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January
17, 2008
CWAers
Meet with Arkansas
Senators to Build EFCA Support
In Arkansas, CWAers
and other union members have put the Stewards Army to work on the union
movement's biggest priority: passing the Employee Free Choice Act. CWA
members and union activists met this week in Little Rock with Arkansas Senators
Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor to talk about the Employee Free Choice Act
and its importance to working people.
Lincoln
and Pryor, both Democrats, are critical to building enough support in the
U.S. Senate for the measure so that opponents can't filibuster the bill
and prevent an up or down vote despite its majority support.
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Regina Cain,
left, meets with Senator Lincoln
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Meeting
with Lincoln, Regina Cain, a steward and member of Local 6507, contrasted
conditions at her workplace today – the AT&T Mobility call
center in Little Rock
– with those under previous management when workers who wanted a
union voice were harassed and intimidated. When Cingular, now
AT&T, bought the company, workers were able to quickly organize under
the company's neutrality and majority card check organizing agreement
with CWA.
Cain
told Lincoln about the real value a union contract brings to the lives of
the mainly women workers at the call center and called on the senator to
support the Employee Free Choice Act so more workers could make a fair
choice about union representation. Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas
AFL-CIO, also attended that meeting, along with representatives of the
USW.
Separately,
Ricky Belk, president of CWA Local 6502 and secretary-treasurer of the
Arkansas AFL-CIO, had a similar meeting with Senator Pryor. Both senators
have agreed to future follow-up meetings with CWAers on the Employee Free
Choice Act.
CWA
Battling Idearc over Unilateral Pension Freeze, Health Cutbacks
Battling
a unilateral pension freeze and benefit cutbacks by Idearc Media, CWA is
mounting a major grassroots mobilization and corporate campaign against
the directory advertising firm, which was spun off from Verizon in 2006
but remains the official publisher of Verizon directories.
About
700 CWA and IBEW members in New England
and Upstate New York have been working without a contract since June when
the company declared a bargaining impasse and imposed steep
concessions in all benefit programs as well as job security and sales
commission plans.
The
unions have filed unfair labor practice charges, currently being
investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, against the company
for declaring an illegal impasse, bad faith bargaining, refusing to
provide information and making unilateral contract changes.
"We
have fought hard over 45 years to gain the contracts we currently enjoy,
and the company wants to take it all back in one round of
bargaining," said District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. The CWA workers are
represented by Massachusetts Locals 1301 and 1302.
Other
CWA contracts with Idearc expire this summer and at various points
throughout 2009. Altogether, CWA represents 1,700 Idearc workers in
17 locals in Districts 1, 2 and 13 in the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic. Their jobs include sales, customer service, graphic
design and clerical support.
Representatives
from the Idearc locals are meeting with union officers and staff today in
New Jersey
to map out a strategy that includes reaching out to shareholders, the
financial community and news media.
The
unions' message: Idearc is compounding poor management decisions
that have tanked the company's stock by 48 percent in the past year by
creating labor turmoil and poor employee morale. While Idearc's
revenues are dropping, those of its major competitor AT&T Directories
grew by 26 percent in the first three quarters of 2007.
Vermont Regulators Refuse to Fