty Murray of Washington state and Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia will hear from witnesses.

At the same time, the House Education and Labor Committee will focus on the reintroduction of the Protecting American Workers Act. The bill would substantially improve the current OSHA law, adding criminal sanctions for employers with egregious violations.

CWA Occupational Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said unions are planning to bring a significant number of family members affected by workplace tragedies to the hearings.

LeGrande said organizers will have large posters of victims of workplace accidents and illnesses that activists can carry with them in a march to Capitol Hill from the Labor Department on Tuesday morning. Participants are asked to gather at 8 a.m. Tuesday on the steps of the DOL building at 200 Constitution Ave., NW.

"The new Faces Campaign is putting a human face on the horrific toll of workplace disasters," LeGrande said. "In many instances this will be the first time for many family members to become active in fighting for the rights of current and future workers as a way to remember and memorialize their lost loved ones."

Outside Washington D.C., CWA locals nationwide will hold memorial ceremonies, lobbying, leafleting and workplace events to focus attention on workers' health and safety.

Locals that haven't yet let LeGrande know about their plans for April 28 or anytime during the week of Workers Memorial Day are asked to contact him at legrande@cwa-union.org.

April 16, 2009

• Can We Make It 100,000?
• AT&T Mobilization is 'Turning Up the Heat'
• CWA Members Use Congressional Break to Fight for Employee Free Choice
• CWA Wins Round in Fight for Quality Verizon Service in Maryland
• 2009 Executive PayWatch Report: Learn How CEO Salary Compares to Yours
• New Reports Show How OSHA, EEOC Failed Workers Under Bush
• TNG-CWA Applauds House Passage of Federal Shield Law

Can We Make It 100,000?

So far, in just about ten days, more than 60,000 people have signed on to the statement of support blasting a financially successful AT&T for looking to cut workers' benefits and jobs. Good, so far. AT&T is hearing us. But we need to get that number up.

Click here and check out CWA's latest video on corporate greed and AT&T. Click the "Act Now" box and sign the statement of support. Then pass the word and send the link to family, friends and co-workers so they can sign on too. 

AT&T Mobilization is 'Turning Up the Heat'

Mobilizations are spreading across CWA locals, with members expanding inside activities that are getting management's attention and building public support at rallies, leafleting and through CWA's online campaign. Locals are definitely getting the message out there: AT&T needs to get serious about bargaining fair contracts.

Local 6450 President Colleen Downing and coworkers produced a video supporting CWA's fight for a fair contract at AT&T.

Members of CWA Local 6450 in Missouri have produced a six-minute video that cuts to the heart of what a fair agreement at AT&T means. "We wanted to get out the message that our fight is about preserving good middle-class jobs so we can continue to contribute to our community," said local president Colleen Downing. Watch it at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/attlocal6450 and tell family and friends about it.

Health care is a big issue for many members. "The health care we receive is the health care we need," said Local steward Clinton Taylor, an AT&T account representative who is concerned about the medical needs of his four children. Rebecca, a single mother of three, worries about the hardship of paying much higher prescription drug costs for her three children.

Sean Leonard, an AT&T worker from Local 6360 and a Marine who served in Iraq, says he and his coworkers are only seeking a fair share of the company's success. "I'm not asking for a large amount of money," says Leonard, "I'm just asking for a fair share." Leonard is Downing's son.

"CWA members at AT&T have always been there for our community because we have good jobs," Downing says, citing CWAers' community work during natural disasters, like Katrina, and in supporting local United Way efforts and Pediatric AIDS. "Through our video, we are now asking for the public to be there for us," says Downing.

CWA District 3 VP Beverly Hicks, left, and members and retirees from D3 locals call for fair treatment at AT&T during demonstration in Birmingham, Ala.

In District 3, while contract negotiations won't resume until this summer -- the former BellSouth agreement expires Aug. 8 -- CWA locals are holding lots of informational pickets to show their support for the fair contract fight underway. District 3 CWAers with Vice President Beverly Hicks marched outside AT&T offices in Birmingham, Ala., this week and are planning more actions for Atlanta next week.

Members of Local 6450 who work at the Lee’s Summit call center turned up the clapping and tapping this week and were prepared for the visit of a company executive with lots of bandages and pill bottles to protest AT&T's demands to double and triple some workers' health care costs.

In District 9, members of Local 9421 turn out for informational picketing several times a week in Sacramento locations. Members are "turning up the heat as high and as hot as we can," said Local 9421 Vice President Robert Longer.

And here's an update on "Get Ready to Strike," written by Ray and Rachel Rodriguez from Local 6222.  Check out this report in the online Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/10/att-workers-create-ringtone/

For a full report and lots of photos of mobilization actions, go to www.cwa-union.org/att.

CWA Members Use Congressional Break to Fight for Employee Free Choice

Spring recess for members of Congress was no break at all for CWAers and other union members, as activists rallied in cities across the country, met with lawmakers at home and brought them boxes of letters and Million Member Mobilization cards, postcards collected from workers over the past year to show the widespread support for Employee Free Choice.

CWA had a major role in at least 12 states, including Pennsylvania, where workers held rallies in five cities, all near offices of Sen. Arlen Specter (R).  Specter had been a sponsor and supporter of Employee Free Choice but announced recently that he'd changed his mind about the legislation.

CWA District 13 VP Ed Mooney speaks at an Employee Free Choice rally in Philadelphia with Comcast technician John Pezzana, whose giant photograph is now rolling through Pennsylvania on a mobile billboard.

CWA District 13 Vice President Ed Mooney and other union leaders led a rally at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center; the crowd then marched to deliver 6,000 handwritten letters to Specter's office calling on him to support Employee Free Choice. In Pittsburgh, more than 500 people rallied and delivered the message to Specter that he needed to stand with working families. Other events were held in Harrisburg, Allentown and Wilkes-Barre.

Moving billboards displaying giant photos of workers who are fighting for Employee Free Choice are rolling through Pennsylvania and other target states on trucks. Pennsylvania's features Comcast technician John Pezzana, who struggled for years to get a CWA contract in Pittsburgh.

The recess rallies also targeted other states where senators have so far failed to stand up for working families behind the Employee Free Choice Act.

Keith Gibbs, executive vice president of CWA Local 9412, left, and Aaron Johnson, a Local 9415 steward, deliver MMM postcards to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In Arkansas, CWA members met with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) and delivered MMM cards. In Louisiana, CWA members organized a letter-writing luncheon to generate more handwritten notes to Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill in the last session of Congress but hasn't declared her position yet this year. In California, workers marched in Los Angeles to get the attention of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D).

In other states, activists worked hard to make sure that Employee Free Choice stays on the front burner, and made sure to thank those who are supporting it.

In Colorado, CWA joined with unions and other Employee Free Choice allies to hold more than 20 events, from editorial board meetings at newspapers to workplace leafleting.

In Miami, CWA District 3 members gather in front of Sen. Bill Nelson's office to thank him for co-sponsoring Employee Free Choice.

In Florida, Local 3108 activists delivered more than 100 letters to Sen. Bill Nelson (D), thanking him for co-sponsoring Employee Free Choice. Later a coalition of unions delivered more letters and thousands of MMM cards.

In North Carolina, CWA members brought letters and cards to freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D) to thank her for supporting the bill. Curtis Shew, now president of Local 3601, told Hagan how several cable TV workers were fired after approaching CWA to help them organize.

In Virginia, CWA members held demonstrations to counter events that the Chamber of Commerce and its front groups put on in Richmond and Roanoke.

A major TV advertising campaign in support of Employee Free Choice continued during the congressional recess. The advertisements and pictures of billboards featuring workers are online at www.americanrightsatwork.org.

CWA Wins Round in Fight for Quality Verizon Service in Maryland

CWA achieved a major victory this week for Verizon's more than 4 million customers in Maryland and workers who provide that service when legislation that would have permitted the company to raise rates and avoid responsibility for service complaints and missed repair appointments was not voted out of a state Senate committee.

The legislation would have adopted a proposed settlement with Verizon that the Maryland Public Service Commission rejected only a week earlier, charging that the agreement did not serve the public's best interest. This deal, first proposed in February, would have allowed Verizon to increase customers' monthly basic phone rates, keep service failures secret and avoid service standards altogether. 

"These victories will help ensure that Verizon's customers will get the quality service they deserve," said District 2 Vice President Ron Collins, who characterized the company's service deficiencies as "a direct result of management decisions. . .that hurt our members' jobs as well as the public we serve."

CWA was a key player in the legislation's defeat and the PSC's decision to reject the earlier settlement. As part of the union's mobilization for quality service in the state, CWA launched a website for customers to sign an online petition to the state PSC and spread the quality service message through a media campaign.

The Maryland PSC has recommended that Verizon take concrete steps to address service issues, including providing a refund of up to $1 million in credits to customers who complained about poor service quality and lengthy waits for repairs. The PSC has directed Verizon to appear before the commission next month.

2009 Executive PayWatch Report: Learn How CEO Salary Compares to Yours

Some fat salaries got a little slimmer for America's CEOs in 2008, but the perks for many big bosses grew – as much as $336,000, or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker.

That's just one of the revelations in the 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch report, now online at http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/.

The annual report compiles salary information for executives at thousands of U.S. companies. Among its many tools, users can compare their own salaries to any CEO and see how executive salaries compare to others' paychecks.

The information-packed PayWatch site includes reports on runaway pay for executives whose companies have since gotten taxpayer bailouts. It finds that the 10 corporations receiving the most government funds paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total compensation in 2007.

Ten case studies on the site look at CEOs who profited while workers and retirees struggle. At Deere & Co., for instance, where the company's shrinking pension fund is putting workers' security at risk, the CEO's retirement package increased in 2008 by more than $5 million, to 22.5 million.

The site encourages user to take action by e-mailing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who head the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, respectively. "Let them know we're counting on them to draft legislation that truly strengthens our financial regulations and begins curing the disease that has infected our economic system," the AFL-CIO says.

New Reports Show How OSHA, EEOC Failed Workers Under Bush

New revelations continue to surface about how Bush-era federal agencies violated workers' rights and safety, with reports over the last two weeks on the Labor Department's deadly failure to properly enforce safety and health laws and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's refusal to pay overtime.

In the DOL case, an internal investigation shows that OSHA didn't follow its own procedures in 97 percent of cases sampled in a performance audit, meaning employers with a history of safety violations were allowed to continue unchecked.

"The audit analyzed 325 inspections conducted under a special OSHA program established in 2003 to target the work sites of high-risk employers for increased enforcement," the Associated Press reported. "In nearly every case, it found OSHA did not properly follow procedures? Of 29 employers identified for enforcement OSHA did not begin enforcement actions even though 16 of those employers later experienced 20 worker fatalities."

The report said that if OSHA had done its job, it may have deterred or reduced risks at the worksites of 45 employers where 58 fatalities later occurred.

In the case of the EEOC – the agency responsible for ensuring that workers are treated fairly – an arbitrator has found that managers "willfully violated" the Fair Labor Standards Act with its own employees.

Rather than pay workers overtime as required by law, they were offered compensatory time off, a violation that the arbitrator said amounted to "forced volunteering.

"The case before me, in my view, demonstrates action that went beyond mere negligence," arbitrator Steven M. Wolf wrote. "With rare exception in this record, the concept of 'requesting' compensatory time was a fiction."

The violations date back to 2003. It hasn't been determined yet whether workers will receive back pay.

TNG-CWA Applauds House Passage of Federal Shield Law

TNG-CWA is commending the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the Free Flow of Information Act, also known as the federal shield law.

The bill, passed on a voice vote, protects the public's right to know by setting reasonable standards for when journalists can be compelled to disclose the identities of their confidential sources in federal court.

Every state except Texas and Wyoming has a shield law, but there is no federal protection for journalists. The bipartisan Free Flow of Information Act, sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) "promotes democracy by allowing confidential sources to speak up without fear that courts could force journalists to reveal their identities," TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said.

Many important stories in recent years have been broken because of anonymous whistleblowers, including details of the abuse at Walter Reed Medical Center, safety problems at nuclear power plants and massive fraud at Enron.

April 9, 2009

• Labor Leaders Form National Labor Coordinating Committee
• Members Mobilize Nationwide as AT&T Bargaining Continues
• Union-Community Coalition in Lynn, Mass., Protests Bank Abuses
• Local 3570 President Runs for Mayor in Jackson, Misss.
• New Ad Exposes Greed of Companies Fighting Employee Free Choice
• Retired Dist. 2 VP Peter Catucci, 60, Succumbs After Valiant Fight
• 400 Health Care Workers Join CWA in California and New York
• May Deadlines Set for Annual Newsletter, Website Contests

Labor Leaders Form National Labor Coordinating Committee

Organizations representing 16 million working people -- affiliates of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win and the National Education Association -- have come together to create a new National Labor Coordinating Committee to act nationally on critical issues facing working families.

"Recognizing the historic moment we face, the American labor movement must unify to restore the American dream for working families," said David Bonior, the facilitator of the unification effort. Bonior serves as chair of American Rights at Work.

The Committee will work on some of the biggest challenges confronting our nation, including the reform of our labor laws, the renewal of our economy and the passage of national health reform.

"The Committee pledged to complete its consultations among affiliates and other work on unification plans over the coming months. A unified labor movement is the way to ensure that the vast majority of Americans who want a union are able to join one," Bonior said.

CWA President Larry Cohen has been the leading advocate of the reunification effort and has worked for several years to bring about a united labor movement.

The members of the National Labor Coordinating Committee are the Presidents of AFL-CIO, Change To Win, and these unions:

National Education Association
American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees
American Federation of Teachers
Communications Workers of America
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Laborers International Union of North America
Service Employees International Union
Unite Here
United Auto Workers  
United Food and Commercial Workers
United Steelworkers of America

Members Mobilize Nationwide as AT&T Bargaining Continues

CWA Local 6316 member spreads the CWA message.

In the days since their contracts expired last weekend, CWA members at AT&T have stepped up a busy schedule of rallies and actions. From leafleting outside the NCAA basketball finals and opening day of Major League Baseball games to demonstrations outside AT&T offices and even more standups and taps inside AT&T operations, CWA members sent management a clear message: we want a fair contract.

Five of the six contracts between CWA and AT&T expired April 4. The contract covering workers at AT&T Southeast expires Aug. 8 and bargaining will resume in July.

Informational picketing is a a family affair for members of CWA Local 1298.

For now, employees are continuing to report to work, but that could change at any time. Members are working under the terms of the expired contracts, with the exception of arbitration for new grievances.

Negotiations covering nearly 100,000 AT&T workers covered by five contracts are continuing, but CWA has called on the company to step up the pace of negotiations. AT&T has been dragging its feet and has not moved forward on critical issues for workers, including employment security and health care.

In just four days, an Internet campaign and e-support from CWA activists have resulted in more than 20,000 signers to a statement of support protesting corporate greed and calling on AT&T not to cut middle class jobs and benefits. CWAers are signing up friends, family and co-workers to make sure AT&T gets the message, said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. Go to www.standupforworkers.com or click on the ads when you see them on news, political and entertainment sites.

Hundreds of District 4 members leafleted outside the AT&T-sponsored NCAA basketball finals in Detroit.

In Detroit, hundreds of CWA members from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana turned out for rallies and leafleting over the past week outside Ford Field, where the AT&T-sponsored NCAA basketball finals were played. Signs called out AT&T for corporate greed and pointed out that the company's comparisons to the auto industry just don't hold up.

District 9 members turned out for the opening day of Giants baseball in San Francisco with a message for AT&T.

In San Francisco, District 9 members turned out in force for the Giants opening ballgame April 7. Rain washed out plans by the CWA "Steward's Navy" on the waterfront, "but the landlubbers had a great time," said Libby Sayre, the district's area director for northern California. "More than 60 soggy activists from 9410, 9415, 9412, 9423, 9421, and 9404 and NABET kept spirits high with signs and chants.  We distributed several hundred fliers to Giants fans with "Go Giants" or the opening day roster on one side and a CWA flier on the other."

CWA Local 4900 turned Local 6222's solidarity song into hip-hop music and used it for a mobilization video. Watch it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VurUJAusLeo& eature=email.

Updates on bargaining, more photos and other information are available at www.cwa-union.org/att.

Union-Community Coalition in Lynn, Mass, Protests Bank Abuses

IUE-CWA members joined hundreds of fellow activists in Lynn, Mass., to protest Bank of America's home foreclosures and anti-Employee Free Choice campaign.

Sixty IUE-CWA members were among several hundred union activists and supporters in Lynn, Mass., who protested Bank of America's numerous home foreclosures and its anti-union campaign, all while taking taxpayers' bailout money.

Bank of America got $45 billion in bailout funds but that hasn't stopped it from lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act, said IUE-CWA Local 81201 President Jeff Crosby.

At the rally, Crosby rejected the claims of Bank of America and other corporate opponents of Employee Free Choice that now is a "bad time" to pass the bill.

"They say it's a bad time to encourage unions because of the economy," Crosby said. "Well when we passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 it was the middle of the Great Depression.  Unemployment was over 20 percent, three times what it is today.  And unions helped us build good jobs that sustained the economy for the next 40 years.  Unions are the solution, not the problem."

Roger Moreau, chief steward at the Lynn Waste Water Treatment plant, described the trouble he and his coworkers had organizing a union with their employer fighting them every step of the way.

"They fired two people," Moreau said. "It took us three years to fight through the lies and intimidation.  Since we finally won a union through Local 81201, we have started a pension, we made decent wages, we have job security.  We are part of the community here and we can contribute.  We need a fair and safe way to form unions."

Local 3570 President Runs for Mayor in Jackson, Misss.

Brenda Scott, president of CWA Local 3570 and candidate for mayor of Jackson, Miss.

Brenda Scott, president of CWA Local 3570, is running for mayor of Jackson, Miss., a city and state where she has successfully organized more than 3,000 members against some of the toughest odds in the country.

"Brenda has done this in a state where there are no collective bargaining laws for public workers and no legal right for dues check-off for public workers," said Beverly Hicks, CWA District 3 Vice President. "She has been successful over the years against all odds, and CWA is proud that the Mississippi labor movement has joined us in supporting her."

Scott has been endorsed by Mississippi's AFL-CIO and many religious and community organizations and is one of 16 people running in the May 5 primary election. The general election is June. 2. Locals and individuals who want to help support her campaign can go to www.brendascott4mayor.com. Contributions may be mailed to Scott's campaign at P.O. Box 1765, Jackson MS 39215.

New Ad Exposes Greed of Companies Fighting Employee Free Choice

As thousands of union activists are using the Congressional recess to talk to lawmakers about the Employee Free Choice Act, a new TV ad hit national airwaves Thursday exposing the true motive – greed -- of those spending millions to try to defeat the bill.

The hard-hitting ad calls out corporations, many of which have received billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded bailouts at the same time they are fighting organizing and bargaining rights for workers.

"The public and lawmakers alike need to know that the special interests opposing the Employee Free Choice Act are the same ones that caused this economic meltdown," said Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director for American Rights at Work. "This new ad sends a resolute message that now is the time to help workers bargain for a better life."

"Greed" and another ad, "Fabric of America," can be viewed at www.freechoiceact.org.

While Congress is in spring recess until April 17, activities underway nationwide include rallies, leafleting, lobbying, town hall meetings, moving billboards featuring huge photos of workers, community forums, vigils, call-in days, and more. CWAers, workers struggling to organize, students, elected officials, civil rights leaders and others are participating.

Retired Dist. 2 VP Peter Catucci, 60, Succumbs After Valiant Fight

Peter G. Catucci

Retired District 2 Vice President Peter G. Catucci, who spent a lifetime fighting for working families, died April 3 after battling ALS disease for more than two years. Catucci, 60, was CWA's longest-serving district vice president, having won election to the post at CWA's 48th Convention in 1986.

About a month ago, Catucci and CWA President Larry Cohen were in attendance at the White House as President Barack Obama signed an executive order that removed restrictions on responsible scientific research and federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Since stepping down as a CWA leader in 2008, Catucci had been a tireless fighter to restore the funds.

"Pete's service to our union is legend," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "He helped lead many of the positive changes we made in recent years, including CWA's groundbreaking 'Ready for the Future' restructuring," Cohen said, adding "Pete's  beloved District 2 was his constant focus beyond his family." District 2 Vice President Ron Collins, a long-time friend and colleague, praised Catucci's "incomparable fighting spirit during his years of service to his union and in finding a cure for those suffering from ALS."

Catucci's commitment to working men and women began in 1968 when he joined CWA Local 2336 after going to work at C & P Telephone, now Verizon. Catucci served as steward, strike captain and executive vice president before being elected local president in 1976. As president, Catucci lead the local through tough rounds of bargaining.

Elected District 2 Vice President in 1986, Catucci's leadership and dedication to organizing helped bring CWA representation to thousands of workers in sectors including airlines, health care, public service, printing, news media, broadcast, cable TV, higher education and law enforcement.

Despite his February 2007 diagnosis of ALS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Catucci continued to devote time and energy over the next two years to pressing for an end to restrictions on the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Catucci retired at the CWA Convention in June 2008. He told delegates that he would continue to keep up the fight for stem cell research and for the Employee Free Choice Act, which he called "stem cell research for the labor movement."

Catucci is survived by his wife, Terry; Children, Nick, Traci and Francesca. The family has asked that donations be made to the 4 Pete's Sake ALS Foundation, Attn: Kurt Weigert, 1020 Cromwell Bridge Road, Towson, MD 21286.

400 Health Care Workers Join CWA in California and New York

Nearly 400 health care workers gained CWA representation through organizing campaigns in California and New York.

A unit of 63 licensed practical nurses and medical technicians at the Faxton campus of the Faxton-St. Luke's Health Center, in Utica, N.Y., voted for CWA Local 1126 by a big 40-16 margin, said District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. Workers wanted the same level of benefits – guaranteed pay raises, medical benefits, and job security – that nearly 800 CWA-represented LPNs, RNs, and technicians at St. Luke's already have.

More than 300 medical interpreters and clinical research coordinators at the University of California medical centers have joined the Union of Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119, District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp said.

UTPE-Local 9119 already represents nearly 12,000 workers throughout the University of California system.

UTPE-Local 9119 also reached a first contract for 150 skilled trades employees at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Lawrence, Calif. Workers won union certification last year through majority signup, but their employer-contractor, the Bechtel Corp., had tried to block workers' union choice by privatizing their jobs; that move was unsuccessful.

May Deadlines Set for Annual Newsletter, Website Contests

Entries are now being accepted for CWA's 2009 local newsletter and website contests. The contests recognize the hard work of all editors, webmasters and others who devote their time and energy to membership communications.

The deadline to enter the 26th-annual newsletter contest is Friday, May 8. All locals were notified by e-mail this week, and information, rules and entry forms are posted online at http://www.cwa-union.org/newslettercontest.

The web contest deadline is Friday, May 15. Awards will be given for best local website, best electronic newsletter and best local online advocacy campaign. Entry forms are available at http://www.cwa-union.org/ecom.

Panels of expert judges from outside CWA will judge the contests. Awards will be presented at the 2009 CWA convention in Washington, D.C. in June.

April 2, 2009

• West Wing Stars Help Shine Media Spotlight on Employee Free Choice
• Taking on the Union Busters
• AT&T Contracts Near Expiration
• Contract Down to Wire at AT&T East Yellow Pages
• AT&T Mobility Contract Ratified 
• Employee Free Choice Builds on Legacy of MLK, Civil Rights Leaders Say
• IBM Cuts 1,400 Jobs One Day After Promising To 'Invest in Our People'
• Blue Green Alliance Backs Job Creating Climate Change Legislation

West Wing Stars Help Shine Media Spotlight on Employee Free Choice

Actor Martin Sheen and two costars from TV's "The West Wing" joined with CWA members and other workers at a March 31 news conference on Capitol Hill to push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

As giant banners of CWA members and other workers fighting for the Employee Free Choice Act were unveiled in Washington, D.C., and on mobile billboards throughout the country March 31, three dedicated activists who played fictional politicians on TV came to Capitol Hill to give the bill their strongest endorsement.

Martin Sheen, who played President Jeb Bartlett in The West Wing was accompanied by costars Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford, a board member of American Rights at Work. The actors joined with embattled workers for a news conference hosted by ARAW and then met with lawmakers.

"This issue boils down to a simple fact: It is a fundamental right in this country for workers to be able to join unions and to bargain collectively," Whitford said. "Unfortunately, as these workers will tell you, this is often not the case. Without the protections provided by the Employee Free Choice Act, workers looking to join unions are subject to harassment, disinformation and dismissal because of a system that is exploited by and stacked in favor of management."

CWA members Joe Bordelon, a security company worker in Louisiana, and Sara Steffens, a California Bay Area newspaper reporter who was fired after organizing a TNG-CWA unit, told their stories at the news conference on Capitol Hill.

"The Employee Free Choice Act would make a real difference," Bordelon said in describing the struggle he and his coworkers went through to organize. "I am here today because I don't think it's fair for any other worker to have to suffer the kind of delays that we did."

Bordelon, of Local 3403, is featured on one of the 50-foot-high banners hanging from union and allies' buildings in Washington, D.C. Chinazo Okolo, also of Local 3403, is featured on the east side of the CWA building. Steffens' image is on the south side of the AFL-CIO building facing the White House.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) joined the workers and actors for the news conference, saying Employee Free Choice is an essential part of helping America's working families recover from the recession and from years of stagnating wages. "We're losing the middle class and when we lose the middle class, we're losing America," Boxer said.

Taking on the Union Busters

In an Employee Free Choice debate, CWA Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach will go head-to-head tonight with an attorney from a union-busting law firm.

The program will air on the CBS radio network in Philadelphia.

If you're in the Philadelphia area, tune in at 7 pm to WPHT 1210 am for the two-hour program. And call in to support Employee Free Choice, at 610-664-1210.

AT&T Contracts Near Expiration

AT&T locals across the country have been mobilizing for fair contracts. Pictured are District 7 locals marching in Denver and a young supporter from Local 2204.

Backed by an active mobilization campaign underway in every CWA district, CWA bargainers are working down to the wire to reach new agreements with AT&T prior to contract expiration at midnight on Saturday morning, April 4.

CWA members are calling on the company to bargain fair contracts with real employment security, including access for employees to the jobs of the future, and not cut benefits for workers and retirees.

The negotiations cover some 125,000 employees at AT&T East (formerly SNET), AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth), AT&T Midwest (formerly Ameritech), AT&T Southwest, AT&T West (formerly PacBell) and AT&T Legacy, a nationwide unit. The contracts, with the exception of AT&T Southeast, expire on April 4. The AT&T Southeast agreement expires Aug. 8. For the latest in mobilization actions, go to www.cwa-att.com.

Last week, 88 percent of voting CWA members at AT&T voted to authorize a strike if negotiations fail to produce quality contracts. Strike action could take place at any or all of the AT&T operations once the union's executive board authorizes the action and the CWA president sets a date.

CWA members at AT&T are coming with up with unique ways to support bargaining. Husband and wife Ray and Rachael Rodriquez, both AT&Ters and members of CWA Local 6222, Houston, Texas, wrote the lyrics for a great rap mobilization audio (a colleague added the voice) that's now posted on CWA's AT&T mobilization website www.cwa-union.org/att. Click here to listen.  "What inspired us was the workers we represent, especially AT&T's U-Verse techs," said Ray, a union steward and AT&T mobilization coordinator. "This is why it's One Union, One Fight, One Future."

Contract Down to Wire at AT&T East Yellow Pages 

Members of CWA Local 1298 at AT&T East Yellow Pages in Connecticut voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if a fair contract can't be reached.

The Yellow Pages contract, covering about 300 workers in Connecticut, is set to expire Apr. 4, the same day as five of the six AT&T core contracts.  

AT&T East Yellow Pages is a profitable company, generating $5.5 billion in revenue last year. Skilled, experienced and dedicated employees make those profits possible, said Pat Telesco, CWA staff representative and bargaining chair.

CWA is looking for salary increases and changes in the commission plan for sales reps, and a fair wage increase for other workers whose productivity gains have made AT&T East Yellow Pages successful. Other critical issues are health care and employment security.

AT&T Mobility Contract Ratified

CWA members covered by the AT&T Mobility "Orange" contract ratified a new four-year agreement. The contract broke new ground, especially in the areas of compensation for retail store workers and expanding career opportunity in customer service, two op priorities for Mobility members, said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill.

The proposed settlement provides for a compounded wage increase of 8.8 percent over the four-year contract term, along with a $500 bonus. More than 11,000 retail sales onsultants now will earn a minimum monthly commission of $1,000 if targeted sales goals are met. In addition, some 500 consumer care workers will receive job upgrades and additional pay increases, as will 50-70 wireless technicians. Other important improvements addressed monitoring and quota relief.

Mobilization by Mobility workers throughout the Orange territory – Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 13 – made a tremendous difference as did support from CWA Mobility members in the Southeast and Southwest covered by separate contracts and CWA members at the core AT&T company.

Employee Free Choice Builds on Legacy of MLK, Civil Rights Leaders Say

The Employee Free Choice Act builds on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights pioneers and has the strongest possible support from those still fighting for justice today, national civil rights leaders said Thursday.

"The Employee Free Choice Act has been largely written about as a labor bill but those of us in the civil rights community know it is so much more -- workers' rights are civil rights and that the right to organize is a civil and human rights issue of the first magnitude," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which hosted a telephone news conference Thursday.

The call was held two days before the 41st anniversary of the death of King, who was assassinated April 4, 1968, while he was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers.

"He was fighting for working people and poor people when he was killed," said Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP. Today, he said, King's fight would be for Employee Free Choice.

Jealous said the bill is critical to the economy as a whole. "When we know that working people are spending every dollar they bring home and then some, more money in the pockets of working people is good for the entire country," he said. "We are throwing in our full support and we have asked (NAACP) members across the country to weigh in with their representatives. We feel confident that as the full depth of support for the Employee Free Choice Act becomes known, we will see it passed."

Henderson said statistics prove that African Americans who are union members are doing far better economically than those without unions.

"The fact is African American union members earn 28 percent more than their nonunion counterparts. The fact is African American union members are about 16 percent more likely to have health insurance than nonunion workers. And the fact is African American union members are about 19 percent more likely to have a pension than nonunion workers," Henderson said. "As A. Philip Randolph used to say, the two tickets for full equality for African Americans have been the voter registration card and the union card."

IBM Cuts 1,400 Jobs One Day After Promising To 'Invest in Our People'

If a contest were held to determine the most hypocritical behavior by a U.S. corporation, IBM and CEO Sam Palmisano would probably win top prize.   

In January, one day after Palmisano told employees that the company "would invest in our people" and not resort to job cuts, IBM terminated 1,400 employees from its U.S. based sales and distribution division. No official announcement of the layoffs was made, and over the past two months, IBM has been continuing its "stealth" job cut campaign.  

IBM has been quietly reducing the size of its U.S. workforce while increasing overseas hiring. Total global employment at IBM from 2007 to 2008 grew by 12,000 (to 398,000), but the company's U.S. workforce has shrunk by more than 11,000 during the same period, dropping to 115,000.

Yet IBM is hoping for a multi-billion dollar handout from the federal economic recovery program.

"We're outraged that IBM has its hand out for taxpayer-supplied stimulus money at same time that it's cutting U.S. jobs and shifting more of its workforce overseas," says Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM/CWA Local 1701. The Alliance, which has been tracking the cutbacks based on reports from workers and other sources, estimates that the company will cut the jobs of as many as 10,000 workers this spring.

IBM has been careful not to terminate more than 499 workers at any one location, which would trigger a federally-mandated 60-day notice to employees under the WARN Act.

The company posted strong profits for the last quarter of 2008 and has hired some 51,000 workers worldwide this year alone, the Alliance said. Just 3,500 of those jobs were in the United States; more than 90 percent of the 48,000 workers that IBM has hired overseas are in the poorest, lowest-wage countries, led by India, with 19,000 workers.

In another display of hypocrisy, IBM sought to blunt criticism of outsourcing so many jobs by offering to pay expenses for displaced IBM workers in the United States who move to India and other developing countries where IBM is hiring. "In exchange for agreeing to work for the company in India," says Conrad, "they would have to work at the prevailing wage in India."

Laid off IBM employees are angry, Conrad said. "Many long-time employees are now telling us that their last job at the company is training their foreign-based replacement."

Alliance@IBM is the sole source for tracking the company's U.S. job cuts, relying on reports from IBMers around the country. CWA also is working with members of Congress on legislation requiring companies to be transparent about job cuts and offshoring. For more information on the campaign, go to www.allianceibm.org.

Blue Green Alliance Backs Job Creating Climate Change Legislation

CWA, with labor and environmental groups -- all members of the Blue Green Alliance – came together to support comprehensive "cap-and-trade" climate change legislation as an effective way to put millions of people back to work while bringing about a cleaner economy.

IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said the legislation would help steer the country in the right direction. "Meeting the challenge to tackle climate change will allow us to build a clean energy economy right here in the United States." Making parts for wind and solar power and fuel-efficient vehicles is just the beginning for quality, green jobs, he said. 

Other members of Blue Green Alliance are the United Steel Workers, Laborers' International Union, Service Employees International Union, the Sierra Group and the National Resources Defense Council.

The Alliance supports "cap and trade" pollution standards to reduce U.S. emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050 as well as other regulations, including standards for renewable, energy efficiency resources and fuel and appliance efficiency.

Any climate change legislation must address critical issues such as job losses from international competition and rising energy costs for low- and moderate-income families, the Alliance stressed.

March 19, 2009

• Independent Gallup Poll Confirms Majority Support for Employee Free Choice
• Biden Task Force Hears from IUE-CWA Members in Minnesota
• CWA Members Mobilize for Quality Contracts at AT&T
• AFA-CWA Praises Obama's NMB Choice as Long-Needed Change
• 100 West Virginia AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA
• NABET-CWA Resumes Talks with NBC Universal

Independent Gallup Poll Confirms Majority Support for Employee Free Choice

An independent poll by the Gallup Surveys organization shows that a majority of Americans support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Results of the nationwide poll of 1,024 adults were released on March 17. When asked if they favored a law to "make it easier for labor unions to organize workers," 53 percent of respondents said "yes." Only 39 percent were opposed.

Asked how important it is for Congress to pass such a law, 55 percent said it's important, with more than half of those saying "very important."

"This independent poll again confirms what we know from previous surveys and what we hear time and again from working people," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Working Americans want a union voice and real bargaining rights but they don't want to face a grueling campaign of employer harassment and intimidation to get those rights," he said.

Biden Task Force Hears from IUE-CWA Members in Minnesota

CWA members and leaders, community residents and business leaders welcomed Vice President Joe Biden to the floor of the New Flyer bus manufacturing plant in St. Cloud, Minn., for the second meeting of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Families. New Flyer, whose employees are members of IUE-CWA Local 7304, is a leader in the production of hybrid, low-emission and alternative-fuel buses and other vehicles.

Vice President Biden, with other members of the Administration's economic team, held a town hall meeting at the plant to spotlight what can be achieved by President Obama's economic stimulus program – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- and by companies focusing on creating quality green jobs.  

Dan Rock, president of IUE-CWA Local 7304, and other leaders of the local were on hand as Vice President Biden took questions and listened as residents offered their ideas on how to strengthen the middle class.

CWA President Larry Cohen has pointed out that "New Flyer shows how investment in green technology can create thriving businesses and quality jobs." He also noted that "New Flyer is a leader in another way, by respecting workers' rights to majority signup for choosing union representation." This same choice would be restored to all workers by the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen noted.  

Tim Lovaasen, president of the CWA Minnesota State Council, said New Flyer "hits all the points President Obama has been talking about," combining green technology, investment in our communities, business growth and respect for workers' rights.

Since 2002, the year when New Flyer recognized the workers' decision for union representation, employment at the company has grown steadily.

CWA Members Mobilize for Quality Contracts at AT&T

Hundreds of CWA members from District 9 locals rallied for a quality contract at the state capitol in Sacramento. Speaking is CWA Local 9423 President Dan Rodriguez.

Leafleting, rallies, "Tap on Tuesdays" and lots of other actions are underway at AT&T nationwide, as CWA members show their support for CWA bargaining teams and their determination to win contracts that maintain quality jobs and quality benefits. The six contracts cover 125,000 workers in every district and, with the exception of AT&T Southeast (former BellSouth), expire Apr. 4. The AT&T Southeast contract expires Aug. 6, but early bargaining is underway there. 

Here's a roundup of some actions:

More than 100 members rallied outside the AT&T building in Cleveland while hundreds of California CWAers joined rallies in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco, the Stockton Courthouse, and at AT&T operations in Fresno, with more planned for next week. A big crowd of CWAers took the quality contract message to the steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento.

Local 9400 has a full schedule of mobilization actions, including rallies outside garages, practice picketing and walking into work in unison. At inside operations, members are wearing black and black band-aids on Thursdays.

In Amarillo, Tex., members of Local 6128 stand up together at their work places at 10 am, 2 pm and 4 pm. Local 6150 members do the same and use their clickers to really get management's attention. "Tap on Tuesday" is a big mobilization hit among Local 6151 members, who tap "every hour on the hour for at least 30 seconds." Throughout District 6 members are wearing black on Fridays and red on Thursdays.

For a full roundup of events, go to www.cwa-att.com.

AFA-CWA Praises Obama's NMB Choice as Long-Needed Change

AFA-CWA applauded President Obama's nomination of Linda Puchala, a former flight attendant and union member, to head the National Mediation Board.

AFA-CWA International President Patricia Friend said Puchala's experience and "commitment to workers' rights and to the collective bargaining process will help to restore the integrity of this vital federal agency." AFA-CWA urged the Senate to quickly confirm Puchala's nomination.

"We look forward to working with Ms. Puchala to ensure that the National Mediation Board adheres to its mission of protecting employees' right to organize without interference or influence from the employers and their multi-million dollar anti-worker campaigns," Friend added.

Last week, more than 100 flight attendants from United, Northwest and Delta met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill and urged them to confirm an NMB chair who will protect workers' rights under labor laws covering flight attendants and other workers in the transportation sector.  

Currently, Puchala serves as senior mediator with the NMB and has more than 30 years of experience in labor relations. She served as AFA president from 1979-1986.

100 WVa AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA

A majority of the more than 100 AT&T Mobility workers at the company's new customer care center in Wheeling, West Virginia, have chosen to join CWA through majority sign up, reports District 2 Vice President Ron Collins.

In the campaign for CWA representation, health care costs and lack of a voice were key issues. Workers were assisted by Local 2006 President Debra Shepherd, in Wheeling; Local 2204 organizer Lea Kennedy, Norton, Va.; District 2 CWA Representative Elaine Harris, and District 2 Organizing Coordinator Richard Verlander.

"The workers' inside organizing committee did an amazing job of leading the campaign during a period of uncertainly, contract negotiations and the current economic crisis," said Verlander. The company plans to hire an additional 300 employees at the center.

NABET-CWA Resumes Talks with NBC Universal

Negotiations between NABET-CWA and NBC Universal resumed this week.

NABET-CWA President John S. Clark said it wasn't clear that NBC Universal was serious about reaching a new agreement, citing several examples of the company's attempt to cut quality jobs and benefits.  Clark pointed out that NBC is attempting to create a new non-union represented position at its owned stations that incorporates the work that NABET-CWA members have been doing for decades, but without overtime pay or job security.

NBC also announced plans to close some operations in New York and Burbank, Calif., and to transfer some work to a non-union facility in New Jersey, Clark said. 

NABET-CWA Locals have filed unfair labor charges and unit clarification petitions with the National Labor Relations Board and have put NBC Universal on notice that workers will mobilize and fight for a fair and equitable contract. The contract between NABET-CWA and NBC Universal is set to expire at midnight on March 31. 

March 12, 2009

• Employee Free Choice Introduced in House and Senate
• Hundreds Lobby Congress on Employee Free Choice Act
• Cohen, Catucci Attend White House Signing on Stem Cell Research
• Flight Attendants Seek Support, Fairness from Congress
• Vote on AT&T Mobility "Orange" Contract Gets Underway
• AT&T Locals to Mobilize for Employment Security
• Locals Urged to Plan Now for April 28 Workers' Memorial Day

Employee Free Choice Introduced in House and Senate

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announce the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress, above. Below, CWA Local 2204 member Sharon Harrison told the Senate HELP committee that majority sign up at AT&T Mobility made all the difference for her and her co-workers.

Millions of working families are a step closer to having real bargaining rights with the March 10 introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act into the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

At a Capitol Hill news conference, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Representative George Miller (D-Calif.) announced the introduction of the bill, S. 560 and H.R. 1409. Currently there are 223 cosponsors (including Miller) in the House and 40 (including sponsor Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.) in the Senate.

CWA President Larry Cohen thanked Senator Harkin and Representative Miller for continuing to champion the cause of working people and for their leadership on this important legislation. He called on the House and Senate to pass the bill, stressing that only through Employee Free Choice "will we rebuild our economy, increase workers' purchasing power and put the brakes on the extreme income inequality our nation has seen over the past decade."

At a hearing of the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pension committee, chaired by Senator Harkin, panels of workers and economists testified that the Employee Free Choice Act is necessary to rebuild the nation's middle class.

Sharon Harrison, a member of CWA Local 2204 in Lebanon, Va., told the committee about her experiences at AT&T Mobility, where workers were able to get union representation through majority signup, after suffering under a previous management that harassed and intimidated workers who wanted union representation.

"Before we had our union, favoritism was a problem. Raises didn't depend on your job performance but whether your manager liked you. That all changed in 2005 when Cingular Wireless, now AT&T Mobility, took over. Cingular had agreed with CWA to remain neutral, to let workers make up our own minds and to recognize the union if a majority signed up. Because of that agreement, we weren't afraid anymore that managers would retaliate against us," she said. 

Hundreds Lobby Congress on Employee Free Choice Act

Above, on the U.S. Senate steps, CWA Local 3403 member Chinoza Okolo joined dozens of union members demonstrating for Employee Free Choice. Below, CWA Local 13500 member Robert Hackenberg, top right in photo, was one of hundreds of union members who met with members of the House and Senate about Employee Free Choice.

This week, hundreds of union members, including CWAers, came to Washington, D.C. to demonstrate, mobilize, and lobby their members of Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

In events over three days, union members told their stories of real-life employer intimidation and harassment, making the case that the nation's broken labor laws must be fixed.

Union members rallied outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to protest the group's multi-million-dollar campaign attacking Employee Free Choice and the excessive CEO pay and bad business decisions that helped create the nation's worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

On the Senate steps, union members rallied, displaying quotes and photos of workers who are fighting for a union voice and real bargaining rights.

And on Capitol Hill, workers met with key members of the Senate and House whose support is critical to winning Employee Free Choice. During a visit with Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.), a key sponsor of the bill, CWA Local 13500 member Robert Hackenberg described how poor treatment by management at the former AT&T Wireless call center in Harrisburg, Pa., and management's dirty tricks convinced him "that it was time we had union representation."

John Pezzana, a Comcast worker and member of CWA Local 13000, and others met with Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.); meetings also were held with the staffs and members of Congress from Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, Maine, New York and other states. 

"Workers' stories expose the lies that the Chamber and other business front groups have been spreading about Employee Free Choice," said CWA President Larry Cohen.

Activists also participated in workshops and training sessions on building community support for Employee Free Choice. CWA Locals can download, print, and hand out real-life stories by workers on CWA's campaign website http://www.freechoicecwa.org.

Cohen, Catucci Attend White House Signing on Stem Cell Research

Retired District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci joins House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and CWA President Cohen at the White House as President Obama lifts the ban on federal funds for critical stem cell research.

CWA President Larry Cohen and retired District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci joined members of Congress, scientists, and others at the White House as President Barack Obama signed an executive order that removed restrictions on responsible scientific research involving embryonic stem cells.

The action reverses the Bush adminstration's limits on federal funding for this critical research. "It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and work to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology," Obama said.

After the signing, President Obama greeted Catucci and wished him well. Catucci was diagnosed with ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in early 2007. Since stepping down as a CWA leader in 2008, he has been a tireless fighter to restore federal funds for this effort.

Catucci said, "stem cell therapy is real. It's time the United States caught up with the rest of the world and moved forward. I am grateful to President Obama for reversing the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research that's blocked so much important research over the past eight years."

Cohen said that the action "marks the triumph of sound science over attempts to politicize this and other life-saving research. Now we have a real opportunity to develop effective therapies that will improve the lives of millions of people."

President Obama also signed a Presidential Memorandum to restore "scientific integrity in government decision making."

Flight Attendants Seek Support, Fairness from Congress

Northwest Airlines flight attendant Renee Foss, AFA-CWA Local 21091, talks with Delta and Northwest flight attendants on Capitol Hill for meetings with members of Congress.

More than 120 flight attendants – members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA at United and Northwest Airlines and union activists from Delta Air Lines – went to Capitol Hill this week, seeking support for upcoming negotiations and Senate confirmation of a fair-minded nominee to oversee labor laws covering airline workers at the National Mediation Board.

With bargaining for a new contract at United beginning this April for 17,000 AFA-CWA members, United flight attendants urged members of Congress to support AFA-CWA efforts to restore industry-leading levels of pay, benefits and working conditions at the airline. During United's bankruptcy, the workers sustained significant wage reductions, reduced health benefits, a loss of pensions, and longer working hours.

Restoring fairness, integrity and pro-worker leadership to the NMB is a critical concern for flight attendants at United as well as at Northwest and Delta. If bargaining at United goes beyond Aug. 7, flight attendants will need the assistance of the NMB to reach a fair settlement and not be subject to lengthy delays.  

A fair-minded NMB also is vital for flight attendants at Delta and Northwest, who will be facing a tough anti-union campaign from management. Delta's 13,000 flight attendants don't have union representation and are fighting for a union voice. AFA's 7,000 members at Northwest seek to protect more than 60 years of collective bargaining. Both groups want to negotiate an industry leading contract.  That's why it's critical to have an NMB in place that will protect workers' organizing and bargaining rights.  

Vote on AT&T Mobility "Orange" Contract Gets Underway

Voting materials will be going out Monday, March 16, to CWA members at AT&T Mobility covered by the "Orange" contract. Members will vote on the tentative settlement that covers more than 20,000 Mobility workers in Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 13.

Ballots will be counted on April 2, at CWA headquarters. Districts will have observers attending the ballot count.

AT&T Locals to Mobilize for Employment Security

As AT&T Core bargaining continues across the country, CWA locals are planning mobilization actions for Thursday, May 19, as part of a coordinated "National Day on Employment Security."

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has publicly praised CWA members and its positive relationship with CWA as important elements of the company's success.

CWAers will call on the company to bargain fair contracts with real employment security, including access for members to the jobs of the future.

Locals are asked to send photos and a brief account of their actions to unityatATT@cwa-union.org.

Locals Urged to Plan Now for April 28 Workers' Memorial Day

Materials to help CWA locals mark the annual Workers Memorial Day on April 28 are now available for order from the AFL-CIO.

"Participation in Workers' Memorial Day 2009 is of particular significance to CWA," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "During the last year, we lost several of our members to workplace fatalities.  In addition, many of our members have suffered work-related injuries, illnesses, and 'near misses,' in some cases, suffering severe medical disorders."

"However, with the historic election of Barack Obama, we have the opportunity to strengthen workplace safety and health protections and to mobilize and organize around safety and health issues."

The theme for Workers' Memorial Day this year is "Good Jobs, Safe Jobs. Give Workers a Voice for Change."

The AFL-CIO materials can be ordered by going online to www.aflcio.org/shop or by calling the federation's health and safety department at (202) 637-5367. CWA Occupational Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande is available to help locals plan events. He can be reached at (202) 434-1160 or by e-mail at legrande@cwa-union.org. CWA locals also are asked to let LeGrande know about events and actions they are planning.

March 5, 2009

• CWA, AT&T Mobility Reach Tentative Agreement
• CWA Member Asks Solis to Fight for Employee Free Choice 
• CWA is Player in White House Summit on Health Care
• Workers to Take Employee Free Choice Message to Capitol Hill
• CWA Calls on Maryland PSC to Reject Verizon Settlement
• AFA-CWA, Hawaiian Airlines Reach Tentative Agreement
• CWA's OSHA Conference Rescheduled
• Win a Chevy Silverado Truck in Union Sportsmen Alliance Giveaway
• Newsletter Critiques Now Available on The Source

CWA, AT&T Mobility Reach Tentative Agreement

Tremendous unity and mobilization by CWAers at AT&T Mobility nationwide resulted in a new tentative contract. Above, CWAers from Local 7250 in Minneapolis leaflet outside a retail store.

CWA reached a tentative agreement with AT&T Mobility for the "Orange contract" that provides real gains for workers, including improvements in the retail stores compensation plan and the establishment of a new career path for customer service representatives.

The CWA bargaining committee was determined to make inroads in these critical areas and succeeded, resulting in a tentative agreement that provides good economic gains for Mobility workers and addresses workers' priority issues. There are more than 20,000 CWA members covered by the "Orange" contract; another 22,000 CWA members at Mobility are covered by separate agreements.

The proposed settlement provides for a compounded wage increase of 8.8 percent over the four-year contract term, along with a $500 bonus. More than 11,000 retail sales consultants now will earn a minimum monthly commission of $1,000 if sales goals are met. In addition, some 500 consumer care workers will receive job upgrades and additional pay increases, as will 50-70 wireless technicians. Other important improvements addressed monitoring and quota relief.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said the bargaining team worked long and hard hours, "displaying both patience and toughness" to get a good agreement that addresses Mobility workers' critical issues.

Contract explanation materials will be made available to members in advance of the membership ratification vote.

Mobilization by Mobility workers throughout the "Orange" territory – Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 13 – made a tremendous difference as did support from CWA Mobility members in Districts 3 and 6 and from CWA members at "core" AT&T operations.

Bargaining covering 125,000 CWA-represented workers at AT&T got underway Feb. 24.

CWA Member Asks Solis to Fight for Employee Free Choice

Above, Hector Capote, a Cuban-American worker and vice president of CWA Local 3122, talks with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis at a Miami church. Below, CWA President Larry Cohen and Capote with participants at the Solis forum.

A CWA member from AT&T Mobility made a heartfelt plea for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act at a meeting with new Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

Hector Capote was one of several workers who spoke with Solis at a meeting at a Miami, Fla., AME Church. The event marked Solis's first official speech as labor secretary; more than 500 union members attended, along with CWA President Larry Cohen and other union leaders.  

Capote, now a vice president of CWA Local 3122, told Solis how workers at his AT&T Mobility call center were able to form a union through majority signup. "We all worked together, managers and workers, for a fair process," he said.

Capote said he didn't have that chance when he began working at age 14 at a fast food chain as a new immigrant to America, and neither do millions of other Americans today. "I wanted to tell you how labor law needs to be changed so we can have more rights. The Employee Free Choice is so important to make sure that happens. I believe it holds our democracy to a higher level of truth and honesty," he said.

Capote said that his father never earned more than $13 an hour, and in his later years had to rely on Capote; his brother, a police officer; and sister, a nurse -- all union members -- for financial help.

Solis acknowledged Capote's efforts to support his father: "I know your father is proud of you. He's probably watching you right now."

Solis also met with members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, and said that the days of a Labor Department "going after unions" were over. "There's a new sheriff in town," she said.

In a video message to the AFL-CIO Executive Council President Obama repeated his conviction that the Employee Free Choice Act will become law. "To me, and to my administration, labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests – because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement."

CWA is Player in White House Summit on Health Care

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill is taking part in the White House Summit on Health Care, convened by President Obama on March 5 as the next step to real health care reform.

Members of Congress, health care providers, unions, business, insurers, and all groups with a stake in real reform are attending the session.

President Obama has said that fixing health care is crucial to getting our country's financial house in order. "We must realize that fixing what's wrong with our health care system is no longer just a moral imperative, but a fiscal imperative," the President said in announcing his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kanas Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

CWA commended Obama's choice of Sebelius and urged the Senate to quickly confirm her.

CWA President Larry Cohen said Sebelius brings "real experience to the mission of expanding health care for the millions who now lack coverage. She will be an important advocate for President Obama's goal of health care reform that provides affordable, accessible and quality care for all."

CWA is working toward a health care system that requires all employers to participate and contribute to the system – "pay or play" – and does not tax workers' health care benefits.

Workers to Take Employee Free Choice Message to Capitol Hill

Next week, workers are turning the spotlight on the Employee Free Choice Act and why the bill is critical to rebuilding the economy and restoring America's middle class. Members of CWA and other unions will be in Washington, D.C., urging lawmakers to restore bargaining rights for American workers, the first step to turning around our faltering economy.

"Since 1935, collective bargaining has been the law of the land, and until around 1965 it was working. But since 1975, there has been a systematic effort to crush collective bargaining," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Some in the business community, like the Chamber of Commerce, simply oppose the idea of working people having any seat at the table. They oppose the idea of workers and management together working our way out of this economic crisis. They want to ignore the fact that in every other industrial democracy, workers have a voice in the workplace and they didn't have to go through a grueling election and fight against their bosses to get it," Cohen said.

On Monday, there will be actions in front of employer trade associations and at other locations.

On Tuesday morning, union members will meet on the steps of the U.S. Senate prior to meetings with their senators and representatives. Workers will present "scrapbooks" of case studies that describe the obstacles and intimidation they faced from employers while trying to get a union voice and bargaining rights. Some of the case studies highlight positive examples where employers have respected workers' rights.

Also on Tuesday, workers from several unions, along with a panel of economists and other experts, will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a chief sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act, is chairman of the committee.

On Wednesday, the union activists will join in workshops and training sessions on how to build even more support for Employee Free Choice, especially in their home districts. Profiles of CWA members are available at http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwa/pages/worker_profiles.

CWA Calls on Maryland PSC to Reject Verizon Settlement

CWA is pressing the Maryland Public Service Commission to reject a proposed settlement agreement that would allow Verizon to raise telephone rates for residential customers while letting the company do next to nothing about service quality complaints from thousands of Maryland customers.

"This is one of the worst settlement agreements we have seen," said District 2 Vice President Ron Collins. "It practically rewards Verizon for poor performance. Our hope is that the PSC will either amend it or reject it altogether." Collins said the agreement limits Verizon's liability to customers who receive poor service.  The union has intervened in the settlement hearings.

CWA is mobilizing consumers and workers to contact the Maryland PSC and urge that the proposal be scrapped and that negotiations reopen on a new plan that supports quality service. Sign the online petition at www.contactmdPSC.org.

The proposed settlement, which grew out of complaints that Verizon routinely failed to provide satisfactory service, allows Verizon to keep its service failures a secret from the public, avoid service standards altogether and raise rates. 

This deal tries to block state regulators from looking into service quality issues until 2012, more than three years from now. 

Verizon's service performance is being challenged in many states as it abandons the traditional copper wire network and deploys its non-regulated fiber network while seeking rate increases. Regulators and legislators have been under growing pressure to address Verizon's deteriorating network; Verizon has called the copper network that serves millions of customers nationwide "yesterday's network."

"Our members are trained professionals, capable of providing world class service. Verizon's service deficiencies are the direct result of management decisions and they hurt our jobs as well as the public we serve," Collins said, adding "we support quality service."

AFA-CWA, Hawaiian Airlines Reach Tentative Agreement

Flight attendants at Hawaiian Airlines, represented by AFA-CWA, reached a tentative agreement that improves wage and bonus compensation and addresses flight attendants' concerns.

The proposed agreement would extend the current contract for two more years and includes some provisions to help the airline maintain its operational excellence.  The tentative agreement will be sent out for membership review and ratification.

"In these challenging times, Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants need a stable contract they can count on," said Sharon Soper, AFA-CWA Hawaiian President. "We are pleased that we could work collaboratively with Hawaiian's management team to quickly reach an agreement that provides stability for our members and our company during these turbulent times."

CWA's OSHA Conference Rescheduled

CWA's National Occupational Safety and Health Conference, originally set for Sept. 12-14, has been re-scheduled.

The conference will be held Oct. 2-5, 2009 at the Holiday Inn on-the-Bay in San Diego. Conference agenda and registration materials will be sent to all CWA Local presidents. Questions? Contact David LeGrande, CWA Occupational Safety and Health Director, at legrande@cwa-union.org.

Win a Chevy Silverado Truck in Union Sportsmen Alliance Giveaway

CWAers and other union members who belong to the Union Sportsmen's Alliance have a chance to win a 2009 Chevy Silverado in a promotion offered by USA, the hunting and fishing club exclusively for union members and retirees, and their families.

The winner of the Chevy truck will be announced the first week of July. All current active members of USA are eligible, along with anyone who joins by 12:00 am, June 30, 2009. To join, go to www.UnionSportsmen.org or call 877-872-2211. Membership is $25 a year.

In addition to connecting union sportsmen and women across North America, the alliance, a one-of-a-kind, hunting and fishing association of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), provides hunting and fishing information as well as discounts on outdoor gear, and chances to win prizes.

Newsletter Critiques Now Available on The Source

Starting this week, another resource for local union communicators has been added to The Source, CWA's website for local union communicators.

In The Source's "Websites and Newsletter" section is a new, special "Extreme Makeover" and "Copy Desk" feature to help local editors improve their newsletters. In the first installment, our communications experts provide assistance to CWA Local 2202's publication, "CWA Voice." Click here for the new sections http://www.cwa-union.org/source/best/.

Help us get the word out to local union editors! Please send their names and e-mail addresses to Janelle Hartman in the CWA Communications Department, at jhartman@cwa-union.org. Be sure to put "Local Union Editors" in the subject line of your e-mail message.

February 26, 2009

• Did You Vote Yet?
• Bargaining Begins for 125,000 at AT&T Core,
  Negotiations Resume at AT&T Mobility
• Obama Takes Big Step Toward Real Health Care Reform
• Leading Economists Say Employee Free Choice is Key to Economic Growth
• CWA: Solis an Advocate for Workers
• Alliance for Digital Equality Urges Broadband Access
• New @ The Source: AT&T mobilization, photos, & cartoons

Did You Vote Yet?

Here's a survey you won't want to miss. There's still time to cast your vote in the Parade magazine poll on whether America still needs unions. Click here to vote.

Bargaining Begins for 125,000 at AT&T Core, Negotiations Resume at AT&T Mobility

Above, members of Detriot, Mich., Locals 4004, 4050 and 4100 mobilize to support AT&T core bargaining. AT&T Mobility workers, below, call for "Fair contract now" in leafleting outside a Mobility retail store in Portland, Oregon.

Negotiations opened this week for new contracts covering 125,000 CWAers at AT&T. At separate bargaining tables, CWA vice presidents called on the company to set the right priorities in negotiations and recognize the contributions of AT&T employees and retirees to making and keeping the company successful.

Separately, negotiations resumed with AT&T Mobility for 20,000 workers covered by the "Orange" contract.

Even in this economic downturn, AT&T is a very profitable company and well-positioned for 2009. The company posted $12.9 billion in profits last year, including $2.4 billion in the last quarter. AT&T has taken care of investors and top executives; it must meet its commitments to workers and retirees too, and not look to cut jobs and benefits.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said AT&T should be a leader in helping to turn the economy and in providing good middle class jobs, not cutting benefits and lowering the standard of living for employees.

Bargaining began Feb. 24 at six tables, covering AT&T East (formerly SNET), AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth), AT&T Midwest (formerly Ameritech), AT&T Southeast (formerly Southwestern Bell), AT&T West (formerly PacBell), and AT&T Legacy. The contracts, with the exception of AT&T Southeast, expire April 4. The AT&T Southeast contract expires in August.

AT&T bargaining updates will be posted on CWA District websites, go to www.cwa-union.org/att/bargaining for those links. For AT&T mobilization activities and information visit www.cwa-union.org/att and for updates on Mobility bargaining, go to www.cwa-union.org/att/mobility.

Obama Takes Big Step Toward Real Health Care Reform

On Tuesday night, President Obama pronounced before a joint session of Congress that “health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”  And less than 48 hours later he proposed a $634 billion reserve fund dedicated to health care reform. 

“We can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold,” the President said. “We must make it a priority to give every single American quality, affordable health care. With this budget we are making a historic commitment to comprehensive health-care reform.”

The proposed budget includes a $634 billion health care “reserve fund” that represents a “down payment on quality, affordable health care for all Americans,” and the administration is determined to work with members of Congress to identify additional sources of health care funding. These include reforms to the Medicare and Medicaid programs that will produce system-wide savings and income tax changes for high income earners – households earning more than $250,000 a year.

In just one month plus one week, the Obama Administration has already enacted several important measures that will move the country along the path toward universal health care.  These include maintaining coverage for 7 million children and adding another 4 million to the state children’s health insurance program, expanding health care protections for jobless workers through the COBRA program, focusing on health information technology to gain additional cost savings, and expanding funds for prevention and wellness programs, as well as for training for health care professionals.  

CWA strongly supports comprehensive health care reform that results in guaranteed, affordable coverage for all, and to which all employers contribute.

Leading Economists Say Employee Free Choice is Key to Economic Growth

More than three dozen of the nation's leading economists signed on to a public statement of support for the Employee Free Choice Act, stressing that the right to join a union and bargain collectively is essential to rebuilding the economy.

The statement was published in the Feb. 25 Washington Post. Signers include two Nobel Prize winners and economists from Harvard, Princeton and other top U.S. universities.

James K. Galbraith of the University of Texas said "unions are a proven ally of progress, not only in politics but also in economics: unionized workforces promote technical change and productivity growth because they make it possible to distribute more fairly and less brutally the costs of change."

The statement notes the "unusual and unhealthy" situation in which hourly compensation for U.S. workers has stagnated even as their productivity has soared.

"Indeed, from 2000 to 2007, the income of the median working-age household fell by $2,000 — an unprecedented decline. In that time, virtually all of the nation's economic growth went to a small number of wealthy Americans. An important reason for the shift from broadly-shared prosperity to growing inequality is the erosion of workers' ability to form unions and bargain collectively," the economists said.

While polls indicate that millions of Americans want the chance to form a union, "the election process overseen by the National Labor Relations Board has become drawn out and acrimonious, with management campaigning fiercely to deter unionization. Union sympathizers are routinely threatened or even fired, and they have little effective recourse under the law. Even when workers overcome this pressure and vote for a union, they are unable to obtain contracts one-third of the time due to management resistance," the statement says.

The remedy, the economists said, is the Employee Free Choice Act. "A rising tide lifts all boats only when labor and management bargain on relatively equal terms. In recent decades, most bargaining power has resided with management.  The current recession will further weaken the ability of workers to bargain individually.   More than ever, workers will need to act together.

"As economists, we believe this is a critically important step in rebuilding our economy and strengthening our democracy by enhancing the voice of working people in the workplace."

Read more about the statement and the economists who signed it at www.epi.org.

CWA: Solis an Advocate for Workers

The U.S. Senate's confirmation this week of Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as secretary of labor is a critical step toward creating new and green jobs while reversing the Labor Department's past eight years of neglect and contempt for workers' rights, CWA said.

"Secretary Solis has long been an effective voice for workers' rights," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Her strong support for the Employee Free Choice Act is especially critical as our nation moves to rebuild the middle class and restore an economy that works for everyone."

CWA leadership and members stood strong behind Solis throughout the confirmation process, reaching out to key members of the Senate. The vote to confirm her was 80-17; Republican leaders had delayed the vote for more than a month.

In addition to an impressive record defending workers' rights, Cohen said Solis has the vision to help grow a 21st century workforce that is highly skilled and green. She is a longtime advocate for "green manufacturing" to create jobs of the future and help the United States achieve a clean energy economy.

"She is an ideal advocate to help the Obama-Biden administration champion workers and create the jobs needed to jumpstart out economy," Cohen said.

Alliance for Digital Equality Press for Broadband Access

The Alliance for Digital Equality briefed members of Congress this week on the critical need to bring high speed broadband access to citizens in underserved communities.

CWA is a member of ADE, along with corporate, consumer, public policy and other organizations.

At the Capitol Hill briefing, House Majority Whip James Clyburn said the Alliance's work will lead to improvement in education, health care, economic and public safety sectors as it reinforces the need for full community access to high speed broadband. "Those consumers at the lower end of the pay scale should not be forced out of the digital revolution because of limited access to affordable high-speed broadband in their communities," he said.

CWA senior director George Kohl outlined CWA's two-year effort to raise the alarm that the United States was falling far behind the nations of the world in terms of citizen access to high speed Internet and the promise that technology offers.

CWA's "Speed Matters" campaign has pressed for the buildout of true high speed broadband networks in the U.S. as the necessary economic engine of the 21st century. In rural areas, in urban communities that are underserved and everywhere in between, the goal is to ensure that all Americans have access to the opportunity of the Internet Age.

Kohl said CWA, with members in every state and community across the nation, was committed to working with the ADE's Digital Empowerment Councils to ensure that "every child, every family, every community in America has the tolls they need to participate fully in the Information Age." 

The economic stimulus plan passed by Congress provides an opportunity for real progress by including $7.2 billion for broadband programs.

The briefing was hosted by Clyburn for members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

New @ The Source: AT&T mobilization, photos, & cartoons

New AT&T bargaining mobilization information for CWAers at AT&T core and Mobility has been added to the Campaign section on The Source, CWA's website for CWA communicators. Click here for links to mobilization activities and information.

Also added to The Source this week are new cartoons http://cwa.smugmug.com/gallery/7453145_bD4V3 on Employee Free Choice and new Employee Free Choice rally photos at http://cwa.smugmug.com/gallery/3572216.

The Source is updated every week with the latest edition of CWA's leadership newsletter www.cwa-union.org/source/news/news/ and much more. Navigate to The Source by clicking on the "Tools for Communicators" link on CWA's main website or by clicking here.

February 19, 2009

• Stimulus Extends Trade Assistance Benefits to Service Workers
• CWAers Expand Support for AT&T Mobility Workers
• VZ Connected Solutions Techs Awarded $2 Million
• CWA: Economic Stimulus is All About Jobs
• New E-Newsletter Keeps CWA Members Up to Date on Congress
• Easterling Elected President of Alliance for Retired Americans

Stimulus Extends Trade Assistance Benefits to Service Workers

In a big victory for service workers, the Obama administration's stimulus plan corrected a long-standing injustice by extending federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) to customer service professionals and high-tech and public sector workers who have lost their jobs due to offshoring, imports, and other trade practices.

CWA customer service professionals have been a big part of the fight to gain equal treatment under the trade adjustment assistance program. At CWA customer service conferences, participants organized lobbying campaigns and other efforts to push Congress to give service workers the same benefits that manufacturing workers already had. TAA provides job training, extended jobless benefits and help in keeping health care coverage.  

TAA coverage also was extended to cover public workers in service occupations who increasingly are losing their jobs to offshoring as some states and municipalities send customer service jobs overseas.

CWA represents more than 200,000 customer service, high tech, and public service workers.

A new Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance has been established to help workers get the benefits they need. More information is available at http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/.

Tech workers continue to be hit hard by offshoring. Recently IBM Corp. told U.S. and Canadian workers slated to be laid off that they could work "for local terms and conditions" in countries like China, Mexico, Romania, South Africa and Brazil. "Not only is IBM offshoring work, it wants employees to offshore themselves," said Lee Conrad, Alliance@IBM. Since the beginning of the year, IBM has laid off more than 5,000 workers.

CWAers Expand Support for AT&T Mobility Workers

CWAers in Richmond, Va.(above), and children of members in Columbus, Ohio, turned out to support fair treatment for  AT&T Mobility workers.

Mobilization activities are building nationwide as members throughout CWA show their solidarity and support for the 20,000 "Orange" Mobility CWA members who want a quality contract.   

Over the past week, thousands of CWAers leafleted at more than 100 AT&T Mobility retail stores, and AT&T Mobility members wore red to work and demonstrated at cell centers. CWAers signed on to a "Stop Breakin' Our Hearts" petition, calling on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson to recognize workers' role in the company's success. The petition, developed by District 4's AT&T Mobility mobilization committee, has thousands of signatures to date.

More than 25 retails stores were visited in Pennsylvania, and more petitions were handed out. Store visits and demonstrations also took place in Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9.

At the AT&T Mobility call center in Atwater, Calif., hundreds of customer service representatives, members of Local 9333, held "stand-ups" every hour at their work stations.

In District 1, more than a dozen CWA locals have adopted AT&T Mobility stores in New England states. Every week, a steward, officer or executive board member visits workers at the stores to show solidarity.

More actions are planned for AT&T Mobility and AT&T workplaces on Feb. 24, the first day of negotiations for new contracts covering 150,000 workers at the "core" AT&T.

Go to www.cwa-union.org/att/mobility for more information.

VZ Connected Solutions Techs Awarded $2 Million

Last week, nearly 250 CWA technicians at Verizon Connected Solutions Inc., shared a back pay award of more than $2 million, the result of an arbitration decision that found that VCSI failed to pay workers for performing work of higher-paid senior techs, said CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins.

The workers, members of CWA Locals 2100, 2106, 2108, 2202, 2204, 2205, 2222, and 2336, maintain, install and repair telephony, voice and FiOS for VCSI in Maryland and Northern Virginia. "This arbitration award is a great victory for the workers and our union," said Collins. "It shows the value that a union contract has when a company tries to get around its legal obligation to employees."

The arbitration ended a more than two year fight by CWA to get the Verizon subsidiary to pay the Multimedia Services Technicians the pay they deserved for performing the work of senior technicians, including the downloading and installation of firmware and software. District 2 Administrative Director Gail Evans helped negotiate the implementation settlement for the arbitration.

CWA: Economic Stimulus is All About Jobs

CWA leaders say that the stimulus program that President Obama signed this week is a good investment in America's economic recovery.  By expanding job opportunities for working Americans – especially in critical areas like broadband build out and other infrastructure investment – this plan will get the economy moving again, said CWA President Larry Cohen.   

The economic recovery plan includes:

• More than $7 billion in federal grants to expand broadband Internet access in rural and underserved areas, as well as $350 million in funding for broadband data mapping.
• Nearly $54 billion for states for fiscal stabilization, plus funding for state and local governments for transportation, infrastructure, education, health care and other critical needs.  
• $50 billion for energy programs, much of it focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy, including $2 billion for advanced battery manufacturing.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs.

 "We commend President Obama and Congress for moving quickly to put Americans back to work, but also for their long term vision for America's economic future," Cohen said. "These investments, specifically for broadband build out and those that help build a green economy, will ensure that more Americans can take advantage of the promise of the Information Age and enable us to build a sustainable economy that leaves our nation cleaner for future generations."

New E-Newsletter Keeps CWA Members Up to Date on Congress

CWA's Legislative Department has launched an electronic newsletter to help CWA members stay up to date with a busy schedule of bills and administrative actions that are critical to working families.

From the Employee Free Choice Act to health care reform and 21st-century jobs, Legislative Spotlight "is a new, bi-weekly report that will bring members the latest news from our lobbying team and CWA activists around the country," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said.

To subscribe, go to http://www.cwa-legislative.org/subscribe.html.

The first edition spotlights CWA's priorities in working with the new Administration and Congress, with the Employee Free Choice Act topping the list. Other key issues are health care reform, the appointment of National Mediation Board members who will protect airline workers' collective bargaining rights, reform of unfair trade laws and retirement security.

"All our hard work around the election wasn't the end, but just the beginning of our effort to restore the middle class and a government that focuses on working families," Hill said.

Easterling Elected President of Alliance for Retired Americans

Retired CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, carrying on work she started when she founded CWA's Retired Members' Council. The ARA is an organization allied with the AFL-CIO.

Easterling said her priorities as president include educating retirees and lawmakers on ways to strengthen Medicare, lower prescription drug costs and preserve Social Security for generations.

"Our economy is in crisis and our health care system is in dire need of reform – it is more important than ever that we educate and mobilize retirees on these issues," she said.

Easterling began her career as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio, and retired as CWA secretary-treasurer in 2008.

February 12, 2009

• House Votes Unanimously to Extend FMLA to Flight Attendants
• CWA E-Activists Urging Members of Congress to Support Stimulus Plan
• Mobility Workers Mobilize for Fair Contract
• CWA Local Leaders Prepare for AT&T Bargaining
• Court Upholds $675,000 Arbitration Award for 300 Cincy Bell Workers

House Votes Unanimously to Extend FMLA to Flight Attendants

AFA-CWA member Jennifer Hunt, a US Airways flight attendant, testifies  before a House subcommittee about the need to extend the Family and Medical Leave Act to flight crews.

Flight attendants are a big step closer to gaining the important benefits of the Family and Medical Leave Act under a bill passed this week by the U.S. House of Representatives by a unanimous voice vote.

AFA-CWA has long fought to amend the original 1993 FMLA, which failed to take into account "the unique way in which the airline industry counts its workers' hours," said Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), who sponsored the bill, H.R. 912, along with Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.).

"AFA-CWA has worked hard to ensure that no flight attendant is left behind when it comes to FMLA coverage," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "We are extremely pleased that this bill was a bipartisan and unanimous effort to correct and clarify current FMLA language that has repeatedly denied many flight attendants from qualifying for coverage for years."

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) will take up the fight for flight attendants in the Senate.

FMLA requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide job-protected unpaid leave to employees who have worked 60 percent of a full-time schedule over the course of a year. However, the courts and federal agencies have narrowly defined the "full-time schedule" as a traditional 40-hour work week. That definition excluded flight attendants since their schedules do not follow a 40-hour week model.

CWA E-Activists Urging Members of Congress to Support Stimulus Plan

CWA e-activists are contacting their Senators and Representatives, urging them to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act now.

Our country has lost more than 1.5 million jobs in the last three months alone. We must act now and start to turn this economy around. The bill includes provisions for building out true high speed broadband and investment in green jobs, both of which are critical to our country's economic future, as well as funds to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.

President Obama and leaders in Congress have worked to develop a comprehensive plan that will move our country to economic recovery. But we have to do it now.

Please click here to contact your senators and representatives. Tell them to pass the economic recovery bill now.

Mobility Workers Mobilize for Fair Contract

The 20,000 CWA-represented workers at AT&T Mobility "Orange" are in "mobilization mode," determined to get a fair and just contract. CWA members are not on strike and are working under the terms of the expired contract.

Mobility workers and supporters throughout CWA are emailing AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, telling him to "get a heart" and negotiate a fair contract at Mobility. Other events planned for this weekend include leafleting outside Mobility stores and letting customers know that Mobility employees appreciate their support.

Bargaining went past the Feb. 7 contract deadline but AT&T Mobility refused CWA's request for a 30-day contract extension that would have allowed CWA and Mobility bargainers to work through the remaining bargaining issues. For more on bargaining issues and mobe activities, go to www.cwa-union.org/att/mobility.

The terms of the expired contract remain in effect, meaning that wages, working conditions and benefits like health care remain unchanged.

CWA has made it clear to Mobility that it is prepared to bargain at any time to resolve the issues in these negotiations. Unfortunately, AT&T Mobility has shown no willingness to do so and no sessions are scheduled at this time.

"AT&T Mobility employees are a big part of the company's success. They are looking for an equitable agreement that recognizes their part in making AT&T Mobility an industry leader," said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. AT&T, even in these challenging economic times, is a profitable company and should be a leader in maintaining quality jobs.

CWA members at AT&T Mobility voted by an 85 percent yes vote to authorize a strike if a fair and equitable contract isn't reached. CWA represents 20,000 Mobility workers covered by the "Orange" contract in Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 9 and 13.

CWA Local Leaders Prepare for AT&T Bargaining

Local leaders representing the six major bargaining units at AT&T met in St. Louis in preparation for bargaining that gets underway Feb. 24.  Discussions focused on evolving technology in the industry and how that affects jobs, training and education for workers. The 50 participants also joined in a presentation and discussion on health care. 

Information was also shared on a plan to coordinate efforts for bargaining among the six tables. This was the first joint meeting of the major units.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill discussed current bargaining and mobilization at AT&T Mobility, and stressed the importance of unity in bargaining both at Mobility and the core company.

CWA bargaining teams will be negotiating new contracts covering 125,000 at six tables: AT&T East, AT&T Southeast, AT&T Midwest, AT&T Southwest, AT&T West and the national AT&T Legacy group.

Court Upholds $675,000 Arbitration Award for 300 Cincy Bell Workers

CWA won a big victory in federal District Court, as the court upheld a $675,000 arbitration decision covering Cincinnati Bell workers that management had refused to accept.

The District Court upheld the force adjustment protections included in CWA contracts with the company.

"This is yet another example of how well our members are being protected from arbitrary management decisions by their CWA contracts," said District Four Vice President Seth Rosen. "The process may have taken a while, but the union prevailed," he said.

In January 2007, the company sharply curtailed working hours for more than 300 workers after failing to reach agreement with Locals 4400 and 4401. Management arbitrarily selected which workers would have their hours cut back, and reduced working hours for the group from 40 to 35 hours a week for three months. The reduction meant a 13 percent pay cut for clerical workers, customer service representatives and technicians.

The company ignored the contract's options for reducing the negative impact of force adjustments.

CWA immediately challenged the company's action, but it was November 2007 before the union's complaint was upheld by an independent arbitrator. The arbitrator said the company's actions violated the contract and ordered Cincinnati Bell to pay the workers more than $675,000 in back wages.

Arbitrators awards are supposed to be "final and binding" according to the union contract," but in January 2008 the company challenged that decision in federal District Court.

A year later, the court denied the company's motion and affirmed the arbitrator's decision. The full monetary award could come close to $1 million when interest for the eight months between the company's violation and the arbitrator's decision is taken into account.

February 5, 2009

• Vote NOW: Does 'Buy American' Belong in the Economic Recovery Plan?
• More than 4,000 Rally Outside U.S. Capitol for Employee Free Choice
• Obama Creates Task Force to Rebuild Middle-Class Working Families
• Keep Good Green Jobs in the United States
• AT&T Mobility Members Mobilize As Contract Talks Continue
• Global Union Leaders Push Employee Free Choice as Boost to World Economy

Vote NOW: Does 'Buy American' Belong in the Economic Recovery Plan?

The House version of the economic recovery plan contains a "Buy American" provision that would require government-financed stimulus projects to use U.S. steel and iron. The Senate version is now being debated.

Sounds sensible, doesn't it? Not to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He thinks "Buy American" is "a bad idea."

What do you think? Click here to take this online poll and we'll report the results next week.

A lot of misinformation about "Buy American" has been going around, spread by groups like the Business Roundtable and others who are very interested in overseas production and trade but not so interested in restoring quality U.S. jobs.

When U.S. banks got a handout – with absolutely no strings attached, as was orchestrated by the Bush administration – very few complaints were raised.

But when some lawmakers want to step up to support U.S. jobs and help turn around a devastated manufacturing sector that has lost 4 million jobs since 2000 – that's one-fourth of all manufacturing jobs -- certain business interests and their political supporters say "no way."

What do you think?

More than 4,000 Rally Outside U.S. Capitol for Employee Free Choice

Thousands of workers from across the country – some of them fired from their jobs after standing up for their right to form a union --  rallied on Capitol Hill Wednesday and began the process of delivering 1.5 million cards to Congress from supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Facing a row of TV cameras, five workers, three lawmakers and other speakers drew a clear link between economic recovery in the United States and restoring the rights of workers to bargain contracts and form unions.

"Time and again, you've seen your hard work, your creativity, your ingenuity, your productivity taken from you and given to shareholders, to the elites, to CEOs," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), one of the bill's original sponsors and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "Decisions about the workplace belong to the worker. That's the promise of America. It's foolish to think we will rebuild this country without the participation of the American worker."

The bill is expected to be introduced soon in the U.S. House, where it has overwhelming majority support. The Employee Free Choice Act has majority support in the Senate, and for the first time, the strong endorsement of the President of the United States.

More than 110,000 CWAers signed and collected cards as part of the "Million Member Mobilization," along with photos of thousands of CWA supporters, plus thousands more from other unions. The photos will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol, reminding lawmakers of the real workers who support the measure, as compared to the empty front groups organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce who are fighting against worker rights.  

TNG-CWA member Sara Steffens tells a crowd of 4,000 at the U.S. Capitol that Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Below, boxes of cards signed by Employee Free Choice Act supporters to be delivered to members of Congress.

CWA President Larry Cohen introduced Sara Steffens, one of four workers who spoke about being fired because they wanted union representation. Cohen stressed that Steffens and her colleagues at nine Media News newspapers had played by the rules of a "so-called secret ballot election and won," and then were fired.

Steffens, an award-winning reporter, worked to organize her co-workers at the Contra Costa Times (California) and eight other newspapers in the state.

In the face of a bitter anti-union campaign, fueled by management threats and intimidation, workers voted for TNG-CWA representation in June 2008. Three weeks later, Steffens and other union activists were among 29 workers laid off.

Steffen's firing is under appeal to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, she is helping her unit bargain a first contract.

"We need the Employee Free Choice Act so we can feel empowered to step up and help solve problems in our workplace, and not be scared that if we stick our necks out that we're going to be the next ones laid off," Steffens said.

The other fired workers on stage included a California substance abuse counselor, a New Jersey school bus driver and a forklift operator at an Ohio bakery that makes goods for Nabisco.

"The laws are set up for the corporation to win," said Bill Lawhorn, the bakery employee. "I was fired seven years ago and because the company stalled their way through court, I still don't have my back pay or a union. Even when corporations lose, they win."

A key provision of the Employee Free Choice Act is financially penalizing employers who break the law. Currently there are no penalties; companies are subject only to settlements for back pay – which some workers, like Lawhorn, never see.

Also speaking to the crowd of more than 4,000 were members of Congress and the president of the Sierra Club, who said her organization will "work tirelessly" to pass the bill. "We know that companies that treat their workers right are much more likely to treat our environment right," Allison Chin said.

Obama Creates Task Force to Rebuild Middle-Class Working Families

The labor movement was officially welcomed back to the White House to witness the establishment of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, intended to help raise the living standards of the middle class, and President Obama's issuing of executive orders rolling back anti-labor policies of the Bush administration.

President Obama welcomed CWA President Cohen and other labor leaders to the White House.

With CWA President Larry Cohen and other labor leaders attending the signing ceremony, President Obama said the task force would produce an action plan to help working Americans achieve a secure future.  "We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests because we know that you cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement," he said.

Vice President Biden will head the task force, which will work to:

• Protect the incomes of middle-class working families
• Protect retirement security
• Restore labor standards
• Expand education and lifelong training opportunities
• Improve work and family balance

The task force will post materials at www.astrongmiddleclass.gov and workers are invited to share their ideas and experiences on the website.

President Obama also used the occasion to emphasize the vital role that workers and their unions have in the nation. "I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem, to me it's part of the solution," he said.

President Obama issued three executive orders restoring the rights of workers who are employed by federal contractors. One executive order revokes the Bush administration order that required federal contractors to post notices informing employees that they were not required to join a union. However, employees during the Bush years were never informed that they had the right to join a union. Another executive order signed by President Obama prohibits contractors from using taxpayer money to try to influence employees' choice about union representation. The third requires successor contractors to offer jobs to qualified employees who worked for the previous company.

Keep Good Green Jobs in the United States

At the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference, CWA President Cohen said millions of new, "green" jobs can be created, but our economy and American workers will only benefit if quality jobs are maintained here in the United States.

Millions of new, "green" jobs can be created, but our economy and American workers will only benefit if quality jobs are maintained here in the United States, CWA President Larry Cohen said at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs national conference of the Blue Green Alliance.

"When it comes to workers, we can't be just another commodity thrown in a landfill. We want good jobs, we want green jobs, we want union jobs and we're going to take a stand," he said.

Speaking to a diverse group of participants – from labor, business, environmental groups and government, Cohen urged Congress to support President Obama's plan for investment in science, research and technology to reverse the massive job losses caused by the current economic downturn and tackle the serious threat of irreversible climate change.

"We're facing the most serious economic and environmental challenges in a generation," said Cohen. "We need real leadership that answers President Obama's call for investment in needed science, research and technology so we can grow a cleaner green economy and put millions back to work."

A federal investment in green jobs could create two million jobs, and enable the nation's weakened and neglected manufacturing base to be rebuilt and utilize the very skills that scores of middle-class Americans already have – from engineers to carpenters, electricians to steelworkers and farmers to truck drivers.

CWA supports the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan now working its way through Congress and the measure's proposed investments in a green economy.

Such an investment could mean thousands of green, union jobs, Cohen said. IUE-CWA members now working at Cobasys, an American manufacturer of hybrid car batteries in Springboro, Ohio, show how companies can take the high road by keeping jobs and American innovation in the United States. The company is employing nearly 200 IUE-CWA workers building batteries for America's next generation of hybrid vehicles. 

All too often, however, jobs associated with new innovations are shipped overseas, as in the case of General Electric, which chose to take the low-road by moving production of its long-lasting, energy-saving florescent bulb, the CFL, to China. IUE-CWA workers who helped developed the new technology lost their jobs at their Youngstown, Ohio, plant, when GE decided not to upgrade its U.S. plants to produce the bulbs.

These examples spotlight the need for Employee Free Choice, Cohen said. "If we extinguish workers' rights, the chances for a green economy are nonexistent. We're people who believe in a sustainable economy. We can't just depend on markets, and if we do, we're likely to come up with answers that are at best incomplete," he said.

AT&T Mobility Members Mobilize As Contract Talks Continue

CWA's bargaining team continued to work through tough issues with AT&T Mobility management this week, and union members stepped up mobilization as the Feb. 7 contract expiration neared.

Mobility members now are taking a strike authorization vote; results will be announced late Friday. Meanwhile, members throughout Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, and 13 are mobilizing, distributing picket signs, wearing red on Thursdays and showing their support for the CWA bargaining team. At the Communications and Technologies-Telecommunications conference, more than 200 CWAers unanimously pledged their support "to do whatever is necessary" to help Mobility members achieve the contract they deserve.   

Issues for Mobility members – listed as most important in membership surveys -- are wages, benefit plans, work schedules, time off and job security top the list.

For bargaining updates and information click here.

Global Union Leaders Push Employee Free Choice as Boost to World Economy

Global union leaders are calling for a new "global social deal" that gives unions a seat at the table and puts in place a real social safety net for workers in this time of worldwide economic and employment challenge.

A critical step is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, said Philip Jennings, general secretary of Union Network International. "I am urging business and government leaders to support the Free Choice Act for American workers and to lobby their U.S. colleagues to support it as well. "This is not only the right thing to do from a human rights and fairness perspective, but also from a business perspective."       

Jennings spoke about the global employment challenge at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He noted that the International Labor Organization recently reported that 50 million jobs worldwide could be lost this year.

Financial recovery plans have focused on bailouts to banks with little consideration for the millions of workers losing their jobs, their homes and their and their economic security, he said.

January 29, 2009

• Next Months Critical for Employee Free Choice 
• Southern California Locals Condemn Verizon's Use of Contractors
• Senate GOP Puts Hold on Solis Over Support for Employee Free Choice
• Execs Use Taxpayer Bailout to Fight Employee Free Choice
• CWA Leads Fight in Florida to Preserve Telephone Service Quality & Jobs 

Next Months Critical for Employee Free Choice

CWA is making a big difference in the fight to win Employee Free Choice. "We're just inches away from making this happen," CWA President Larry Cohen said.

As corporations announced another 90,000 job cuts, devastating tens of thousands of working families, only the Employee Free Choice Act can restore the bargaining rights and worker purchasing power that are essential to economic recovery.

In a conference call with CWA field staff, held with CWA's Executive Board, Cohen reviewed the campaign and talked strategy.

"We have a strong bipartisan majority in the House. In the Senate, we have majority support for passage of the bill but we need 60 votes to end debate and move to a vote on the bill. The Senate is our battleground and our focus must be on those senators from key states who need to hear from us everyday," he said.

That means letters, telephone calls and e-mails to Senators' offices, setting up meetings with members of Congress and their staffs, having members and locals write letters to the editors and op-eds to local newspapers to counter the Chamber of Commerce and other opponents, and building more support among our allies – small businesses that have signed on with us, the Sierra Club, the NAACP and others, he said.

Bill Evitt, District 2; Linda Hinton, D4, and Kevin Mulligan, D7, outlined action already  underway in the districts to ensure that every possible member of Congress is on board and sponsoring or supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

In Virginia, for example, every local in the state is participating in a letter writing and telephone campaign to Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner, to make sure "both go in the right direction," Evitt said. Local members and leaders also have had some good success in getting letters to the editor published in several newspapers; that campaign will continue. 

In District 7, CWA, working with the State AFL-CIO, already has reached out to the state's new Senators, Democrats Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, as well as three new House members, on Employee Free Choice, Mulligan said. "This campaign is not just about lobbying and media, but is very focused on member education and mobilization," he said.

Activists have identified the 10 largest worksites in Colorado – where more than 80 percent of members work – and have education plans underway so that everyone knows why Employee Free Choice is important and what to do to help get it passed, Mulligan said. CWA and other unions will be bringing cell phones and lap top computers to worksites and union meetings so members can call, email and write their representatives.

In District 4, CWAers are focusing on key senators, including Ohio Republican George Voinovich and Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, as well as on some House members who have yet to sign on as cosponsors, Hinton said. Throughout the district, "we're getting folks educated, working with them to call their members of Congress."

In North Carolina, newly elected Senator Kay Hagan has been hearing from members of Locals 3601 and 3505, and a group of local presidents will meet with Hagan during the February recess. Hagan won election because of the hard work of union members and supporters throughout North Carolina.

In every district, CWA and other unions are arranging congressional meetings with members over the President's Day recess in mid-February and are building a program of member education and mobilization.

For more information, go to http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwaresources.

For the Employee Free Choice you have the choice of a powerpoint or PDF version.   
http://files.cwa-union.org/efca/20090126_EFCA_Powerpoint_Public.ppt (PowerPoint version) or http://files.cwa-union.org/efca/20090126_EFCA_Powerpoint_Public.pdf (PDF version)

Southern California Locals Condemn Verizon's Use of Contractors

On January 10, 2009, Verizon started the New Year on the wrong note with its most experienced and loyal employees in the Long Beach, California area when it decided to use contractors to avoid having to pay CWA members premium pay rates.

"Prior to the action, we notified the company that we had a long list of workers who were volunteering to work in the safe and professional manner our customers deserve," said Gregg W. Gibson, President of CWA Local 9586. Instead, he said the company chose to avoid using its most qualified workers "just to save a couple bucks," clearly showing its  disregard for workers, our union and customers, he said.

CWAers from southern California locals protest Verizon's decision to hire contractors for premium pay workdays, threatening service quality to customers and robbing members' paychecks.

Dozens of CWA members from Locals 9586, 9588, 9575, 9510, 9400, joined by members of the Southern California Council demonstrated their displeasure with the company on Jan 16th.

"This is just the beginning if Verizon doesn't change its decision and refuses to provide the best possible service to customers," Gibson said.

Senate GOP Puts Hold on Solis Over Support for Employee Free Choice

Senate Republicans are vowing to hold up the vote on Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis because she supports the Employee Free Choice Act.

"If there was ever a time the nation needed a strong secretary of labor, this is it," the New York Times said in an editorial. "And yet, for the past several days, at least one Republican senator has been using a parliamentary procedure to hold up the confirmation of Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), President Obama's choice for labor secretary."

The editorial said that Employee Free Choice and a labor secretary who backs it "would be a good thing, because strong labor unions help to push wages up by bargaining for more of the pie to go for workers' wages, rather than for bonuses and profits for executives and shareholders.

"The delay in confirming Ms. Solis isn't because the Senate needs to know more," it concluded. "It's a way for Republican senators to score tough-guy points with business constituents who are driven to distraction by the thought of unions."

Solis, the daughter of a Teamsters shop steward, has been a champion of workers for more than 15 years, starting in the California legislature and continuing in Congress, where she strongly supported the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007.

Solis is a longtime advocate of workers' rights, supporting the fight of CWA translators and interpreters for fair treatment and workers at the Chinese Daily News who wanted union representation. She co-authored the Green Jobs Act that became part of the 2007 energy bill. The bill authorized $125 million for workforce training programs targeted to veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth and the poor.

Solis backers have created two Facebook groups in support of her nomination: They are "Americans for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor" and "1,000,000 Strong for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor." Sign-up for both groups is available to any Facebook member.

Execs Use Taxpayer Bailout to Fight Employee Free Choice

Just days after getting a $25 billion taxpayer bailout, Bank of America hosted a conference call to round up business opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Among those on the call was another recipient of a taxpayer bailout, AIG, which got more than $40 billion from working families and other taxpayers.

But the loudest voice belonged to Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, who launched into a rant calling Employee Free Choice "the demise of a civilization."

"This bill may be one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life," he said, explaining that he could have been on "a 350-foot boat out in the Mediterranean," but felt it was more important to engage in this fight. Marcus said corporations should be donating millions of dollars to prevent America from turning "into France."

 "As a shareholder, if I knew the CEO of the company wasn't doing anything on [EFCA]... I would sue the son of a bitch... I'm so angry at some of these CEOs. I can't even believe the stupidity that is involved here," he carried on.

Read the story and hear some of the audio at the Huffington Post, which reported the story in late January. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/bank-of-america-hosted-an_n_161248.html

Of course, the Employee Free Choice Act will help restore an economy that every economist, analyst and government official admits is in free fall. Employee Free Choice is all about restoring workers' bargaining power and expanding the middle class, so that workers can bargain for good wages that will in turn increase purchasing power and create more jobs.

Even Bank of America grudgingly admitted that there's something to that idea. In a research document about the call, Bank of America officials noted that Employee Free Choice "increases the likelihood that retailers would be unionized, which could drive higher labor costs at retail, but would increase the spending power of lower income consumers as this would be a de facto wage and benefit increase."

CWA Leads Fight in Florida to Preserve Telephone Service Quality & Jobs

With the support of a coalition of retiree and consumer advocacy groups, CWA beat back an effort by seven telephone providers, including AT&T, Verizon and Embarq, to persuade the Florida Public Service Commission to allow the companies to lower quality standards and service to six million customers in the state.

The companies wanted to deregulate service by changing the definition of "basic" telephone service and by lengthening the amount of time customers must wait before the company responds to service and installation calls.

Following CWA's intervention, the commission reversed an earlier recommendation that would have allowed companies to double response time for repairs, installation and service calls.

During the hearings, Gail Marie Perry, Chair of the CWA Council of Florida, heard a Verizon representative state the company would be able to "get rid of eight people" if the service installation interval was lengthened.

Supporting CWA was the Public Service Commission Public Council, which represents consumers' interest, the Florida's Attorney General's office, the AARP, and the Florida Consumer Action Network.

January 22, 2009

• CWA Ready to Go on 2009 Legislative Agenda
• CWAers Play Big Part in Inaugural Parade
• AFA-CWA Flight Attendants Among Heroes of US Airway's 'Miracle on the Hudson'
• California Local Pushes AT&T on Safety as Street Crime Threatens Technicians
• AT&T Mobility Workers Mobilize for Start of Bargaining

CWA Ready to Go on 2009 Legislative Agenda

CWAers Play Big Part in Inaugural Parade

More than 260 members of CWA and other unions marched in the presidential inaugural parade alongside labor's float.

As part of the celebration of the inauguration of President Barack Obama, nearly 300 members of CWA and other unions played an official role in the presidential inaugural parade. It was the first time in inaugural history that an all-union float and contingent of marchers was part of the parade, with union members carrying a banner proudly proclaiming, "America's Workers: United for Change."

Two dozen CWA and AFA-CWA members were part of the  "American Workers Contingent," one of 100 groups, and 13,000 marchers overall, who paraded from the U.S. Capitol to the White House. The float and flags carried by union members spoke to the issues most important to working Americans and their families: an "Economy That Works for All," "Health Care for All," "Good Jobs, Green Jobs," and "Great Public Schools."  

"Despite the cold and the crush of the crowd, the camaraderie was remarkable and everyone was on such a high," said CWA Local 2106 President Paula Vinciguerra. "It was something we will likely never experience again," she said. Vinciguerra was CWA's representative on labor's float along with members of 15 other unions.

Latasha Carpenter, a member of CWA Local 2108, said she was proud to be part of event that represented such a turnabout in how workers and unions would be honored by the President of the United States. Said Carpenter, "I am thrilled to be here today. The country is coming together in a way I've never seen in my life. I'm proud that we have a president who is embracing us all today as union brothers and sisters. It is so important we stand united and strong to ensure health care, good jobs, and the Employee Free Choice Act."

Fred Mason, president of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, who spearheaded the drive to include the workers' contingent in the parade, said nearly 1,500 groups applied to participate in the parade and only 100 were selected. "The fact that union members were in the parade is a testament to the importance of working people and their issues to the well-being of the country," Mason said.

AFA-CWA Flight Attendants Among Heroes
of US Airways's 'Miracle on the Hudson'

California Local Pushes AT&T on Safety as Street Crime Threatens Technicians

AT&T Mobility Workers Mobilize for Start of Bargaining

January 15, 2008

• CWA Members at Center of Inaugural Events
• Allies Spotlight Support for Employee Free Choice
• CWA Members Featured in New Television Ad Campaign
• More AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA Through Majority Sign Up
• CWA Media Sectors Discuss Industry's Economic Crisis, Job Strategies
• Lynx Aviation Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA
• On The Source: Download Articles for Your Local Newsletter

CWA Members at Center of Inaugural Events

CWA and the entire union movement are playing a big part in Presidential inaugural events in Washington, D.C., from answering President-elect Obama's call for the National Day of Service to spotlighting the Employee Free Choice Act around the city.   

Millions of Americans attending Barack Obama's inauguration next week will see numerous Employee Free Choice banners such as this one, high atop CWA's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Millions of people attending the inauguration will see giant banners calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act hanging on buildings, including CWA headquarters and other union buildings in the heart of inaugural activities. 

For the first time in inaugural parade history, an all-union float will carry union members as part of the American Workers Contingent. Some 23 CWAers will participate as part of the union group marching in the parade.  

CWA also has answered President-elect Barack Obama's call for community service on Jan. 19, the National Day of Service that honors Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. CWA locals, districts and headquarters employees are taking part in a nation-wide union food drive, with locals establishing collection sites at union meeting and worksites and delivering the goods collected to local food banks and pantries.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said the growing economic crisis has hit working families especially hard and food bank inventories nationwide are dangerously low. "We must step in to help in every way we can."

Some locals are joining with other groups in their communities to focus even more attention on the cause. Local 4025 in Upper Peninsula, Mich., is teaming up with a radio station to promote its food drive, others are hosting special events to attract donors and volunteers. 

Many locals also are accepting monetary donations for food banks in lieu of canned goods. Steve Abbott, CWA Local 7108, pointed out that "every dollar donated can be turned into almost $13 worth of food."

CWA also has agreed to work with AT&T in 30 cities to collect food. Drives will begin Jan. 12-19 in six cities with the greatest need: Sacramento, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Conn., and Dallas, and will continue Jan. 19 through Jan. 27 in the remaining cities.

Locals that want to participate in the food collection project can use the web form to send in your information.

To date, these CWAers are participating in the National Day of Service food drive:

CWA Headquarters

District 1: Locals 1031;1037; 1040; 1062; 1067; 1087; 1104; 1108; 1114; 1150; 1153; 1168; 1298.

District 2: Locals 2201; 2204; 2275; NABET-CWA Local 52031.

District 3: Locals 3108; 3180; 3204; 3212; 3250; 3403; 3511; 3517; 3907.

District 4: Locals 4025; 4100; 4217; 4250; 4310; 4319; 4401; 4621; 4622; 4998; AFA-CWA Local 24046 and District 4 staff.

District 6: Locals 6137; 6151; 6200; 6202; 6300; 6377; 6402; 6508. 

District 7: Locals 7055; 7108; 7175; 7750; 7777; 7800; 7803.

District 9: Locals 9000; 9415; 9417; 9421; 9505; 9509; 9575.

District 13: Locals 13500; 13550.  

Allies Spotlight Support for Employee Free Choice

A panel of leaders representing a range of diverse groups told the media Tuesday that America needs the Employee Free Choice Act.

Wade Henderson, director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, tells reporters at the National Press Club this week that his organization and many other human rights, religious and consumer groups support the Employee Free Choice Act.

"There is a fundamental imbalance in the power relationship between those who seek to organize and those who seek to thwart it," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, outlining the broad coalition of human rights, religious and environmental groups joining with unions to back the workers' rights bill.

Labor's allies understand what it means to be the underdog, he said, "and so we understand the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act. And we know that only in coalition do you have the power to advance a bill that is being distorted in the press."

The Employee Free Choice Act is backed by a huge bipartisan majority in the House, a majority of U.S. senators and President-elect Barack Obama. A new poll by Hart Research shows that 78 percent of Americans favor legislation that will make it easier for workers to organize and bargain contracts. Only 17 percent of respondents were opposed.

For more on employee free choice, go to www.freechoiceact.org

"The American people get it," said American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell. "They know the current system is not working and it's time to restore some balance."

"The state of America's workers is abysmal," said ARAW Chair and former Congressman David Bonior. "While the middle class is shrinking, we've watched as over the last 20 years the top 10 percent took 90 percent of the income gains in this country. In fact, the top 1 percent took roughly 60 percent of these income gains," he said.

To bridge this gap in income equality, "we must give people a chance to bargain collectively with their employers. Following the Second World War, we saw the three most profitable decades for working people, because 35 percent of America's workers belonged to a labor union," he added.

Economist Dean Baker said the Employee Free Choice Act is a key part of rebuilding the nation's devastated economy. "We are in the worst downturn since the Great Depression," he said. "And that can be traced to the failure of workers' wages to keep pace with productivity gains over the last three decades."

Tuesday's press conference included a worker from a Price Right supermarket in Rhode Island, who joined the news conference after his night shift stocking shelves. Joe Sorrentino and coworkers have been trying to organize a union in spite of the company's threats to shut down the store if they are successful.

If we don't push this through, "we're just going to see another generation of low-paying jobs, borderline poverty, and I feel there won't be a middle class in America anymore," he said.

CWA Members Featured in New Television Ad Campaign

American Rights at Work is co ordinating a major media campaign on the Employee Free Choice Act that includes television ads that will be broadcast for two weeks beginning Jan. 15 on national cable and network stations. The ads use workers – including five CWA members – who make the connection between restoring America's middle class and workers' rights to choose union representation.

The ads "Hope and Change" and "We Don't Ask" feature CWAers from several locals, in addition to other workers, who talk about why the Employee Free Choice Act must be passed now.

More AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA Through Majority Sign Up

Proving once again that workers will join a union if they have a free choice – and don't have to face the management intimidation that takes place in the overwhelming majority of NLRB campaigns – nearly 180 workers at AT&T Mobility joined CWA last week through majority sign up.

The workers – 27 network technicians in Arizona and New Mexico and 150 workers at the former Dobson Communications call center in Duluth, Minn. – won union representation after the American Arbitration Association certified majority support for CWA, said  District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell.

District 7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler credits the workers' strong inside organizing teams and support from CWA organizers; CWA Local 7050 President David Blackburn also assisted the AT&T Mobility workers in Arizona and New Mexico. In Duluth, workers were assisted by CWA Local 7214 Executive Vice President Casey Cusick and President Terri Newman, and CWA District staff.

Overall, 40,000 CWA members work at the company and all joined CWA through majority sign up.

CWA Media Sectors Discuss Industry's Economic Crisis, Job Strategies

In the face of media layoffs and bankruptcies, 150 members of CWA's newspaper, printing and broadcast sectors met for three days in Baltimore last weekend to talk about strategies for saving not just jobs but the industry.

"Our goal is to build hope among the members at a very difficult time, said TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer. "I think we put together some very solid ideas that people can take back to their members so that there isn't a sense of despair but a real constructive agenda." The three sectors plan to work together on organizing and other projects.

CWA President Larry Cohen talked about the critical need for the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to turn around the economy and enable workers to bargain with employers.

Seminars at CWA's first-ever joint media conference tackled such issues as organizing and bargaining in the deepening recession, the training that media workers need to compete in the ever-changing industry and innovative ways that employees and employers in other industries are working together.

CWA Printing Sector President Bill Boarman said newspapers' declining advertising and circulation revenues have created a crisis, threatening the survival of even the nation's most successful papers. The forum "presented us with the opportunity to share our ideas and solutions on how best to cope with this mess," he said.

Currently two papers with TNG-CWA and Printing Sector contracts, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, are up for sale, with no likely buyers. Without new owners, the financially strapped newspapers are expected to be shut down by their parent companies.

Meanwhile, newspapers across the country are cutting staffs, trimming the size of their publications, publishing less frequently, forcing non-union staff to take unpaid leave and even – in the case of the Chicago Sun-Times – floating the idea of sending 25 to 30 copy-editing and layout jobs to India.

The broadcast industry also has been hit hard, with consolidated ownership, shared newsrooms and rapidly changing technology slashing broadcast jobs across the country.

"In broadcasting, we've seen our industry change almost beyond recognition in the last couple of decades," said NABET-CWA Vice President Jim, Joyce, who spoke on behalf of NABET-CWA President John Clark, who was unable to attend.

"We've seen it evolve from an industry that provided secure, long-term staff jobs to one dominated – especially at the networks – by casual, daily-hire employment," Joyce said. "That, coupled with the never-ending influx of new technologies, has destabilized the work place and undermined the security of the workforce we represent by combining work assignments and reducing the number of people needed to do the job."

Podcasts of some of the forum's presentations are available online at www.newsguild.org. Click on "Media Unions Chart New Course for Recovery" for the podcast links.

Lynx Aviation Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA

A majority of flight attendants at Lynx Aviation voted by a 2-1 margin this week for representation by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The election vote, conducted by the National Mediation Board (NMB), showed that 55 of the 87 eligible Lynx flight attendants voted for AFA-CWA despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by management.

This is the second organizing victory for flight attendants within the week. Just last week, 150 flight attendants at Ryan International won representation with AFA.

"Lynx flight attendants stood together and made their voices heard despite outdated NMB rules and management's anti-union tactics," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "We applaud their determination to shape the future of their careers."

Lynx has been operating for less than a year and hired many flight attendants from former carriers who understand the union difference. Management hired the union-busting firm of Ford and Harrison, and pulled out all the stops, up to and including an attempt to fire the lead organizer for her union activities.

Lynx Aviation is a regional carrier for Frontier Airlines and is often referred to as Frontier Express.

On The Source: Download Articles for Your Local Newsletter

Starting this week, we have added another resource for local union communicators on The Source, CWA's website for local union communicators.

What's new? It's the "Articles for Your Newsletter" section under the "Newsletter & Media Tools" area where editors can download individual articles for their newsletters on key issues affecting workers and CWA. These articles are formatted in Microsoft Word to make it easier for local union editors to download and use in their local newsletters and publications. Click here for articles to download. (Currently, editors can already access articles from the CWA News on CWA's main website or from the weekly CWA Newsletter on The Source website and snag the articles by copying and pasting the text into a separate file.

Upcoming in The Source's "Websites and Newsletter" section: a special "Extreme Makeover" and "Copy Desk" feature to help local editors improve their newsletters. Every week the Source is updated with the weekly CWA Newsletter, photos, and other useful resources, artwork, cartoons, and materials to improve communications with our members.

Help us get the word out to Local Union editors! Please e-mail their names and e-mail addresses to Janelle Hartman in the CWA Communications Department. Be sure to put "Local Union Editors" in the subject line of your e-mail message. The e-mail address is jhartman@cwa-union.org.

January 8, 2009

• Union Leaders Pursue Unity Strategy
• New CWA District 3 and 9 Vice Presidents Take Oath of Office
• CWA Joins Obama's Call for National Day of Service
• NLRB Rules Chinese Daily News Violated Labor Law; Workers Still Wait for Justice
• More Organizations Backing Employee Free Choice
• Ryan International Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA
• The Best "Source" for Keeping CWA Locals and Members Informed

Union Leaders Pursue Unity Strategy

Union presidents from a dozen major unions, plus leaders from the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, met Jan. 7 to discuss ways to create a united labor movement to effectively take on the challenges facing working Americans. The meeting was facilitated by David Bonior of American Rights at Work.

CWA President Larry Cohen said the meeting was "an important first step towards a unified labor movement at a critical time. We all realize that labor unity nationally strengthens us at the local and state level."

Participating were Larry Cohen, CWA; Leo Gerard, United Steel Workers; Ron Gettelfinger, Auto Workers; Joe Hansen, United Food and Commercial Workers; James Hoffa, Teamsters; Gerald McEntee, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Terry O'Sullivan, Laborers; Bruce Raynor, UNITE HERE; Andy Stern, Service Employees International Union; Dennis Van Roekel, National Education Association; Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers; and Ed Hill, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Also participating were AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Anna Burger, Chairperson of Change to Win.

Following the meeting, the group issued this statement:

"The goal of this meeting is to create a unified labor movement that can speak and act nationally on the critical issues facing working Americans. While we represent the largest labor unions, we recognize that unity requires broad participation. We also recognize our members are active and work through our institutions where they live and work. We will be reaching out to them."

New CWA District 3 and 9 Vice Presidents Take Oath of Office

New District 3 Vice President Beverly Hicks and District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp are sworn in by CWA President Cohen.

Following the retirements of District Vice Presidents Noah Savant, District 3, and Tony Bixler, District 9, Beverly Hicks and Jim Weitkamp were sworn in as CWA district vice presidents this week.

Beverly Hicks, appointed to CWA staff in 1996, has served as Assistant to the District 3 Vice President since 2005. She joined CWA Local 3808 in 1966, serving as both its vice president and president.

Jim Weitkamp, assistant to District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler since 2004, was named to CWA staff in 1988, serving as Southern California Director. He joined CWA Local 9505 after going to work for Pacific Bell in 1977 and served as first vice president and executive vice president.

CWA Joins Obama's Call for National Day of Service

Monday, Jan. 19, the national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is also a National Day of Service that marks Dr. King's commitment to building a nation that cares for and respects all people.

President-elect Barack Obama has called for the National Day of Service to be the start of "an ongoing commitment by Americans to their communities." Both Obama and Vice President-elect Biden will participate in events in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 19, the day before the Presidential Inauguration.

CWA is joining this effort and is encouraging all locals to participate. Our project will be to collect food for community food banks which are facing a critical shortage of food as the economy worsens and need grows.

This CWA action will begin Jan. 12. On January 19, locals will deliver the collected food to the food bank they selected. 

CWA also has agreed to work with AT&T in 30 cities to collect food. Drives will begin Jan. 12-19 in six cities with the greatest need: Sacramento, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Conn., and Dallas, and will continue Jan. 19 through Jan. 27 in the remaining cities.

The first 500 locals to sign up to participate will receive an inaugural commemorative gift from CWA. The locals participating will also be posted on the special website set up by the Obama team.

For a signup sheet, go to www.cwa-union.org, "What's Hot." Please email your information to ssplitt@cwa-union.org or fax to 202-434-1377.

NLRB Rules Chinese Daily News Violated Labor Law; Workers Still Wait for Justice

In a new victory for embattled workers who tried for years to form a union at the Chinese Daily News in Los Angeles, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that an attorney violated federal labor law by asking an employee in a deposition whether he'd voted in favor of the union.

The Board decision reversed an earlier administrative law judge's ruling. The Board also upheld rulings in favor of the union that found the newspaper guilty of unfair labor practices that barred workers from wearing union insignia and prohibited union activity in non-work areas. The Board ordered the newspaper to rescind the policies.

In 2000, more than eight years ago, the Chinese Daily News employees began working with The Newspaper Guild-CWA for a union voice at the newspaper. Workers won representation in a 2001 election, despite management's illegal and abusive campaign of fear, intimidation and firings of union activists. The newspaper refused to recognize the union and continued its attack on workers, ultimately overturning the election victory.

The latest board ruling stems from a class-action wage and hour lawsuit filed by 200 embattled employees, who were forced to work many hours of unpaid overtime. A jury and federal judge in March 2008 collectively awarded the workers $5.19 million, and the company was ordered to pay an additional $3.52 million in attorney fees. Workers have yet to receive any award, since the newspaper is appealing the verdict to the federal appeals court.

More Organizations Backing Employee Free Choice

The list of Employee Free Choice allies and supporters continues to grow, with more than 99 organizations now committed to working to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to help restore an economy that works for all of us.

Several key consumer groups, including Public Citizen, the National Consumers League, Consumer Action and others, called on members of the 111th Congress, who were sworn in this week, "to address the needs of hard working Americans on Main Street and not just the interests of Wall Street."

"The current crisis in our financial markets shows what happens when corporate greed is allowed to go unchecked – and consumers and workers unfortunately pay the price. The Employee Free Choice Act will help level the playing field for America's workers by giving them a fair and direct path to form unions," they wrote.     

Organizations listed below have expressed their strong support for the Employee Free Choice Act and their determination to help make it become the law of the land. (To view list click here.)

ACORN, Alliance for Justice, Alliance for Retired Americans, American Friends Service Committee, American Library Association – Allied Professional Association, American Public Health Association), American Rights at Work, Americans for Democratic Action, Americans United for Change, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Apollo Alliance, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Black Leadership Forum, Business Responds to AIDS/Labor Responds to AIDS, California Church Impact, Center for American Progress, Center for America's Future, Center for Community Change, Center for Corporate Policy, Change America Now, Church Women United, Clergy and Laity Network United for Justice, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Coalition of Contingent Academics Labor, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Coalition on Human Needs, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, Cornell University LGBT Center, Demos, Democratic National Committee, Democratic Socialists of America, Earth Action Network, Empire State Pride in New York State, Equality South Carolina, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Gamaliel Foundation – Transportation Equity Group, Grassroots Policy Project, Gray Panthers, Gray Panthers of Austin, Tex., Gray Panthers of California, Gray Panthers of Berkeley, Calif., Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights Watch, Interfaith Worker Justice, Japanese-American Citizens League, Jewish Labor Committee, Jobs with Justice, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, League of Rural Voters, League of United Latin American Citizens, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Michigan ACLU, NAACP, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Baptist Convention of America, National Center for Trangender Equality, National Consumers League, National Council of Women's Organizations, National Employment Law Project, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, National Immigration Law Center, National Latino Congreso, National Employment Lawyers Association, National Partnership for Women and Families, National Puerto Rican Coalition, National Resources Defense Council, National Stonewall Democrats, National Women's Political Caucus, National Workrights Institute, NDN, NOW California, Operation BIG VOTE, Pax Christi USA, People for the American Way, Presbyterian Church USA – Washington, D.C., Press Associates Union News Service, Pride at Work, Progressive Jewish Alliance, Progressive Maryland, Progressive States Network, Queer Organizing Coalition, San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Sierra Club, Sojourners/Call to Renewal Tikkun/The Network of Spiritual Progressives, United Church of Christ - Justice and Witness Ministries, United for a Fair Economy, United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society, United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, United for Peace and Justice, United States Student Association, United Students Against Sweatshops, United University Professors, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, USAction, U.S. Labor Against the War

Ryan International Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA

Flight attendants at the Illinois-based Ryan International Airlines voted AFA-CWA as their bargaining representative. Over 74 percent of the 150 eligible flight attendants – 111 workers – voted for AFA-CWA representation, far exceeding the National Mediation Board's "50 percent plus one" voting requirement for airline workers to form a union.

"Ryan International flight attendants are committed to shaping the future of their careers and we are thrilled to welcome them to the largest flight attendant union in the world," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "They spoke in favor of having a voice in their workplace and today management hears their voices loud and clear," she added.

The airline provides scheduled and charter services for passengers and cargo to customers around the world, and is the authorized carrier for the Departments of Defense, Justice, Energy and Homeland Security.

The Best "Source" for Keeping CWA Locals and Members Informed

Starting next week, CWA's website for local union communicators, The Source, will be adding another resource to help local union editors keep members up to date on all the issues affecting workers and our union.

We will be adding a new section at The Source, www.cwa-union.org/source, where editors can go to download individual articles for their newsletters on the Employee Free Choice Act, health care reform, and other key issues. These articles will be formatted in Microsoft Word to make it easier for local union editors to download and use in local newsletters and publications. Currently, CWA members can access articles from the CWA News and weekly CWA Newsletter by copying the text from The Source and main CWA website and pasting that article into a separate file, but putting a selection of the articles in Word will make it easier for editors to access this information.

We also will add a special "Extreme Makeover Newsletter edition" feature to The Source next week to help local editors improve their local newsletter.

A reminder that every week, The Source is updated with the weekly CWA Newsletter, photos, and other useful resources, artwork, cartoons, and materials to improve communications with our members. It also includes templates for workplace flyers, news releases and media advisories, and other materials for union communicators.  

Help us get the word out! Please click here to send us the name and e-mail address of your local union editor to Janelle Hartman in the CWA Communications Department.

December 18, 2008

• CWA Seizing 'Once in a Generation Chance' to Pass Employee Free Choice
• Arbitrator Issues Decision on AT&T Mobility Health Care
• CWA Broadband Policy Called Key Element to Economic Stimulus
• AFA-CWA Reiterates Support for 'Date of Hire' Seniority Integration
• IN BRIEF:
• New Report: Almost Every State in Fiscal Trouble
• EPI Senior Economist to be Chief Economic Advisor to Biden

CWA Seizing 'Once in a Generation Chance' to Pass Employee Free Choice

As the big push to pass the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009 gets underway, CWA local leaders from around the country meet with staff at headquarters this week for a strategy session.

After decades of a steady decline in worker bargaining rights, CWA leaders and others say the 2008 elections have finally opened a window of opportunity to restore Americans' organizing and bargaining rights and rebuild the country's tumbling economy.

"This is make or break for us and for our kids and our grandkids in terms of what kind of America we are going to leave for them," said Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, speaking to a roomful of CWA local leaders and staff at an Employee Free Choice Act strategy session this week.

Bill Samuels, AFL-CIO legislative director, called the first few months of 2009 "a once in a generation chance" to restore balance to a system that lets employers break what's left of labor law without the risk of any penalties.

The workshop brought together local CWA leaders from states with U.S. senators who are considered only "soft" supporters or are undecided. The key message they are taking home to members, who will be asked to contact their senators, is that bargaining rights are critical to a strong economy and history proves it.

CWA President Larry Cohen quoted from a letter than economist John Maynard Keynes wrote to Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Keynes told him that cutting wages and jobs – as employers are doing today – was exactly the wrong thing to do and that, "I regard the expansion of collective bargaining rights as essential."

In the 1940s, a decade after the National Labor Relations Act, the United States had the world's largest percentage of organized workers – 35 percent -- and the economy was booming. Today, the labor laws that built America's middle class have been eroded and the economy is as bad as it's been since the Great Depression. "That's no coincidence," Cohen said.

The challenge is helping Americans make that link, at a time when cable pundits and some Republican lawmakers are pointing fingers at U.S. auto workers and trying to blame unions for the industry's collapse.

"In Germany, every single BMW worker – including half their board of directors – is a union member," Cohen said. "In Japan, every single Toyota worker up through supervisors is a union member. In Korea, every single Hyundai worker up through supervisors is a union member. In fact, the standard of living for Hyundai workers in Korea today is higher than for GM workers in Detroit."

The workshop addressed ways to talk about the crisis in Detroit, which opponents are trying to tie to the Employee Free Choice Act. Recent ads are trying to lead Americans to believe that other industries will suffer if unions are strong and healthy.

The Senate Republicans whose votes killed a bridge loan for the automakers last week are so determined to kill the Employee Free Choice Act "that they're willing to see 3 million jobs lost to do it," Samuels said, referring to an estimate of the number of jobs in auto manufacturing and dependent businesses that could be lost if Detroit doesn't get some help soon.

Speakers pointed out that the $14 billion relief bill that failed -- even after industry leaders laid out detailed plans for restructuring -- is pocket change next to the $700 billion for Wall Street that was given without its CEOs having to submit any plans to Congress.

While the Chamber of Commerce and its front groups attack the Employee Free Choice Act with $100 million in advertising, CWA, other unions and American Rights at Work have built a strong coalition of progressive allies that are talking to their members and members of Congress.

From the Sierra Club to the NAACP to religious, health and social justice organizations, leaders and legislative staff are meeting regularly with American Rights at Work for the specific purpose of passing Employee Free Choice, Cohen said.

Together the allied groups represent tens of millions of Americans, many of them having no ties to unions but who are coming to understand that they are an essential part of a strong economy.

"A lot of members of Congress tend to think of the Employee Free Choice Act as a labor bill," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said. "We want to shift their thinking so they understand that this really is a way to rebuild America."

Arbitrator Issues Decision on AT&T Mobility Health Care

CWA's long battle to protect AT&T Mobility workers from the excessive health care cost shifting demanded by the company has reached a conclusion with the arbitration decision released this week.

The Arbitrator's decision reflects agreement with CWA that AT&T Mobility's demands were out of line. The Arbitrator agreed with CWA's assessment that "the company has been thriving in this concededly competitive environment, and that it can afford to maintain, in the future, without question, a relatively generous benefit. And the union notes, with some justification, that imprudent increases in health care costs to employees may well result in their declining to sign up for coverage or to leave the workforce entirely," he said.

In contract bargaining, AT&T Mobility demanded that a tremendous amount of health care costs be shifted to workers. Under the company's original proposal, workers would have been forced to pay up to 35 percent of health care costs.

When CWA forced the company into arbitration, AT&T Mobility lowered its proposal, demanding that workers pay 29 percent of health care costs. CWA fought against this cost shifting, pointing out that the Company's demands for increased cost sharing were unreasonable and would make health care unaffordable for many Mobility workers.  The Company in its final offer lowered its proposal once more to a 26% cost share.

Under the Arbitrator's decision, cost sharing for current workers will gradually increase from 14 percent of total health care costs (in the form of premium contributions and out-of-pocket expenses) in 2010 to 20 percent in 2012. By comparison, under the current plan, employees now pay 11 percent of costs. When the National Bargained Plan was first negotiated, employees paid 15 percent of costs.

The arbitrator's ruling calls for the cost share to remain at 11 percent in 2009 for incumbent employees.  Under the ruling, workers hired after January 1, 2009 will pay 20 percent of health care costs.  It is important to note that CWA was able to prevent the company from cost shifting in dental, vision and other benefit plans. 

CWA and the Company are in discussions about how the arbitration award will be implemented.  Further details will be supplied as they become available.

CWA Broadband Policy Called Key Element to Economic Stimulus

Two key telecom industry groups have recommended that CWA's proposal for expanding high-speed broadband coverage to all Americans be a major part of any economic plan being crafted by the incoming Obama administration to stimulate the economy and rebuild the nation's infrastructure.

The groups, the Fiber-to-Home Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, have urged Congress to make CWA's proposal a "baseline for the economic recovery package." The groups represent the interests of more than two dozen companies and non-profit organizations. President-elect Obama has long endorsed CWA's call to bring high-speed Internet to every American.

A key element of CWA's proposal, the adoption of tax breaks to encourage operators to spur the national deployment of high-speed networks, won prominent coverage this week in a Washington Post article focusing on growing calls by telecoms, industry and public interest groups to build out high-speed networks to underserved rural and urban areas.

CWA has called the build-out of the nation's high-speed networks "the global economic engine for the 21st century." Other components of CWA's proposal would fund national broadband mapping called for in legislation recently enacted, provide grants for investment in high-cost, currently underserved rural areas, and subsidies to provide computers for low-income households and community-based digital literacy programs.

"We need to aim high with this and public policy needs to catch up with the realities of the global economy," CWA President Larry Cohen told the Post. CWA has estimated that every $5 billion invested in broadband development would create 97,500 new jobs and indirectly result in another 2.5 million jobs throughout the economy.

The Post article noted that the United States has fallen to 15th place worldwide in terms of broadband access, a figure cited by CWA in its two groundbreaking, Speed Matters reports on the state of U.S. broadband.

The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, which educates the public on the opportunities and benefits of fiber-to-the-home solutions, represent all areas of broadband industries, including telecommunications, computing, networking, system integration, engineering, and content-provider companies, as well as traditional telecommunications service providers. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is the trade organization serving the communications and IT industry.

AFA-CWA Reiterates Support for 'Date of Hire' Seniority Integration

Following an arbitrator's announcement of a plan that will dictate seniority integration for pilots at the merged Delta-Northwest, AFA-CWA-represented flight attendants at Northwest Airlines have reiterated that "date of hire" seniority is the only fair way to integrate the Northwest and Delta Air Line flight attendant groups.

"Northwest flight attendants have a clear cut position regarding seniority integration which is fair and simple; date of hire," said Kevin Griffin, AFA-CWA Northwest President. "An honest integration process that respects our years of service enables the combined flight attendant group to come together even quicker and unite as we become the largest flight attendant group in the world."

The union filed a federal lawsuit against Delta in late November to prevent the airline from unilaterally using a management seniority integration process as a wedge issue to divide Delta and Northwest flight attendants and undermine the union before employees of the newly combined airline can vote on union representation.

AFA-CWA said the airline's seniority integration plan "constitutes unlawful interference with and influence over the choice of its employees' bargaining representative."   A representation election among all flight attendants at the merged airline is expected in 2009.

IN BRIEF:

• Want to know how much trouble your state is in financially? The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities website is loaded with information but it boils down to one word: grim.
  
  "At least 43 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year," CBPP says in a new report. "Over half the states had already cut spending, used reserves, or raised revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance again."
  
  Totaled up, states are $79 billion in the red this year and that figure could grow to $100 billion next year, economists say. As a result, states are being forced to make big cuts in education and social services, hurting children, the elderly and disabled Americans. At least 20 states are already making or are expected to make cuts in their workforce.
  
  A full report is available online at www.cbpp.org.
  
  
  
• A leading economist who has been a tireless advocate for working families and unions has been appointed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden as his chief economist and economic policy advisor.
  
  Jared Bernstein had been at the Economic Policy Institute for 16 years, reporting and analyzing a wide range of economic developments and their affect on America's middle class and workers.
  
  Bernstein frequently slammed Bush economic policies in articles posted on popular blogs that include Huffington Post and Daily Kos. During the campaign he wrote about why John McCain's wealth and his attitude toward it matters:
  
  "I don't care how much money our president has (though the seven homes thing really does seem beyond the pale given today's housing climate). But I deeply want him or her to understand the economic plight of those with less, and the evidence regarding the policies allegedly designed to help," he wrote last August. "To listen to McCain, and to do so while poring over his policy agenda, really does suggest the dangerous degree to which he's out-of-touch."

December 11, 2008

• 740 Research Assistants Pick CWA at SUNY Stony Brook
• Human Rights Day Spotlights Fight for Employee Free Choice
• Customer Service Members Take on Industry Challenges
• CWA Stands with Workers' Fight for Justice at Chicago Factory
• Blue Green Alliance to Hold Green Jobs Forum
• Call Your Senators, Urge Emergency Relief for Auto Industry
• IN BRIEF:
• EPI: Job Seekers Outnumber Job Openings 3-to-1

740 Research Assistants Pick CWA at SUNY Stony Brook

Research assistants at the State University of New York Research Foundation at Stony Brook, N.Y., held firm against a strong anti-union effort to gain representation with CWA Local 1104 on Dec. 5, reported District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. The vote in the NLRB-sponsored election was 214-135 with 35 challenged ballots. Nearly 740 RAs are employed at SUNY's Stony Brook University campus.

Considered one of the largest union election wins of the year, the vote came on the heels of last week's organizing victory for 450 Reno, Nev., hospital workers, who chose CWA by a 4-to-1 margin.

Research Assistants at Stony Brook University/SUNY celebrate after gaining CWA representation in the largest organizing victory on Long Island in years. The 740 workers, all graduate students, will be represented by CWA Local 1104.

The SUNY workers, all doctoral students, are seeking better pay and benefits and fairer treatment from a university administration that has continually claimed that it could not afford to pay them a more livable wage. The RAs are particularly aggrieved over a $500 transportation and technology fee that the institution charges them each semester – a fee that has been waived for graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook, who were already represented by Local 1104.  

"It doesn't sound like a big deal, but for a lot of RAs making $20,000 a year, $1,000 is a lot," RA Matt Engel, a member of the organizing committee, told Newsday following the victory. "Basically, there has never been a negotiated raise for RAs ever," he said.

Local 1104 represents more than 4,000 graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook and in the SUNY system.

Though affiliated with the State University of New York, the privately-managed Research Foundation resorted to captive audience meetings, one-on-ones, and other tactics to squash the RAs' campaign.  Management also sought to delay or even block the election by challenging earlier NLRB decisions that allow research assistants the right to organize.

The RAs prevailed thanks to a committed 50-person organizing committee, according to District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau, who credited "a tremendous GOTV operation by activists on the organizing committee, by CWA locals and allied groups."

Assisting the RAs' from Local 1104 were Organizing Director Jim McAsey, rank-and-file project organizers Li Ming, Kevin Young, Xu Xiao and Kira Schuman, Local Chief Steward and Political Organizer Anthony Eramo, who helped build community support for the RAs, and over a dozen stewards from Verizon.

Help in the campaign also came from Local 1037 Organizing Director Anne Luck, Local 1180 Organizer Erin Mahoney, TNG-CWA Local 31003 Organizer Alanna Stone, project organizer Ari Gold from District 7, District 1 CWA Rep Pete Sikora, and volunteers from the Long Island Progressive Coalition and Working Families Party.

Human Rights Day Spotlights Fight for Employee Free Choice

Remembering International Human Rights Day by fighting to restore the rights of American workers to organize unions, CWA locals across the country distributed nearly 300,000 flyers to members Wednesday to promote the critically needed Employee Free Choice Act.

Local 1168 marked Dec. 10 with information booths on Employee Free Choice at Buffalo, N.Y., hospitals.

Local officers and Stewards Army activists greeted people at their worksites with the colorful flyers showing the flags of more than 70 countries that provide a fair way for workers to form and join unions. Conspicuously absent from the flag display is the United States' stars and stripes.

"We're not just talking about major western European nations," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Countries such as Barbados, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia ensure the right of their workers to organize, yet the United States does not. These flyers are helping our members and other workers understand how far we lag behind much of the rest of the world when it comes to workers' rights, and I want to thank all the locals who worked hard to distribute them this week."

Cohen urged members to respond to the appeal on the flyers to call their U.S. senators and ask them to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which will be reintroduced in early 2009.

In Virginia, Local 2201 handed out about 1,000 flyers at call centers and technicians' garages Wednesday. "Our Stewards Army people were at major locations handing them out at the door," local organizer Chris Flock said. IUE-CWA locals in Virginia also handed them out, and one local is preparing a phone bank with 20 volunteers to make phone calls to Senator-elect Mark Warner's transition office.

Louisiana locals are already making calls to Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat re-elected in November, to ask for her continued support of the bill. Valerie Downing, the Employee Free Choice Act and health care coordinator for Local 3403 in Baton Rouge, asked each of the state's nine CWA locals to have about 20 members make personal calls to Landrieu's office.  Despite torrential rain that made it tough to stand outside worksites and hand out flyers on Wednesday, Downing said her local managed to get many of them to members and will continue to distribute them at meetings.

In Buffalo, N.Y., Local 1168 set up mobilization tables at five worksites where they represent nurses and other health care workers. Bob Andruszko, the local's area vice president for Millard Fillmore Hospital, worked one of the tables and talked to members about the bill.

"We need to join together to promote fair organizing rights for all workers," he said. "This bill will level the playing field for workers who want to unionize. As Barack Obama stated, 'If a majority of workers want a union they should get a union.' This is not a complicated idea."

Similar leafleting took place at CWA worksites in every region.  Locals also are continuing to collect postcards of support for the Employee Free Choice Act from members as part of the union movement's Million Member Mobilization. To date, CWA has collected 113,000 cards.  The goal is to display a million postcards in the U.S. Capitol once the new Congress takes office in January.

Customer Service Members Take on Industry Challenges

CWA customer service professionals met this week in New Orleans to discuss the successes and challenges for customer service workers across CWA sectors.

About 250 participants from across CWA participated: operators, retail store employees, media advertising sales and yellow pages employees, and FiOS, U-Verse and customer call center employees. At least half were new participants to the conference.

Executive Vice President Annie Hill led the discussions as participants talked about the union approach to critical issues like monitoring, scripting and performances objectives. Hill also announced the creation of a CWA standing committee to deal with customer service issues on an ongoing basis.

CWA President Larry Cohen talked about CWA's vision of the "high road" for customer service work, where customer service professionals can solve problems and meet customers' needs, as opposed to a management short-sighted focus on sales alone.

Rose Batt, a Cornell Unversity professor, talked about the customer service industry from a global perspective. Her recent research found offshoring in customer service "to be less than many people think," with 75 percent of U.S. generated call center work now being done in the United States.

She pointed to growth in telecom customer service work in wireless, video and broadband as those technologies expand. She said about 10 percent of the 4 million customer service workers in the United States are union-represented, and that CWA is by far the nation's largest customer service union.

Workshops were held on monitoring, sales commissions and incentives, how to mobilize in the call center environment and family and medical leave. Participants also heard bargaining reports from several CWA sectors. 

CWA Representative Mike Farenholt gave participants a look at what has happened in New Orleans in the three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina.  No customer service operations remain in the city; all were moved out, he said. "Some neighborhoods are coming back and some are really struggling," he said.

CWA Stands with Workers' Fight for Justice at Chicago Factory

CWA is standing up for 200 Chicago workers who sat down in their shuttered factory this week to fight for money owed them and call attention to the way workers are being ignored as banks and corporations get billions from the government.

Despite the fact that Bank of America got $25 billion in bailout funds, the bank had refused to extend an extra line of credit to the Republic Windows and Doors plant, leading the company to shut down last week. For six days, about 200 of the plant's 240 workers, members of the United Electrical Workers, peacefully occupied the building in protest. Last night they voted to end the sit-in after reaching a settlement for their legally mandated severance and vacation pay.

The CWA Executive Board yesterday made a $5,000 donation to the UE Solidarity Fund. "The courage and commitment of the union members at Republic Window is an inspiration to all of us," District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said. "We will survive the current economic crisis only if workers stick together in fights for justice like this one.  I am proud that our locals and staff in Chicago have strongly supported these workers in every way possible."

The workers drew support from many political leaders, all the way up to President-elect Barack Obama. "When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right," Obama said at a news conference Sunday.

Bryon Capper, a CWA staffer based in Chicago, was among dozens of union activists who rallied on behalf of the workers in icy cold rain Monday, and marched again in front of the Bank of America building on Wednesday. He took the workers doughnuts and coffee and signed a large poster board of solidarity. "I signed 'CWA supports your struggle' and it was displayed very prominently on CNN last night, just over the reporter's right shoulder," Capper said.

By late Tuesday, Bank of America had agreed to a limited line of credit for the company and on Wednesday JP Morgan Chase offered additional funds.

Blue Green Alliance to Hold Green Jobs Forum

CWA President Larry Cohen will be a major speaker at the Blue Green Alliance's "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference in Washington, D.C., in February.

CWA, along with the Steelworkers, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations, is working on several levels to create good "green" jobs – in the United States and other nations – that help lift the economy and solve the problems of global warming.

Blue Green Alliance representatives also attended the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Poland Dec. 1-12, focusing on the need for green jobs strategies around the world.

The Blue Green Alliance also is working to educate the public about the critical need to restore the rights of workers to form a union and bargain collectively, the establishment of a fair trade policy and curbs on the use of toxic chemicals to enhance and protect public health.

Call Your Senators, Urge Emergency Relief for Auto Industry

CWA leaders are urging members to immediately call their U.S. senators, and ask them to pass a rescue package for the crippled U.S. auto industry.

"The auto industry's collapse would have a devastating impact on our entire economy and the long-term future of our nation's manufacturing base," warned President Larry Cohen.  "As many as 3 million jobs are either directly or indirectly tied to the auto industry, including CWA members involved in parts manufacturing and in the news media, which depends on auto advertising revenues.  We simply can't afford to allow this industry to go bust," he said.

Passage of the legislation – which was approved by the House this week -- is in serious jeopardy despite support from a majority of Senate Democrats, some Republicans, president-elect Barack Obama and the White House. Passage will depend on wavering senators hearing from their constituents.

Members are urged to call both of their U.S. senators' offices and voice support for the auto industry rescue legislation. Call the U.S. Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to the senate offices for your state.

For more information on the issue, go to the United Auto Workers website at www.uaw.org.

IN BRIEF:

• The number of people seeking jobs is now three times higher than the number of job openings, according to the latest economic snapshot from the Economic Policy Institute.

Reporting on Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, EPI said as of October, there were only 3.1 million job openings, down 25 percent from the start of the recession in December 2007.

"While that's bad, what makes matters worse is that this rapid decline in job openings has been accompanied by a sharp increase in unemployment. In October 2008 the number of job seekers topped 10 million.  The acceleration has been startling: the number of job seekers per opening has skyrocketed from 1.9 at the beginning of this recession to 3.3 less than a year later," EPI said. Read more at www.epi.org.

December 4, 2008

• Employee Free Choice in National Spotlight for Human Rights Day
• CWA: Investment in Jobs is Best Economic Stimulus
• AT&T Announces Job Reduction
• Survey Shows Broad Member Support for Obama-Biden Team
• 540 Hospital Workers in Reno Vote CWA
• IN BRIEF:
• Union Elections Set to Begin at Lynx & Ryan Airlines
• CWA Fights for Jobs, Benefits in Extended Talks at Frontier

Employee Free Choice in National Spotlight for Human Rights Day

CWA locals across the country will mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 with a colorful reminder that human rights include workers' rights, starting with the right to form a union.

At worksites across the country, CWA members will receive flyers showing flags of more than 70 countries from Bahrain to Mongolia, from Thailand to South Africa -- all nations where the law provides a fair way for workers to organize unions without facing campaigns of fear and intimidation by employers.

The most notable country missing from the list? The United States. Which is why CWA is using International Human Rights Day to intensify the fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

To download the flyer, click here (1.4MB, pdf). 

"Two weeks ago, we won an historic election, replacing eight years of failed policies and disregard for the needs of working families with a once-in-a-generation leader," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Now we have the ability to restore the middle class and put our country back on track for working families, but we won't succeed without hard work in the weeks and months to come."

Other AFL-CIO unions, as well as Change to Win unions, are joining CWA for the day of leafleting Wednesday, one of many Employee Free Choice actions members can join in the near future. The flyers urge people to call their senators to ask them to support the bill, which would restore organizing and collective bargaining rights that employers, lawmakers and courts have eroded for years.

"We need to keep the Employee Free Choice Act at the top of the agenda by generating thousands of calls to the U.S. Senate," Cohen said.

The U.S. House passed the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007 and the bill is not expected to have any trouble in the 111th Congress. The showdown will be in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans used a filibuster earlier this year to keep the bill from coming to the floor for a vote.

In the Nov. 4 elections, unions helped elected seven new pro-worker Senators, bringing potential support for Employee Free Choice closer to the 60 needed to break a filibuster, however much work needs to be done to win the bipartisan backing needed to assure passage.

While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other anti-union organizations are pouring tens of millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen reminded CWA members that unions have something better than money. 

"We have you," he said. "We have tens of thousands of members and their families who are ready to roll up their sleeves and put on their sneakers and get to work. On Nov. 4, we saw what millions of ordinary Americans coming together can accomplish. And as long as we carry that spirit and determination forward, it doesn't matter how deep the Chamber's pockets are."

The following CWA locals have ordered flyers and indicated they plan to participate in the Dec. 10 activities:

District 1:
1031, 1032, 1037, 1039, 1040, 1051, 1060, 1077, 1079, 1080, 1086, 1102, 1104, 1109, 1113, 1118, 1120, 1122, 1126, 1133, 1168, 1170, 1180, 1298, 1365, 1701, 14199, 31167, 51011, 51016, 51017, 51019, 51024, 81201, 81254, 81320, 81380 and 81455

District 2:
2001, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2100, 2106, 2107, 2201, 2202, 2204, 2205, 2206, 2222, 2252, 2275, 2336, 2382, 82161 and 82162

District 3:
3102, 3104, 3108, 3109, 3110, 3112, 3113, 3122, 3178, 3179, 3180, 3204, 3212, 3215, 3218, 3250, 3263, 3317, 3402, 3403, 3404, 3406, 3407, 3410, 3411, 3412, 3414, 3511, 3517, 3519, 3603, 3605, 3611, 3716, 3805, 3806, 3808, 3905, 3950, 23086, 23093, 33225, 83718 and 83761

District 4:
4008, 4009, 4025, 4032, 4034, 4040, 4090, 4103, 4108, 4123, 4202, 4216, 4217, 4250, 4252, 4300, 4302, 4310, 4319, 4320, 4321, 4325, 4340, 4371, 4401, 4527, 4603, 4611, 4620, 4621, 4622, 4630, 4671, 4773, 4780, 4900, 4998, 14430, 24046, 34043, 54043, 84707, 84717, 84727, 84755, 84800, 84901 and 84981

District 6:
6001, 6007, 6009, 6012, 6015, 6016, 6110, 6113, 6118, 6127, 6128, 6137, 6139, 6143, 6151, 6171, 6200, 6210, 6214, 6215, 6222, 6300, 6301, 6312, 6313, 6314, 6316, 6327, 6350, 6355, 6360, 6373, 6377, 6401, 6402, 6407, 6450, 6502, 6503, 6505, 6507, 6508, 6733, 36047, 86023, 86122, 86780 and 86782

District 7:
7011, 7019, 7037, 7076, 7103, 7170, 7200, 7201, 7250, 7470, 7603, 7750, 7803, 7804, 7818, 7901, 14705, 14752, 37082, 37083, 57045 and 87140

District 9:
9000, 9119, 9333, 9404, 9410, 9412, 9413, 9415, 9416, 9417, 9421, 9431, 9432, 9503, 9510, 9511, 9573, 9575, 9586, 9588, 14827, 29025, 29098, 29099, 59051, 59054 and 59057

District 13: 13100, 13101, 13500, 13550, 13570, 13571, 13572, 13573 and 13590

CWA: Investment in Jobs is Best Economic Stimulus

At Capitol Hill forum, CWA Pres. Larry Cohen calls for broadband investment to spur economic recovery. Joining him was AT&T Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi, far left, and CWA research economist Ken Peres.

At a policy forum on Capitol Hill, CWA President Larry Cohen called investment in the build-out of true high speed broadband networks critical to the nation's economic recovery.

"Creating quality jobs is the real stimulus our economy needs. We've seen what happened when people received those $300 or so stimulus checks – not much. Creating jobs, and the multiplier effect that produces additional job growth, is what will help our communities and get our country out of this economic crisis," Cohen said.

CWA was one of more than 50 organizations, including AT&T, Google and other companies, consumer and public interest groups, state and local governments and Internet providers and users, that have signed on to the call for action on a national broadband strategy.

A $5 billion increase in broadband investment would create 100,000 new jobs in telecom and information technology in the year that the investment is made, Cohen said. In addition, a 7 percent increase in broadband penetration would create 2.4 million new jobs throughout the economy, he added.

President-elect Barack Obama has recognized high speed broadband as a critical element of economic development for the United States, and supports the build-out of high-speed networks to fuel the nation's economic growth. 

CWA also called for full funding of the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which became law in October, to help support and encourage state initiatives and private-public partnerships, as well as to identify barriers to broadband adoption in the states.

CWA's Speed Matters Strategic Industry Fund campaign was the prime mover behind this measure, which requires the Federal Communications Commission to conduct annual studies on broadband deployment and adds a question to the federal Census on dial-up and broadband Internet use.

AT&T Announces Job Reduction 

AT&T announced a job surplus on Dec. 4 affecting 4,800 union-represented and 7,400 management positions nationwide. The company cited the declining economy and business outlook for 2009.

AT&T says the reductions will begin later this month and continue into 2009. CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said the union will continue to meet with AT&T to make certain that all job security provisions in our contracts are fully followed and that members' job rights are protected.

Under CWA contracts, union members have rights and opportunity to transfer to other positions within AT&T. Some workers also have the option of taking early retirement. 

CWA and AT&T will begin contract negotiations on Feb. 24. Job security and job opportunity will be a major issue in these negotiations.

Survey Shows Broad Member Support for Obama-Biden Team

A survey of Election 2008 issues conducted for CWA by an independent polling firm showed strong support among CWA members for the Obama-Biden team.

CWA members voted for the Obama team by a 68-29 percent margin over the McCain ticket, with 4 percent voting for third party candidates. That was well above the national vote of 53-46 percent for President-elect Obama over John McCain.

CWA members responded positively to printed materials sent to their homes, flyers and leaflets distributed in the workplace and member-to-member workplace contacts, the survey found. Overall, 74 percent of members surveyed found the information received from CWA about political issues and candidates to be useful; that ranked just below newspaper, television and radio coverage. 

CWA members also ranked their issue priorities for the new administration and Congress. These include: increasing quality jobs, 79 percent; increasing retirement security, 74 percent; and winning real health care reform, 71 percent.

The survey was conducted among 1,100 CWA members in the 2008 battleground states of Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

540 Hospital Workers in Reno Vote CWA

By a four-to-one margin, 540 hospital workers voted for CWA representation at the St. Mary's Hospital in Reno, Nev., following a year-long campaign, reported District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler.

The bargaining unit consists of service workers including Certified Nursing Assistants, EVS workers, monitor techs, phlebotomists, EMT's, intake reps, transport workers, orderlies, sterile techs and kitchen and laundry workers. They will be represented by Local 9413.

Strong support came from CWA District 9 staff, including Mark Bixler, Ed Venegas, John Doran, Nancy Biagini, Janine Munson and organizers from Locals 9400, 9586, 9509, Marco Ramierez, Victor Serrano and Melinda Hawkins, who conducted an 8-day house calling blitz with local leaders.

Critical bilingual language assistance was provided by two CWA members at AT&T – Sophia Guadron and Lili Vega – who took leave from their jobs to help in several key departments during the campaign's final months.

Members of the California Nurses Association also provided help, letting organizers use their offices, and providing assistance when needed.

IN BRIEF:

• Union election dates have been set for 230 flight attendants at Lynx Aviation and Ryan International who are seeking union representation with AFA-CWA. The union representation election for the 150 flight attendants at Ryan runs from Dec. 11 to Jan. 6, and from Dec. 15 to Jan 12 for the 87 flight attendants at Lynx.
  
  Lynx, based in Denver, is a regional carrier for Frontier Airlines often referred to as Frontier Express. Ryan, based in Rockford, Ill., provides scheduled and charter services for customers including the U.S. Departments of Defense and Justice. "We could not think of a better way to start the New Year than by welcoming these flight attendants into the world's largest flight attendant union," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend.
  
  
• Bargaining resumed on Dec. 3 on a new contract for nearly 400 CWA members at Frontier Communications in Pennsylvania as union negotiators worked past the contract's expiration to preserve jobs and members' hard-won benefits. The contract expired on Nov. 30 but both sides agreed to extend talks.
  
  Locals 13570, 13571, 13572 and 13573 are mobilizing against a range of  giveback demands. Among these, Frontier wants to transfer some call center work out of state and increase subcontracting of work.  Management also is targeting workers' benefits, seeking to shift more of the cost of health care to members and moving from a traditional pension plan to a 401(k) plan, reported Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus.
  
  The workers were employed by Commonwealth Telephone Company before Frontier purchased the company's operations in Pennsylvania in 2007.

November 26, 2008

• Judge Slams CNN for Illegal Firing of NABET-CWA Members
• Suit Charges Delta with Unlawful Interference with Election Rights
• Tell Congress: Emergency Aid to Auto Industry Vital for Economy
• IN BRIEF:
• Employee Free Choice: 'A Necessary Response to Economic Crisis'
• News Workers Tell AP: Quality Journalism Requires Fair Treatment
• Arbitrator Delays Decision on AT&T Mobility Health Care Until December
• Most States See Significant Drop in Employer-Sponsored Health Care

Judge Slams CNN for Illegal Firing of NABET-CWA Members

Fired CNN workers are shown rallying outside parent Time Warner headquarters in New York in 2004.

In a major victory for NABET-CWA members who worked at CNN, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge issued a scathing decision against the cable network and ordered that 110 workers be rehired, the union recognized and their economic losses restored.

CNN violated federal labor law and the legal rights of more than 250 workers at the Washington, D.C., and New York bureaus by using a phony reorganization scheme for the sole purpose of eliminating their NABET-CWA representation, the administrative law judge found.

In late 2003, CNN terminated its more than 20-year contract with Team Video Services, which employed union camera operators, broadcast engineers and other technicians for CNN, in effect, firing more than 110 workers. The network claimed it would create its own unit of employees, however, Judge Arthur J. Amchan called that unit a "sham," used to get rid of employees and their union. CNN's goal was to "achieve a nonunion technical work force in its Washington, D.C., and New York bureaus." CNN's "widespread and egregious misconduct" showed a flagrant and general disregard for employees' fundamental rights, he said.

Noting that the case goes back nearly five years, CWA President Larry Cohen stated:  "This is a prime example of the way that justice comes far too late, if at all, under our labor law system.  These workers never should have lost their bargaining rights or their jobs, and it wouldn't have happened if we had the Employee Free Choice Act.  What's more, CNN has said it will appeal this ruling.  This should fire us up even more to fight to strengthen workers' bargaining rights."

One of the fired workers, Jimmy Suissa, worked for CNN for 17 years, starting as a camera operator, but mastering nearly every technical job in the Washington bureau, from running the audio and video boards to technical director. "Many of us rotated through these positions and that's why we knew that CNN's claims that we weren't able to learn new equipment were completely false," he said. 

It was very stressful and difficult in the month leading up to the point when CNN began firing workers, he said. And it was clear that anyone associated with the union or providing representation to workers on the job wasn't going to be rehired into the new non-union workplace.

Suissa said the process was disheartening because it took so long to resolve. "It's hard to find a job to replace the work I was doing, and I've been making less money over these past years," he said.

Sarah Pacheco joined CNN as a videographer and worked at the Washington bureau from 1990 to 2003, and she also was an active and aggressive union steward. Despite acknowledged experience in non-linear editing, a skill CNN management claimed was necessary when it rejected other applicants, Pacheco was not rated among the top 55 applicants. A "lack of people skills" described by management likely "is related to her aggressiveness as a union steward for (NABET-CWA) Local 31," the judge wrote.

"I applied to Time Warner (CNN's parent company) but never was called," she said. "This decision is tremendous and a validation of our long fight," she said.

The judge's order calls for reinstatement and full back pay for more than 110 employees, with training for those rehired, if necessary, restoration of union representation and terms of the former collective bargaining agreement, and the return of bargaining unit work that has been outsourced since the termination of the Team Video contracts.

Suit Charges Delta with Unlawful Interference with Election Rights

AFA-CWA filed a federal lawsuit against Delta Air Lines to block the company from unilaterally using a management seniority integration process as a wedge issue to divide Delta and Northwest flight attendants and undermine the union before employees of the newly combined airline can vote on union representation.

Northwest flight attendants already are unionized and Delta flight attendants are organizing with AFA-CWA in anticipation of an election next year to determine union representation for the entire merged workforce.

The AFA-CWA suit notes that Delta hasn't yet received "single carrier" certification for the merged airline, and the union hasn't yet filed an application with the National Mediation Board (NMB) for a single carrier determination, which would trigger a representation election.  The NMB oversees labor relations in the airline industry.

Once that determination is made, "AFA-CWA will file for an election that will give all 21,000 flight attendants the opportunity to elect AFA-CWA as their collective bargaining agent.  If AFA-CWA is elected, then the union's 'date of hire' seniority procedures shall prevail, ensuring all flight attendants their current bidding seniority," the union stated.

AFA-CWA called the immediate merging of seniority lists – a process Delta wants to begin in early December -- a premature action that "constitutes unlawful interference with and influence over the choice of its employees' bargaining representative."

Tell Congress: Emergency Aid to Auto Industry Vital for Economy

With millions of jobs at stake in the U.S. auto and related industries – including CWA jobs in parts manufacturing and news media, which depends on billions of dollars in auto dealer advertising – CWA is urging members to contact members of Congress to urge support for an emergency assistance package for the automakers.

"This is not a bailout that helps only Wall Street – this is an absolutely necessary loan to aid Main Street and help save our economy.  If the auto industry goes bust, our entire economy will spiral deeper into peril," said President Larry Cohen.

Members are urged to visit the United Auto Workers website at www.uaw.org to get facts and talking points about the emergency assistance package, and then send and email or make a phone to their senators and representatives urging support for the measure. 

Emails to Congress can be sent right from the UAW site:  Click on the link at top right that says "Auto Matters," and from the next page click on "Contact Congress" to send your letter. 

IN BRIEF:

• A member of the President-elect's transition team said the Employee Free Choice Act is a necessary response to the "worst economic crisis in our lifetime." The speaker, Thomas Kochan, co-director of MIT's Institute of Technology Workplace Center and Institute for Work and Employment Research, said the legislation was the "necessary first step" to reducing the highly adversarial roles of labor and management and creating an "integrated, progressive labor policy coordinated with economic policy."
  
  "We need an integrated strategy to boost economic performance and tap the skills and knowledge of workers," Kochan said in an address at a labor law seminar sponsored by the Center for Labor and Employment Law at New York University. "We can't get there with a highly adversarial labor-management relationship." Kochan dismissed criticism that the measure's mandatory arbitration provision would undercut the collective bargaining process, pointing out that mandatory arbitration has existed for decades in the public sector with no harm to the bargaining process.
  
  
  
• More than 500 journalists and other workers at Associated Press have called on the company to reverse course in contract talks and drop its bargaining proposals that threaten quality journalism. 
  
  The news workers, members of TNG-CWA Local 31222, are signing on to a petition that condemns AP's efforts to "erase decades-long job security protections, increase employee health care costs and delete long-standing benefits for new mothers." These provisions are part of an overall package from AP management that also calls for a wage freeze, high prescription drug payments and the elimination of overtime pay for hundreds of employees, the local said. 
  
  The current contract expires Nov. 30. The News Media Guild represents more than 1,400 reporters, editors, photographers, videographers, communications and support staff. 
  
  AP admits it is well-positioned for the future, said Tony Winton, NMG president. "We believe AP's proposals are overreaching and would in fact undermine the AP's greatest strength – the men and women who cover the news."
  
  The petition is available at www.newsmediaguild.org.
  
  
  
• An arbitration ruling on health care benefits for 40,000 CWA members at AT&T Mobility has been postponed until Dec. 12.
  
  The decision was originally expected to be handed down by Nov. 21, but the arbitrator requested more time, CWA National Telecom Director Bill Bates said.
  
  The case involves the company's attempt to make workers pick up a significantly larger share of their health care costs. In a three-day arbitration hearing in September, CWA leaders said AT&T's position was unacceptable and unreasonable, given the company's financial health.
  
  CWA's agreement with AT&T Mobility provides for binding arbitration to resolve disputes in the health care plan. Four separate contracts cover CWA members at Mobility but all share the same benefit plans.
  
  
  
• More than 3 million Americans have lost employer-sponsored health care since 2000 and the vast majority of U.S. states have seen significant declines in employer coverage this decade, the Economic Policy Institute reports.
  
  Forty-one states in every region of the country have experienced losses, with South Carolina, North Carolina, Missouri and Maryland seeing drops in employer coverage exceeding 7 percent, EPI said. No state has seen an increase.
  
  More losses are expected as unemployment rises. ""The health care problem has reached a critical level," said Elise Gould, author of the EPI study. "Bold new solutions need to be considered to address the growing crisis."
  
  Hawaii, has the highest rate of employer-sponsored coverage, with just over 80 percent of workers covered in 2006-07. Hawaii requires employers to provide health insurance to employees who work at least 20 hours a week.
  
  More coverage of the report and an interactive map are available at www.epi.org.

November 20, 2008

• AT&T Bargaining Council Meetings Set Stage for '09 Talks 
• Employee Free Choice Depends on Mobilization Not Seen Since the 1930s
• CWA Joins Alliance to Promote Full High Speed Internet Access
• Stakes are High in Martin-Chambliss Senate Race
• IN BRIEF:
• Minnesota Concerned Over Impact of Delta-Northwest Merger
• FMLA Rollbacks: Bush Sticks it to Workers, Again

AT&T Bargaining Council Meetings Set Stage for '09 Talks

"One Union, One Fight, One Future" is theme for AT&T bargaining council meetings this week in Dallas.  Pres. Cohen, at right, told participants:  "If we go in with a sense of unity, we couldn't be stronger."

Determined to bring the same energy to bargaining with AT&T that their members brought to the 2008 political campaigns, local CWA leaders from across the country met this week in Dallas to prepare for talks with the telecom giant beginning in early 2009.

Although negotiations for AT&T Core will take place at six tables, in addition to bargaining for AT&T Mobility's "Orange" contract, the theme of the bargaining council meetings was one of solidarity:  "One Union, One Fight, One Future."

"If we go in with a sense of unity, we couldn't be stronger," CWA President Larry Cohen told the 300 participants as he opened the conference Monday night. "This union is sending a signal that we're fighting back. We're mad but we're hopeful and we're on the march. And we'll be on the march until every worker has a decent contract."

Contracting out of work, changes in job titles and job descriptions and other job security issues surrounding AT&T's consolidation of  various former Bell companies were major concerns for participants, along with the enormous economic challenges facing the country and the never-ending attempts to rollback health care benefits for workers and retirees.

Not all issues affect each geographic region the same way, and CWA national leaders said they understand that locals and districts have developed their own ways of doing business with the company over the years. "We're family, and like family, we may have some disagreements," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said. "But we need to leave with a sense of purpose about what we want to accomplish and recognize that we're all in this together."

Ensuring that CWA's contracts keep pace with the rapid changes in technology and wireless expansion is a key bargaining issue, and conference speakers and local officers in attendance said that it's vital that the union be vigilant.  Telecom expert Andrew Saybold discussed technological changes on the horizon, noting that there will always be jobs – even if they are fewer in number – for landline workers.  "Spectrum is a finite resource," he said.  "There's not enough wireless spectrum in the world to replace wired." 

He went on to discuss what the future holds and what AT&T is and isn't doing to compete. Notably, he said the company leaders "don't get it" with regard to fiber to the home.  "If they don't wake up and start doing fiber seriously, they're going to be in trouble," he said. "Whatever you do, you've got to figure out how to get AT&T into the fiber business, and quickly."

For CWA, bargaining with AT&T coincides with its two biggest legislative campaigns – passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform. But working toward passing the vital bills won't stop CWA from fighting just as hard as ever for workers' rights and health care issues during negotiations, national leaders said.

"We have to do two things at once, we have to be able to walk and chew gum," Hill said. "The Verizon folks had to do it and the Qwest folks had to do it because we were in bargaining while we were also focused on getting the right people elected." The AT&T Mobility bargaining will begin first, on Jan. 21, 2009, in Richmond, Va., The current Mobility "Orange" contract expires Feb. 7.

The Core talks will take place at six tables around the country beginning Feb. 24 to negotiate with AT&T Legacy, and with five regional contracts: AT&T East (formerly SNET), AT&T West (formerly PacBell), AT&T Midwest (formerly Ameritech) AT&T South (formerly Southwestern Bell) and AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth).  All contracts expire April 4, except for AT&T Southeast, which expires in August -- but bargaining there will be held in unison with the other companies.

Employee Free Choice Depends on Mobilization Not Seen Since the 1930s

Even with the election of the most pro-worker president and Congress in decades, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act faces strong obstacles and will not become law unless labor mobilizes as it hasn’t in years, CWA leaders stated.

CWA is redoubling its campaign on behalf of the critical legislation so it will have the support necessary to clear Congress in the face of what will be a tsunami of opposition from big business and anti-labor forces.

“Now, we all must stand up and continue the fight for this critical legislation as if our contracts, pensions, and health care depend on it,” said CWA President Larry Cohen in a message to locals. “The opposition is ready, with millions more dollars to spend. We must meet their dollars with the kind of massive worker mobilization we have not seen in the United States since the 1930s and 1940s.”

A massive mobilization is necessary to secure votes from at least 60 Senators when the bill is reintroduced in Congress early next year. Last year, supporters fell short of the necessary votes to prevent the legislation from being filibustered, and blocked from a final floor vote. The November elections resulted in the election of seven new pro-worker senators likely to endorse Employee Free Choice, but more support will be necessary to secure passage.

Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will be critical to enabling the nation to quickly emerge from the severe economic crisis, and CWA identified the legislation as the centerpiece of its Economic Recovery Plan for American Families. The other ingredients are the creation of 21st century jobs and infrastructure and health care for all.

CWA will be mounting a large-scale national campaign, marshalling full-time CWA activists in key states and aggressive worker tactics across the country. To help offset the millions of dollars that are now pouring in to defeat employee free choice, CWA will be coordinating its efforts with its Alliance partners, the AFL-CIO, Change to Win unions, and American Rights at Work, which launched a new ad to generate support for the legislation. Click here to view ad.

Outreach to allied groups will be critical too. This week, one of the nation’s largest African-American religious groups, the 3 million member National Baptist Convention of America, signed on to support the Employee Free Choice campaign.

As of this week, 110,386 CWAers have signed on as supporters of the Million Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act, but CWA is urging union activists to continue the campaign to win more support among co-workers, friends, and family members. Sign up online at www.freechoicecwa.com.

CWA Joins Alliance to Promote Full High Speed Internet Access

CWA has joined the Alliance for Digital Equality and will work with other members of the coalition to expand access to true high speed Internet networks for underserved consumers in urban communities across the nation.

CWA joins AT&T, Black Entertainment Television, Coca Cola, Northrop Grumman and other organizations committed to bridging the digital divide that now blocks millions of Americans from the full potential of high-speed broadband.

As part of the Speed Matters campaign, CWA has been spotlighting the lack of real high speed Internet access for residents of rural and small communities, where applications such as tele-medicine and job creation are critically needed.

Joining forces with ADE is an important complement to CWA's efforts to bring real high speed Internet access to all.

ADE, with the support of the Congressional Black Caucus, has brought together elected officials, consumers and the business community in five cities so far – Atlanta, Miami, Detroit, Houston and Charleston, S.C. -- establishing Digital Empowerment Councils that focus on ways to close the digital gap in urban areas. ADE plans to launch councils in another 17 cities in 2009.

Stakes are High in Martin-Chambliss Senate Race

In Georgia, CWAers and the entire union movement are turning out to show their support for Jim Martin, the candidate for the U.S. Senate who supports working families.

A special runoff election is set for Dec. 2, between Martin and Saxby Chambliss, the Republican incumbent. There are now 58 Democrats, including two pro-worker independents, in the U.S. Senate, with two elections yet to be determined: Georgia and Minnesota. If both states elect the Democratic candidates, it will be very difficult for Senate Republicans to block important legislative matters by mounting a filibuster.

CWA activists and volunteers are focusing their efforts among members in Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, Augusta, Savannah, and Albany.  Members of CWA Locals 3201, 3204, 3212 3215, 3217 and 3220 have been leafleting work sites, providing union members with information about the issues and early voting in every county set for Nov. 24-26.

Locals and RMC activists also are organizing phone banks and reaching out to active and retired members, and because turnout is critical, a major get-out-the-vote push is underway from now until the Dec. 2 special election.

Martin is a Vietnam veteran who endorses Employee Free Choice and critical veterans programs. Chambliss received five military deferments and didn't serve, yet in 2002 he ran a shameful campaign against another Vietnam veteran, Max Cleland, a highly decorated veteran who lost three limbs in combat.

IN BRIEF:

• The Northwest-Delta merger's impact on flight attendants' bargaining rights and jobs in Minnesota was explored in hearings this week before the Minnesota state legislature.  "Without the protections of our collective bargaining rights, it is likely that management will drive down wages, benefits, work rules and eliminate jobs altogether," AFA-CWA Northwest flight attendant Rene Foss told the legislature's local government and metropolitan affairs committee. "We are very concerned that this merger can be used as an opportunity to break Northwest flight attendants' contract, eliminate our union and destroy our collective bargaining rights," she said.
  
  The committee's chair, Rep. Debra Hilstrom, was also concerned about the carrier's apparent decision to close Northwest's corporate headquarters in the state, a move that would violate a covenant Northwest made to the state to keep its offices in Minneapolis-St. Paul in exchange for $270 million in bonds, $245 million of which is outstanding. "These are good paying jobs for us," said Hilstrom.
  
  
  
• With just two months left in his disastrous administration, President George W. Bush still hasn't tired of making life harder for American workers.
  
  Eight years ago, as one of his first acts in office, Bush killed the brand-new, ergonomics rule that was created by members of both parties to protect workers' safety and health. Last week, Bush signed new rules making it tougher for workers to take Family and Medical Leave.
  
  "Workers will find that they must give more notice, more information, have more medical examinations and respond to employer requirements in shorter time frames," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership, a group advocating FMLA. "Employers, on the other hand, would have more time to respond to employees' request for FMLA leave and more ways to delay or deny FMLA leave."
  
  Ness was one of many worker advocates to testify and offer written testimony to the Labor Department regarding the proposed rule change. In the end, the changes were made almost exactly as the Bush administration originally proposed.
  
  President-elect Barack Obama, who supports expanding FMLA, could reverse the changes. But experts say doing so will require a lengthy regulatory process.

November 13, 2008

• CWA Members Ratify Qwest Contract
• Georgia Locals Fighting for Pro-Worker Candidate in Senate Run-Off
• Election 2008, New Opportunities on Executive Board Agenda
• AT&T Meetings in Dallas Will Set Stage for Winter Bargaining
• IN BRIEF:
• Chamber Declares "Armageddon" Over Employee Free Choice Act
• Nominations Begin for Annual Management 'Grinch of the Year'

CWA Members Ratify Qwest Contract

CWA members at Qwest Communications have ratified a new four-year contract by a 77% vote.

The settlement meets CWA's key objectives of maintaining quality jobs, improving workplace and respect issues, increasing wages and pensions and safeguarding health care benefits. It covers 20,000 employees in 13 states.

Workers will receive a 12 percent general wage increase over the contract term, with increases in base salary for sales employees who receive commissions and a 3 percent increase in pension bands. 

The agreement includes some important improvements in working conditions, including resolution of problems caused by "quality jobs per day" work quotas for technicians. It includes an acknowledgment by Qwest management that frontline workers are critical to the company's success and deserve respect.

On health care, the parties negotiated a health care plan design to mitigate cost increases for active workers and retirees. CWA District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell also noted that Qwest management agreed to work with CWA and other organizations for real health care reform.

Georgia Locals Fighting for Pro-Worker Candidate in Senate Run-Off

Georgia Democrat Jim Martin greets supporters after defeating a third party candidate to put Martin in a runoff contest against incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss.

With an important U.S. Senate seat on the line, local CWA presidents in Georgia are asking their members to work as hard as they did during the general election in order to send pro-worker candidate Jim Martin to Washington in a Dec. 2 runoff.

Martin, a Democrat and Vietnam veteran with more than 20 years experience in the Georgia legislature and state government, is trying to unseat first-term Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss. In the Nov. 4 election, Chambliss got more votes in a three-way race, but not the majority needed to avoid a run-off under Georgia law.

"Working families need Jim Martin in the U.S. Senate to help turn around America," say CWA local presidents in Georgia in a letter to their members. "In the Senate, he will work to reverse the disastrous economic policies that George Bush and Saxby Chambliss have advocated over the course of their careers."

CWA members will be making worksite contacts and members of the CWA Retired Members' Council will be making phone calls to union retirees.

"We proved what we could do with the historic election of Sen. Barack Obama and the many new pro-worker House and Senate seats we won on Nov. 4," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said. "Now we have to put all our energy into electing Jim Martin on Dec. 2. His presence in the Senate will bring us one critical step closer to passing the Employee Free Choice Act and the other key issues we're fighting for on behalf of America's working families."

The letter from local presidents says that Martin opposes privatizing Social Security and "will stand up for our workers, ensuring we have the freedom to choose a union without fear of corporate intimidation."

It also notes that Martin is a strong supporter of veterans. Chambliss, in an especially ugly 2002 campaign for his Senate seat, ran ads questioning the patriotism and national security commitment of then-incumbent Max Cleland – a Vietnam veteran who lost both arms and one leg in the war.

The GOP rallying cry in their all-out effort for Chambliss, which includes campaigning by Senator John McCain, is that of preventing Senate Democrats from gaining a 60 seat "filibuster proof" majority.

The Nov. 4 election left Democrats with control of 57 Senate seats, including independents Joe Lieberman  (Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (VT.), who caucus with the party. Three seats, including Georgia's, are still in dispute. Vote counting continues in Alaska, where Democrat Mark Begich has pulled ahead of Republican incumbent and recently convicted felon Ted Stevens. A recount will soon be underway in Minnesota, where Democrat Al Franken trails Republican incumbent Norm Coleman by just 206 votes.

Election 2008, New Opportunities on Executive Board Agenda

CWA's Executive Board met Nov. 6-7 to review CWA's Election 2008 program, assess some of the union's internal issues and look ahead to new opportunities.

CWA's very successful political program laid the groundwork to build and expand a movement for real change and a new direction for the nation, the Executive Board stressed. The Alliance of  CWA, the Steelworkers, Auto Workers and Professional and Technical Engineers was an important partnership in these political efforts.

Among the highlights of CWA's program: more than 10,000 CWA member volunteers talked to co-workers and leafleted worksites, joined phone banks and participated in labor walks and rallies. During the week of action in October, volunteers covered more than 1,500 worksites.

CWA members in battleground states received at least 4 or more mailings on the candidates and the issues.

The Board reaffirmed that CWA's top priority is passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. It noted that the opposition – the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its front groups -- already had spent more than $20 million in television advertising and state campaigns to defeat this legislation, and that CWA and union partners had to be ready to beat back this challenge with aggressive worker tactics across the country, CWA activists in key states and massive worker mobilizations not seen in the United States since the 1930s and 1940s.

The Board also reviewed CWA's efforts to push forward an economic recovery plan built on creating 21st century and "green" jobs, restoring bargaining rights through Employee Free Choice and reforming health care in a way that ensures coverage for all Americans but ends the current system's "tax" on jobs.

CWA is working with congressional supporters who are signing on to this plan, and is building a coalition of other unions, civil rights and community groups, faith-based and student organizations and others who believe that job creation and support for working and middle income families must come before any other Wall Street bailout or support for companies that continue to outsource jobs overseas.

The Executive Board reviewed a financial risk analysis of CWA employers in every sector and stressed that the union will safeguard members, especially when employers file for bankruptcy protection and threaten workers' retirement and health care security. The Board will continue to monitor and watch distressed employers

AT&T Meetings in Dallas Will Set Stage for Winter Bargaining

Gearing up for nationwide bargaining in 2009, local leaders representing members at AT&T will meet in Dallas with CWA officers and staff next week for several days of intense preparation.

About 300 participants in all will attend the bargaining council meetings, being held for both the 125,000-member Core group at AT&T and the 20,000 members at AT&T Mobility "Orange."

The theme of the council meetings and the subsequent mobilization campaign and bargaining is, "One Union, One Fight, One Future."

On Tuesday, the first full day of the meetings, AT&T members across the country are being asked to wear red shirts to work as a sign of solidarity and support for their bargaining team.

The agenda includes discussion of the future at AT&T as the company moves ever further into wireless and other new generation technology. Participants will also take a hard look at economics and what other CWA units have accomplished in bargaining at Verizon and Qwest, as well as in other industries.

Both Core and Mobility meetings will include discussions about mobilizing members for local and national activities that support the critical talks.

AT&T Mobility bargaining will begin first, on Jan. 21, 2009, in Richmond, Va., The current Mobility "Orange" contract expires Feb. 7.

The Core talks will take place at six tables around the country beginning Feb. 24 to negotiate contracts for AT&T Legacy (formerly Legacy-T), AT&T East (formerly SNET), AT&T West (formerly PacBell), AT&T Midwest (formerly Ameritech) AT&T South (formerly Southwestern Bell) and AT&T Southeast (formerly BellSouth). Five of the current contracts expire April 4, 2009. The AT&T Southeast contract expires next August, but bargaining will be held in unison with the other companies.

IN BRIEF:

• Declaring war on the Employee Free Choice Act apparently wasn't enough for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. So now they've stepped up their rhetoric.
  
  "This will be Armageddon," said Randel Johnson, the Chamber's vice president for labor policy, quoted Sunday in the New York Times.
  
  The Chamber is promising to fight the bill, and others backed by unions, with every weapon at its disposal. Chamber leaders are urging President-Elect Obama to focus on other matters, claiming – as always -- that the pro-worker bills would hurt business.
  
  
  
• One sure sign that it's that time of year again: Jobs with Justice has opened nominations for its "Grinch of the Year" contest to bring infamy to greedy and cold-hearted CEOs, companies or politicians.
  
  Go to the JwJ website, www.jwj.org, to nominate the person or company you think has done the most in 2008 to hurt working families. You need to include a few lines about why the candidate is "worthy."
  
  Last year's Grinch was Smithfield Foods Inc. Chairman Joseph Luter III. Smithfield runs a dangerous pork slaughterhouse in North Carolina where managers have fired, harassed, intimidated and threatened workers for the 16 long years that they've tried to unionize.
  
  Past Grinch nominees have included Wal-Mart, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Comcast and Bob Toohey, a Verizon Business vice president who has refused to recognize unions organized through minority sign-up by CWA and the IBEW.

November 6, 2008

• 10,000 CWA Volunteers Played Major Role in Historic Election
• Anti-Employee Free Choice Campaign – An Election Non-Issue
• Colorado Voters Reject Two Anti-Union Amendments
• AFA-CWA Files to Represent Flight Attendants at Lynx, Ryan
• IN BRIEF:
• We Need Your Election 2008 Photos
• 107,995: Million Member Mobilization Signers

10,000 CWA Volunteers Played Major Role in Historic Election

From across the United States and around the world, newspaper front pages recording the historic victory of President-elect Barack Obama lined the front of the Newseum in Washington D.C. on Wednesday. Hundreds of people looked, cried and took pictures.

Months of grassroots' activism by members of CWA and other unions, capped by a massive get-out-the-vote effort Tuesday, played a huge role in the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States and gains by pro-worker candidates for House and Senate seats.

Polling for the AFL-CIO by Hart Research showed that 68 percent of union members voted for the Obama-Biden ticket  -- believed to be the highest level of union support ever in a presidential race and critical in helping make the difference in key battleground states.

Thanks to the increased number of labor-backed candidates who won election, the new Congress increases the number of allies CWA and other unions will need to press for the passage of Employee Free Choice and other key measures. At press time, the composition of the new Senate showed 57 Democrats (including two independents who caucus with Democrats) and 40 Republicans, with the outcome in three races still undecided. The line-up in the House so far is 254 Democrats and 173 Republicans, with eight races still undecided.

In all, some 10,000 CWA volunteers – local union officers, rank and filers, stewards and retired members – devoted months of their time, especially in the battleground states. 

"CWA members are proud to have played a big part in this historic election," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "It's a huge victory for working and middle income Americans, who soon will have in the White House and Congress real advocates for the critical changes our country and economy needs – a laser focus on creating quality jobs here in the U.S., real health care reform and real bargaining rights through the Employee Free Choice Act that will enable working people to secure a better future," he said.

Labor's effort overall helped produce a voter turnout that could, when finally tallied, equal the nearly 64 percent turnout in the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon election. In fact, voter participation in many battleground states – nearing 80-90 percent of registered voters – hasn't been seen since the 1920 election when women first exercised their right to vote.

Among CWA's campaign highlights:

--  More than 100 coordinators in other battleground states mobilized 10,000 member volunteers for Election 2008 actions.

--  During the week of worksite action in October, more than 1,500 worksites were leafleted across five CWA districts.

--  CWA members in New York and New Jersey took 40 to 60 buses every weekend to Pennsylvania to support labor actions, worksite leafleting and labor walks.

--  CWA members and locals held more than 1,000 debate watch and convention watch parties.

--  More than 700,000 leaflets were distributed at worksites and other locations, produced by CWA to focus on members' key issues – jobs, the McCain tax on health care, veterans' issues, the economy, guns and the Second Amendment, equal pay for women, and more.

--  Mailings to nearly 100,000 retired members focused on the McCain tax on health care, Social Security and other issues important to retirees.

--  200,000 members in battleground states received a series of mailings comparing Senators Obama and McCain on the issues.

-- Two election issues of the CWA News covered key issues affecting working families.

Anti-Employee Free Choice Campaign – An Election Non-Issue

Despite $20 million spent in nine battleground states by big business interests to attack support for the Employee Free Choice Act by Democratic Senate candidates, voters ignored the misleading attacks and overwhelmingly favored candidates who support working families.

That's the finding of a survey by Hart Research commissioned by American Rights at Work.  ARAW Chair David Bonior, in releasing the results today, noted:  "Not only did the opponents of Employee Free Choice fail to affect these races, often those candidates supporting the bill rose in the polls despite massive advertising on the issue."

The misleading ads, mainly bankrolled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are based on a complete lie -- the claim that Employee Free Choice would "eliminate secret ballot elections" in union campaigns.  Most of the candidates targeted by the attacks won their elections, and even in other races the issue wasn't a serious factor.  Less than one percent of citizens who voted for the anti-Employee Free Choice candidate voiced any unfavorable mention of unions or the bill itself as a factor in their voting choice, the survey found. 

In fact, voters in these battleground states "are more than twice as likely to say big corporations having too much power (50 percent) creates a bigger problem for people like them than big labor unions having too much power (23 percent)," according to Hart.

"We have only seen the beginning of the fight to restore workers' rights in this country and we can expect more sound and fury from opponents of this bill," said Bonior.  "But voters have clearly spoken.  In our current economic climate, the American public is hungry for measures to strengthen the middle class, and our new Congress should heed this call and make it a priority to pass the Employee Free Choice Act."

Colorado Voters Reject Two Anti-Union Amendments

A campaign by a coalition of Colorado unions, including CWA, some business groups and political leaders succeeded in defeating two deceptive anti-union ballot measures in their state Tuesday.

"Amendments 47 and 49 were contrived by wealthy special interests, including so-called 'right to work' groups, simply to block workers from having a real voice, whether in the workplace or in public policy," said Louise Caddell, CWA District 7 vice president.

Cadell said the amendments "would have harmed the labor-management environment that so many in Colorado – business, labor, our elected leaders and community groups -- are working hard to maintain. Colorado voters rightly rejected these measures."

Amendment 47 would have made Colorado the 23rd "right to work" state, allowing workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to opt out of paying dues or agency fees to support unions' resources and ability to represent workers.

Without the impediment of Amendment 49, public workers will be able to advocate for issues affecting their jobs and communities. "Coloradoans care about the economy, about health care and about bringing quality jobs to our state. Their vote rejecting these amendments shows that they don't support divisive and disruptive tactics," Caddell said.

Despite the coalition's hard work, special interests prevailed on one anti-union measure, Amendment 54. It attempts to ban political contributions by companies that win exclusive contracts with government as well as by unions that represent government workers.

The coalition expressed disappointment that Amendment 54 gained majority support, saying their opponents' campaign was based on lies, fraud and deception. From the start, backers of the amendment hid the identities and agenda of donors and lied about the initiative's intent and effect.

AFA-CWA Files to Represent Flight Attendants at Lynx, Ryan

AFA-CWA filed petitions with the National Mediation Board for separate representation elections on behalf of the 87 flight attendants at Lynx Aviation flight and 150 at Ryan International.

Lynx Aviation is a regional carrier for Frontier Airlines and sometimes is known as Frontier Express. Ryan International is a U.S. based air-charter carrier, serving such customers as the Department of Defense, the Justice Department and tour operators.

 "Over the past few months, we have heard overwhelmingly from Lynx flight attendants that they want a voice in their workplace and the benefits that come with being members of the world's largest flight attendant union," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "Ryan flight attendants are showing a strong commitment to shaping the future of their careers by joining AFA-CWA," she said, adding, "this is exactly the right move by these flight attendants, at the right time."

IN BRIEF:

• Please send us your photos of Election 2008 activities. We are posting them regularly on The Source, CWA's website for union communicators. E-mail photos to news@cwa-union.org. A selection of these photos also will be published in the next issue of the CWA News. View the photos in the Election 2008 campaign section of The Source http://cwa.smugmug.com/gallery/5359728_SgCKm.
  
  
  
  
• Cards from CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for Employee Free Choice reached 107,995 as of Nov. 4, as pledge cards and online sign ups continue to come in. Locals are urged to encourage members, retirees, and their families to continue to sign on to the campaign. Cards collected by CWA and other unions – the overall goal is 1 million – will be displayed in and around the U.S. Capitol building after the new Congress is sworn in. Sign up online at www.FreeChoiceCWA.org.

October 30, 2008

• Voting on Qwest Tentative Contract Extended through Nov. 6
• Only 5 Days Left: Voter Turnout Critical to Election Outcome
• AFA-CWA Cites both Threat, Opportunity in Delta-Northwest Merger
• CWA Offers Suggestions for FCC Telecom Access Reform
• Ohio GM Members Approve Package of Retirement, Transfer Options
• IN BRIEF:
• CWA Reviewing Details of CenturyTel/Embarq Merger
• AFL-CIO Launches Radio Ads to Protect Voters' Rights at the Polls
• McCain Advisor: Most Won't Want McCain's Health Care Plan

Voting on Qwest Tentative Contract Extended through Nov. 6

The ratification period for CWA members to vote on a proposed new contract at Qwest Communications has been extended by one week.

A second tentative agreement was reached Oct. 10 and the results of the mail balloting, being conducted by the American Arbitration Association, originally were to be released on Oct. 31.  However, reports of delayed mail service due to a high volume of political and election mailings in several Qwest states has resulted in the delay of ballot materials to many CWA members.

Extending the voting period to Nov. 6 – with the count to be completed and released on Nov. 7 -- will ensure that all members have the opportunity to vote on the proposed agreement, said District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell.

The agreement covers about 20,000 CWA-represented workers at Qwest in 13 states.

Only 5 Days Left: Voter Turnout Critical to Election Outcome

CWA President Larry (top photo) said GOTV efforts by union members are critical to electing Obama-Biden and labor backed candidates to Congress and statehouses. Behind Cohen, from right to left, are Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, and congressional candidates Judy Feder and Gerry Connolly. Several hundred CWA and other union members rallied in Charleston, West Virginia (bottom photo).

CWA activists are using the last five days of the 2008 election campaign in efforts aimed at getting union members out to the polls Nov. 4.

"Winning comes down to our getting co-workers and fellow union members out to vote," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Our work over these last days can help ensure a victory for Obama-Biden and pro-worker candidates who support Employee Free Choice, health care reform and other programs to rebuild the middle class," he said. "We can't assume we've won based on the polls," Cohen warned.

While some polls show Obama-Biden with a 7- or 8-point lead, an increasing number indicate that the race has narrowed to just a few points not only nationwide, but in the battleground states. If this is so, victory will depend on who does a better job of getting out the vote.

CWAers are redoubling their efforts in battleground states where the election will be likely won or lost – especially in Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania where the McCain-Palin ticket has refocused a majority of its resources.

"Our goal is knocking on the doors of 27,000 members' residences in northern Virginia," says Dolores-Trevino Gerber who is coordinating CWA's activities in the critical toss-up state. Last weekend, President Cohen joined with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, two congressional candidates, and more than 400 members of CWA and other unions in a rally to kick off the final GOTV effort. Afterwards, activists visited more than 4,000 union households in spite of rainy weather. Precinct "labor walks" and phone banking are continuing daily through the election.

In Indiana, another the "Red" toss-up state, members of CWA Locals 4900 and 4998 who spend hours on the phone each day as AT&T customer service reps, are manning phone banks to elect Obama, a pro-worker governor, and to defeat Right to Work legislation. "This has to be a huge effort where everyone gets involved. We know that our livelihoods hang in the balance," says phone banker Jane Phillips Harrison, legislative director of CWA Local 4900. "Every day we talk to people who either haven't heard of a candidate, or are looking for more information, but our members know they can trust on us to give them the facts. Watch a video they posted at http://labor2008.typepad.com/in/2008/09/cwa-taking-over.html.

In Missouri, another "Red" state now considered a toss-up, locals are heavily engaged. "Members from all CWA locals are working evenings and weekends, doing block walks and manning phone banks," reports  CWA Representative Mark Franken, legislative political coordinator for the state. "The amount of time spent by members, local officers, stewards, and staff is incredible," he says.

In Nevada, another "Red" toss up state, CWA and other unions are playing a major role in not only moving the state into Obama's column, but also replacing an anti-union incumbent with a pro-worker challenger in the 4th congressional district. Help is pouring in from CWA members from locals in bordering California – Local 9575 from Camarillo and Local 39098 from San Jose.

In Pennsylvania, GOTV is in overdrive. Members of CWA and other unions are making 5,000 to 6,000 phone calls a night in the southwestern part of the state. "There were so many volunteers last night that we ran out of phones," said former TNG President Linda Foley who is working with phone bankers at a Steelworkers office in Pittsburgh. Statewide, union support for Obama-Biden is at 67 percent, according to former IUE-CWA staffer Jack Shea, who heads the Allegheny County labor council. Watch their video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRanPpYcYPw&feature=email.

In Colorado, another "Red" state now leaning to Obama-Biden, more than 250 CWAers and activists from other unions are walking union neighborhoods day and night, visiting some 16,000 homes in the Denver area with less than a week to go. Their effort is helping  defeat three anti-union constitutional amendments on the ballot, and elect a pro-labor candidate to the U.S. Senate.

Dozens of photos and video links from activists are flooding into CWA each week and we are posting them on The Source, our website for union communicators. View them by navigating to our photo gallery in our Election 2008 campaign section.

Election handouts can be downloaded from the Election 2008 Campaign section on the Source, and from the AFL-CIO's Working Families Toolkit website.

Also visit the CWA Votes site, for a side-by-side comparison of both candidates' positions and other election and polling information at http://www.cwavotes.org.

AFA-CWA Cites both Threat, Opportunity in Delta-Northwest Merger

With the approval by the Justice Department this week of the merger between Northwest and Delta Air Lines, AFA-CWA noted that bargaining rights at Northwest now are threatened, but that the merger also "provides an enormous opportunity to advance the profession of over 21,000 flight attendants" at the new merged company.

"With such vast opportunity also comes a great responsibility to protect the 60 years of collective bargaining rights that Northwest flight attendants have long fought to maintain," said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend.

Organizing efforts have continued after Delta flight attendants narrowly missed winning union recognition earlier this year.  While AFA-CWA won the vast majority of votes cast in the election, Delta management's aggressive voter suppression campaign kept thousands from a casting a vote.  Due to participation by less than 50 percent, the National Mediation Board refused to validate the election.

Sometime next year, after the National Mediation Board determines that the merged carrier is a "single transportation entity," an election will take place to determine union representation among the entire combined unit of flight attendants.  A union victory is essential to maintain bargaining rights for the Northwest employees as well as bring long-sought representation to Delta flight attendants. 

Leaders from both units issued an upbeat response:  "We now have the potential to be the largest flight attendant union in the world and look forward to working together to make that a reality," said AFA Northwest Airlines President Kevin Griffin and AFA-CWA Delta Campaign Coordinator Angela Winningham.

CWA Offers Suggestions for FCC Telecom Access Reform

CWA voiced support for the main thrust of an FCC proposal to update policies governing access charges paid by long distance and wireless providers to local wireline companies – changes meant to reflect the shift from copper wire to digital -- but suggested modifications to protect jobs and service provided by mid-size rural companies.

CWA also offered ways to improve the FCC's proposals for using the federal Universal Service Fund (USF) to spur high-speed Internet deployment.  CWA's Speed Matters campaign has long supported using the USF, originally created to expand voice service in rural areas, to expand broadband service.

In a letter this week to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, CWA President Larry Cohen applauded the general framework of a draft proposal that would level the playing field between telecom companies and cable companies, ending the cable industry's use of loopholes in the system to avoid paying access charges for its long-distance service.

However, proposed changes to sharply curtail access charges over four years would hurt rural mid-size carriers such as Embarq, Frontier, Century Tel, Windstream, FairPoint and others, not giving them sufficient transition time to adapt to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, Cohen stated.  The proposal could cost jobs and have the unintended result of reducing their investment in broadband.

The current FCC proposal would require mid-size carriers to offer broadband service to all customers within 5 years or lose their USF subsidies – all the while seeing revenues from access charges declining.

To protect workers and rural customers, CWA urged the commission to consider ways to ease the transition on rural companies, such as extending the period for reducing access charges, and to consider creating a supplementary USF available to rural carriers for broadband build-out.

Ohio GM Members Approve Package of Retirement, Transfer Options

IUE-CWA members have approved a settlement with General Motors that offers a range of buyout, early retirement and transfer options for 1,000 workers at the Moraine, Ohio, plant that is slated to shut down in December.  The agreement also provides a trust fund for retiree health benefits.

"We are proud of what we have negotiated, but we realize that nothing compensates for the end of a career," said IUE-CWA Industrial Division President Jim Clark.  The Division and Dayton Local 84798 rallied community and political leaders in recent months to try to rescue the plant, which manufactures sport utility vehicles, urging GM to bring in new product lines and citing the outstanding productivity of the Moraine workforce.  However, GM stuck with plans to shut the plant, forcing the union to negotiate the best deal it could to ease the transition. 

The settlement provides a cash payment of $3,850 along with a 3 percent performance bonus retroactive to Sept. 15, 2007, tuition assistance and transfer opportunities to other GM plants, and a "special attrition package" for leaving the company or retiring.  GM will offer cash payments of up to $140,000 depending on years of service.

The contract calls for GM to contribute $1.6 billion to fund retiree health benefits in a tax exempt voluntary employees beneficiary association (VEBA) trust.

IN BRIEF:

• CWA is carefully reviewing details of the proposed merger of CenturyTel Inc., and Embarq and how it would affect members, said CWA Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus. CWA represents workers at both companies which serve customers in mainly rural areas. Embarq is the company formed by the spinoff of Sprint's local telephone operations.  The merger must be approved by federal and state regulators.
  
  
  
• To ensure that voters know their rights when they go the polls Nov. 4, the AFL-CIO launched nonpartisan English and Spanish radio ads last weekend in 16 media markets in 10 battleground states as well as Washington, D.C.
  
  The ad series, part of the federation's "My Vote, My Right" project, features TV Judge Greg Mathis, rap artist Ludacris and actors Edward James Olmos and Hill Harper. The message is: Don't let anyone prevent you from voting.
  
  The ads remind voters to make sure they know where their polling place is, to bring identification with them to the polls and not to leave without voting – as long as you are in line when the polls close you are still eligible to vote.
  More "My Vote, My Right" information is available online at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/civilrights/votingrights.cfm.
  
  
  
• Even the McCain campaign says its health care plan stinks. Senior McCain advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin told CNN that "younger, healthier workers likely wouldn't abandon their company-sponsored plans" for the health care tax credits McCain has been touting.
  
  "Why would they leave?" he said. "What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit."
  
  As Holtz-Eakin knows, and as newspaper editorials and economists point out, McCain's $5,000 tax credit for couples falls far short of the cost to replace most workers' employer-provided coverage, especially for older workers who could face annual premium costs of $12,000 or more.
  
  But under McCain's plan, those workers could be out of luck anyway. Because McCain plans to tax employer-based health care benefits, workers would either be paying a fat new tax for their employer-paid health insurance or could lose it altogether. That's because economists believe many employers would stop offering group insurance if McCain's plan became law.
  
  
  

October 23, 2008

• Election Victory Depends on Having the Best 'Ground Game''
• CNN "Fact Checker" Gets It Wrong on Employee Free Choice
• CWA Joins 87 Groups, Individuals in Blasting ACORN Attacks
• CWA Suit Seeks to Halt AT&T 'Shell Game' Over Contracts
• IN BRIEF:
• Don't Forget Your Camera on the Campaign Trail
• 104,769: Million Member Mobilization Signers
• Newspaper Publisher Sees Nothing Wrong with Outsourcing Local Journalism

Election Victory Depends on Having the Best 'Ground Game'

With the Nov. 4 election just 12 days away, activism by CWAers continues to build across the country, as members – despite encouraging polls for Barack Obama and labor-backed congressional candidates – are leaving nothing to chance.

"Our activists are not letting up or getting overconfident," stated CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. "Past elections have taught us some bitter lessons. We realize that our work doesn't stop until the polls close on Nov. 4," she said.

Reports that continue to pour in from CWA locals show that local activists are working hard to make voter turnout in 2008 the highest in history. Whether distributing flyers at worksites, manning phone banks, walking union members' neighborhoods, or helping fellow members get registered, CWAers realize that the candidates with the best "ground game" – number of activists working in key battleground states – will prevail in the election.

At right, Kathy Antoniewicz, CWA Local 4603, prepares a local union mailing while phone banking. At left, CWAers sign in at District 7 HQ before participating in a labor walk in Denver.

Here is a rundown of just some of the many reports we are getting from across the country.

In Michigan, CWA members are playing a major role in phone banking efforts. "Our members are excited about the Bush presidency coming to an end," said CWA 4050 President Dave Skotarczyk. "The last thing we want is to let McCain get elected and subject working men and women to four more years...This is why so many of us are actively involved in everything from labor walks, to phone banks, and to leafleting worksites. That's why we'll be continuing to push the labor 2008 program all the way through Election Day," he added.

In Kentucky, CWAers are talking to members in the workplace about Obama's strong support for health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act. "We keep working as hard as we can to make sure members can't say that they don't know enough about the candidates to make a decision," said Jan Garkovich from CWA Local 3372. "Union members make up 30 percent of the vote in Kentucky. We have to make sure they get out to vote," he said. The local could make a big difference in Lexington, where it represents nearly 900 members in the area.

Mobilizing for the election, members of IUE-CWA Local 84755, at left, hand bill co-workers at the DEMAX plant in Dayton, Ohio. At right, Mike Rossi from Local 13000 works a phone bank in Philadelphia .

In Ohio, IUE-CWA members are blanketing worksites. In Dayton, Local 84755 members hand billed co-workers outside DEMAX, a diesel engine manufacturing plant employing 800. In Youngstown, Local 84722 members hand billed co-workers at Ohio Lamp plant where 300 union members work. "Hand billing is important because people trust what comes from their union and the people they work with," said Local 84755 President Bob Hewitt. This week, IUE-CWA launched a union-wide phone banking center at the sector's Dayton headquarters. "There's nothing more effective than IUE members talking to IUE members," said Lauren Asplen, assistant to IUE-CWA President James Clark.

In Pennsylvania, a critical state where John McCain has recently concentrated major resources, CWAers from neighboring New York and New Jersey are continuing to bus in every weekend to help CWA members in that state. Last week, members from Locals 1034, 1103, and 1180 visited registered union members' homes in Philadelphia and its suburbs. CWAers in Pennsylvania work in tandem with the activists, driving the volunteers to neighborhoods throughout the city. Members of Local 13000 are now organizing volunteers for an across-the-state GOTV effort beginning Nov. 1.

In John McCain's home state of Arizona, CWA Local 7019 President Chris Rossie held a forum for members to discuss how the election's outcome will impact the middle class at a "Working Families for Change" event in Arizona. The local posted a video of the link here.

Dozens of photos and video links from activists are flooding into CWA each week and we are posting them on The Source, our website for union communicators. View them by navigating to our photo gallery in our Election 2008 campaign section.

Hundreds more photos and videos of CWA activists are being posted online. To post or view pictures, go to the Labor 2008 section of Flikr. To post or view videos visit this section of YouTube. Search "CWA" to locate the galleries at both sites.

Election handouts can be downloaded from the Election 2008 Campaign section on the Source, CWA's website for local union communicators, and from the AFL-CIO's Working Families Toolkit website.

CNN "Fact Checker" Gets It Wrong on Employee Free Choice

The Employee Free Choice Act would not take away workers' right to continue to organize by way of a traditional secret-ballot election, but you wouldn't know it from most of what is being said by networks or pundits covering the election campaign.

Last week, on "Fact Check from CNN's Truth Squad," CNN reporter Alina Cho stated that John McCain was correct when he charged that Obama wants to "take away" workers' right to a traditional secret-ballot election. Go here for the report.

Yet when CNN was contacted about the error by the workers' rights organization, American Rights at Work, a network spokesperson said they stood by the report and refused to issue a correction.

CNN did see fit to correct another error that it made in its report – that a "majority" of workers currently have to sign authorization cards to petition for a union election. In fact, it takes only a 30 percent showing of interest under provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.  And that option would remain in the law after passage of Employee Free Choice.   The new legislation would give workers an option to seek immediate recognition based on union authorization by a majority of workers, and also would provide for first-contract arbitration and tougher penalties on employers for labor law violations.

"We can't stand by and allow fear tactics and misinformation about Employee Free Choice to determine the outcome of this critical legislation," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "In this age of sound bites, a false charge can eventually become true if it remains unchallenged."

We need to flood CNN with the facts about Employee Free Choice and get the network to issue a correction. E-mail your complaint to CNN here.

CWA Joins 87 Groups, Individuals in Blasting ACORN Attacks

CWA joined with 87 unions, civil rights and community leaders, and lawmakers in supporting ACORN's work in registering traditionally disenfranchised voters in the face of efforts by the GOP and the McCain campaign to discredit these efforts and distract from the real campaign issues.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has helped over 1.3 million low-income people, minorities and young voters register, the joint statement noted. The group came under partisan attack because ACORN itself was victimized by a few people it hired at $8 an hour to register voters who filled out phony registration forms for such fictitious characters as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN flagged these obviously sham registrations when it turned over all forms collected to state officials.

Rather than commend ACORN for trying to police the problem, Republicans have seized the opportunity to invent a "scandal." The GOP has long attacked community-based voter registration drives because of its fears that registering the urban poor to vote works against its interests.

The joint statement notes: "We recognize ACORN's commitment to make the election process clean and fair for all Americans and to make its own program the best it can be. This is emblematic of ACORN's long tradition of working to empower working families, people of color, and low-income communities. ACORN's success in bringing new populations into the electorate should be recognized and supported for what it is: a deeply patriotic act dedicated to strengthening democracy in America."

"This attack, based on exaggerated charges and overheated rhetoric, is outrageous in view of the fact that almost 30 percent of eligible voters, 71 million, didn't register or vote in the last election," said CWA President Larry Cohen.

The support letter is being sent to lawmakers and the news media.

CWA Suit Seeks to Halt AT&T 'Shell Game' Over Contracts

CWA has filed a lawsuit against AT&T Inc. and 29 of its major subsidiaries "in an attempt to halt the company's use of corporate shell games to avoid contractual obligations to CWA and its members," the union stated.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in San Antonio, Texas, charges that company is using consolidations and reorganizations to reassign workers throughout its various entities in ways that threaten members' contractual wages, benefits, seniority and working conditions, said Executive Vice President Annie Hill, who heads CWA's Telecom Office.

As the "New AT&T" has reassembled much of the old Bell System – Southwestern Bell (SBC), Ameritech, Pacific Telesis, and Bell South, along with AT&T Mobility, Southern New England Telephone, AT&T Internet Services and "Legacy AT&T" – it uses a "corporate fiction of 'separate companies' to avoid accountability for contractual obligations," Hill stated.

CWA's lawsuit argues that AT&T Inc. is the real decision-maker and that every major subsidiary is an "alter ego of AT&T." The company "should not be permitted to hide behind the corporate veil to avoid accountability for collective bargaining obligations," CWA contends.

The lawsuit asks the court for injunctions to halt contract violations and that AT&T be ordered to recognize that it is a party to every subsidiary's collective bargaining agreement and that it be required to negotiate with CWA on all issues that fall under these agreements.

IN BRIEF:

• As you head out for the last week and a half of canvassing, phone banking and other election activities, don't forget your camera.

The post-election issue of the CWA News needs photos of our members knocking on doors, making phone calls, cheering at rallies and anything else they're doing as volunteers to elect Senator Barack Obama and a pro-worker Congress.

We need high-resolution digital photographs or high-resolution scans of prints. You can also send us prints by regular mail. One way to get a variety of pictures is to hand out disposable cameras to members and urge them to shoot the entire roll. Rather than pose people, try to get candid shots of our members engaged in activities.

Photos can be e-mailed to: jmiller@cwa-union.org. For regular mail, send to: CWA News, 501 3rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

 

• Cards from CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for Employee Free Choice reached 104,769 as of Oct. 21, as pledge cards and online sign ups continue to pour in. The amount surpasses by 22,000 the initial 82,000 goal CWA set when the campaign began last summer.

Locals are urged to continue to get as many members, retirees, and their families signed on to the campaign as possible. Cards collected by CWA and other unions – the overall goal is 1 million – will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building after the new Congress is sworn in. Sign up online at www.FreeChoiceCWA.org.

 

• Putting cost-savings above his newspapers' quality and accuracy, MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton says his company is exploring more ways to outsource and offshore work – including copy-editing and design jobs.

Singleton, whose holdings include many TNG-CWA papers, said, "In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter," the Associated Press reported.

Singleton's comments, coming during and after a speech to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Associations, angered Guild leaders. They said it was the first they'd heard of his plans, and that they will fight to save local jobs – for readers' sake, as well as workers.

"We understand the need for newsrooms to operate more efficiently in tough economic times," said Sara Steffens, chair of the bargaining unit for newspapers recently organized by TNG-CWA in the San Francisco Bay area. "But outsourcing copy-editors is a terrible idea. The move would damage beyond repair the things readers and advertisers value most about newspapers: Our wealth of local knowledge, and our commitment to accuracy and fact-checking."

October 16, 2008

• CWA Reaches New Tentative Agreement at Qwest
• 19 Days to Go: CWAers Spread Word to Vote Early
• CWA Pushes Economic Recovery Plan for American Families
• CWA-Backed Broadband Bill Signed into Law
• Avis Workers Overcome Language Barrier and Threats
• IN BRIEF:
• The Union Difference - Even Bigger Among Young Workers
• Million Member Mobilization Tops 100,000 Signers
• Underemployment - Highest in 14 years

CWA Reaches New Tentative Agreement at Qwest

CWA reached a new tentative contract settlement with Qwest Communications that includes numerous improvements in workplace respect and other issues that members believe are critical at Qwest, along with improvements in wages and other gains.

CWA bargainers won agreement by Qwest management to resolve long standing job quota issues and performance expectation concerns, an acknowledgment by management that workers deserve respect for their contributions to the company.

The new proposed settlement is a four-year agreement that boosts wages by 3 percent each year, providing a compounded 12.55 percent increase over the contract term, a change from the previously negotiated three-year agreement.

"We recognize that to deliver the certainty of a four-year agreement to our membership in troubled economic times is a win for our members and Qwest," said CWA District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell.

The new agreement also includes the previously negotiated 3 percent increase in pension bands and a new health care option, maintaining affordable, quality health care for workers and families. There will be no health care increases in the contract's fourth year.

"This settlement is an improvement over the earlier tentative agreement, in that it further addresses workers' key workplace issues, including respect. In the face of our current economic crisis and Qwest's financial circumstances, we believe this allows us to move forward in building our members' futures and Qwest's success," Caddell said.

The ratification vote is underway, to be concluded by Oct. 31. The vote is being conducted by the American Arbitration Association.

19 Days to Go: CWAers Spread Word to Register and Vote Early

In Fairfax, Virginia, members of Locals 2222 and 2252 received an overwhelmingly positive reception from rush hour commuters who honked approval to the workers'  "Honk If You Like Obama" signs. The action was held outside a hotel hosting a McCain-Palin fundraiser. In North Carolina, CWAers are distributing a "I Voted Early. Ask Me How!" sticker to encourage workers to register and vote during the state's early Oct. 16-Nov. 1 voting period.

With Election day fast approaching – just 19 days away – CWA members across the country are intensifying their outreach to co-workers and union families on the critical difference that the election's outcome has for workers, unions and the middle class.

This week, as part of CWA's National Worksite Action Week, Oct. 13-17, local activists have volunteered their time to handbill co-workers in worksites, phone bank, and urge members to register to vote.

CWAers are also urging members to take advantage of the opportunity to vote early in the more than 30 states that allow it. In the key battleground state of North Carolina, where early voting runs from Oct. 16 to Nov. 1, members are distributing special "I voted early. Ask me how?" stickers. "This simple message helps us spread the word that you not only still have time to register, but also to vote early," said Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus, who is working to get out the vote in the state. The vast majority of CWA North Carolina locals, aided by Stewards Army volunteers, are distributing the stickers at workplaces statewide.

The battleground states of Ohio, Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania are other early-voting states where CWA activists are at work.  In the Pittsburgh area, "People are really receptive to us," said Local 13500 Executive Vice President Carol Coultas, whose local has been holding labor walks every Saturday through working family neighborhoods. "This is the first election in years where we've seen so many people who really want to talk about the issues," she said adding, "We are really seeing that our work is paying off."

In New Mexico, state employees who were once forbidden to take part in political activity are handbilling worksites this week outside public health offices and Qwest locations in Albuquerque.  Governor Bill Richardson recently signed legislation allowing state employees to handbill.  "This year is important for unions," said CWA Local 7076 President Tom Scharman.  "We're encouraging members to support congressional candidate Martin Heinrich and Barack Obama because they are with us on health care, a living wage, and so many other issues."

CWA Pushes Economic Recovery Plan for American Families

CWA is proposing a bold plan for the country's economic recovery that is built on creating 21st century jobs, restoring bargaining rights for U.S. workers through the Employee Free Choice Act and reforming a broken health care system.

"This Economic Recovery Plan for American Workers is exactly what working and middle income families need in this time of economic crisis, and we'll be working with members of Congress to make sure workers are included in plans for economic recovery," said CWA President Larry Cohen following adoption of the plan by the Executive Board.  (See full text of the plan at CWA's homepage, www.cwa-union.org.)

CWA is joining with other unions, civil rights, community and faith-based groups, student and senior organizations, and others to build support for a recovery plan that addresses the current and longterm needs of American families, Cohen said.

"We've seen an enormous handout for Wall Street, now we need real attention to Main Street. That means the creation of quality jobs by developing alternate energy sources, necessary repairs to our highways, bridges, schools and communities and especially important, investment in the global economic engine for the 21st century, the buildout of high speed Internet networks," he said.

The only way for workers to restore their bargaining power and for our country to rebuild the middle class is through the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen said. "We're through listening only to the organized voices of bankers, brokers and billionaires. Real bargaining rights are the best economic stimulus for restoring our middle class and our standard of living," he said. 

Real health care reform is the third critical element of the plan. The U.S. must move from a system that is in effect a "tax" on quality jobs, in which employers who provide quality benefits are at a competitive disadvantage to those who do not, and in which workers who leave or lose their jobs find themselves in the growing ranks of the uninsured, Cohen said. The U.S. is virtually alone among the world's global democracies in failing to establish a health care system that works. Now is the time to move forward so that American families can have the world class health care they deserve.

CWA-Backed Broadband Bill Signed into Law

The Broadband Data Improvement Act, passed by the Senate in September, has become law.

CWA’s Speed Matters Strategic Industry Fund campaign was the prime mover behind this measure, which will improve data collection about the current deployment of high speed Internet networks and move the United States toward a national broadband policy that will bring true high speed Internet access to all Americans.

The legislation is important to map the extent of broadband coverage in the U.S., and where there is limited or no access to Internet networks.

CWA President Larry Cohen testified several times on Capitol Hill on how the U.S. is losing ground in the build out and use of true high speed Internet networks, compared with nearly every other industrial democracy.

The Speed Matters campaign stressed that high speed Internet networks are the economic engine of the 21st century and are critical to job creation, advances in medical treatment, and improved education, among other areas. 

Speed Matters activists raised the issue at the national, state and community levels for more than two years and helped gain national recognition for the campaign’s Speed Test, which measured the download and upload speeds promised by Internet service providers.

Avis Workers Overcome Language Barrier, Threats to Join CWA

A unit of Avis rental car service agents at Denver International Airport overcame a language barrier and threats from management to organize with CWA this week. The vote in the NLRB election was 26-15, with all but five of the 46 workers voting. The ballot was printed in five languages.

Dignity, respect, equity, and decent working conditions are major issues for the group, most of whom are immigrants from Africa, Indonesia and the Middle East, according to District 7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler, who assisted in the campaign.

"They were routinely subjected to disrespectful and discriminatory treatment by managers," said Kogler. Management spread misinformation about unions, trying to take advantage of the workers' lack of familiarity with U.S. labor laws, but the workers' inside committee stayed united. Management from the company's Dallas office even got involved in the campaign.

Workers have charged that supervisors issued veiled threats to activists. "The victory is a testimony to the workers. Many are from Sudan and war-torn nations and are new to America, but they didn't give in," according to Kogler.

A key factor in the victory was support the workers received from IUE-CWA-represented Avis workers at Logan Airport some 2,000 miles away in Boston. The workers, represented by Local 81201, produced a handout welcoming the group into CWA and explaining the benefits of union representation.

IN BRIEF:

• In today's tough economy, younger workers are earning about 10 percent less than their counterparts did in 1979, adjusted for inflation. That means it's more important than ever that they understand how much better they could do if they are part of a union.
  
  A new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research strongly makes that point. It finds that young, unionized workers, ages 18 to 29, earn, on average, 12.4 percent more than their non-union peers – about $1.75 per hour more. They are also more likely to have health and retirement benefits.
  
  "Unions make a big difference for younger workers," said study author John Schmitt. "There is no economic theory that says young people have to be poorly paid or go without benefits." 
  
  The study, "Unions and Upward Mobility for Young Workers," is available online at www.cepr.net.
  
  
  
• Cards from CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for Employee Free Choice reached 101,196 as of Oct. 14, as pledge cards and online sign ups continue to pour in. The amount surpasses by nearly 20,000 the initial 82,000 goal CWA set when the campaign began last summer. Locals are urged to continue to get as many members, retirees, and their families signed on to the campaign as possible. Cards collected by CWA and other unions – the overall goal is 1 million – will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building after the new Congress is sworn in. Sign up online at www.FreeChoiceCWA.org.
  
  
  
• In a bad job market, the number of unemployed is just one important statistic. Another one is the underemployment rate, and right now it's higher than it's been in 14 years – 11 percent.
  
  "The growing number of underemployed workers is painting a grim picture of the difficulties jobseekers are facing," the Economic Policy Institute says in its weekly economic snapshot. "Underemployment is a more comprehensive measure of labor market slack than headline-grabbing unemployment rates because it also includes part-time workers who want full-time jobs." Jobless workers who want a job but have temporarily given up on finding one are also counted as underemployed.
  
  The full snapshot and other economic news for working families is available at www.epi.org.

October 9, 2008

• CWA and Qwest Resume Contract Talks
• Election Countdown: CWA Sets Oct. 13-17 as National Worksite Action Week
• CWA Joins Blue Green Alliance to Build Green Jobs
• Members Join Cohen for Wide-Ranging Online Discussion
• GM Refuses IUE-CWA Efforts to Keep Moraine, Plant Open
• IN BRIEF:
• Million Member Mobilization Nears 100,000 Signers
• AIG Celebrates $85 Billion Bailout with Luxury Retreat for Execs

CWA and Qwest Resume Contract Talks

CWA and Qwest bargainers resumed negotiations today following members' rejection of the earlier tentative agreement. 

The current contract, covering 20,000 workers in 13 states, has been extended through the end of the day tomorrow, Oct. 10.  Bargainers on both sides are hopeful about reaching a new agreement that will be acceptable to CWA Qwest members by the midnight deadline, said District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell.

Following a conference call of local presidents last week, the CWA bargaining team has been working to finalize issues, which include respect and job dignity issues as well as other non-economic and economic concerns.

The District 7 website, which requires members to get a password from their locals, will provide secure and updated information about the talks.  Members should contact their locals to get password information.

Election Countdown: CWA Sets Oct. 13-17 as National Worksite Action Week

With just 26 days of work left until Election Day, CWA has designated next week - Oct. 13-17 - as CWA National Worksite Action Week to bring extra focus to the election and the importance of the outcome for union members and the middle class. "People like to feel part of something bigger and having a single action that we can work on collectively is one way to foster that feeling," said Executive Vice President Annie Hill, who heads up CWA's Election 2008 efforts.

CWA has developed two handouts - "Who's On Our Side" and "Are We Better Off" - that members are encouraged to print out and distribute to their co-workers, friends and family members. One focuses on the current economic crisis and the other on how the middle class has suffered over the past eight years. Additional handouts can be downloaded from the Election 2008 Campaign section on the Source, CWA's website for local union communicators -- www.cwa-union.org/source/campaigns/election-2008.html
-- and from the AFL-CIO's Working Families Toolkit website www.workingfamiliestoolkit.org.

With so little time remaining until the election, CWAers have been redoubling their political activity across the country with a special focus on battleground states.

In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, CWA Local 1180 members (top photo, by Local member Gary Schloichet) gather after a day of campaigning. Bottom photo, 34 members from Locals 13000, 13302, 13500, and 13550 contacted over 1,000 members during phone banking.

Every Saturday since Sept. 20, CWA members from New York and New Jersey have bused into Pennsylvania to help CWAers in the critically important battleground state shore up support for Barack Obama and pro-worker congressional candidates, reported District 1 and 13 Vice Presidents Chris Shelton and Ed Mooney. The activists are jointly participating in neighborhood walks, talking to voters about the issues, and urging them to get out to vote.

This weekend, three busloads from CWA Locals 1034, 1037 and 1182 will be traveling to eastern Pennsylvania, with at least eight more busloads scheduled for the next two weekends. Carloads of members from CWA Locals 1032 and 1084 are also making weekly trips into the state.

Earlier this week, 34 members from CWA Locals 13000, 13302, 13500, and 13550 called more than 1,000 members in southwestern Pennsylvania at a Working Families Phone Bank set up at the Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh.

In another battleground state, Mississippi, CWAers have been actively campaigning for Obama and for Ronnie Musgrove, candidate for the U.S. Senate. Every week, members from Locals 3511 and 3570 are participating in block walks and phone banking. Weekly phone banking is being conducted from Local 3511's union hall, which has 36 lines set up.

CWA Joins Blue Green Alliance to Build Green Jobs, Economy

CWA is joining the Steelworkers, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council as part of the Blue Green Alliance that is working to create good "green" jobs that help solve the problems of global warming.

The organization represents 4 million people in the partnership to build a clean energy economy and create quality jobs.

CWA President Larry Cohen said by advancing the rights of workers, the U.S. can create exciting opportunities for American families in the green economy. "We share common concerns that runaway economic policies are preventing workers from organizing and bargaining collectively and fail to direct our economy to create sustainable middle-class jobs," he said.

The Blue Green Alliance is working to educate the public about solutions to reduce global warming pollution that will result in the creation of millions of jobs and a clean energy economy, the critical need to restore the rights of workers to form a union and bargain collectively, the establishment of a fair trade policy and curbs on the use of toxic chemicals to enhance and protect public health.

Members Join Cohen for Wide-Ranging Online Discussion

CWA President Larry Cohen met online with members across the country on Wednesday to answer a wide range of questions about the election, the economy, workers rights, outsourcing, health care, retirement security and the future of the union movement.

A transcript of the chat is available online on the CWA Votes website at http://www.cwavotes.org/cwavotes/content/cwa_debate_chat_transcript.

One participant asked about helping people make the connection between today's economic crisis and the need to rebuild America's union movement.  "For 80 years policy makers have understood that collective bargaining means a better deal for workers and creates demand for goods and services," Cohen said. "The U.S. has been moving in the opposite direction making it nearly impossible for working Americans to gain collective bargaining coverage. More union workers means more bargaining power and better pay.  This in turn raises our buying power and stimulates the economy far better than another rebate."

One member, working hard for Obama, asked, "How do we keep from demobilizing after Jan. 1 and getting the disappointments we had with Clinton on things like NAFTA."&nb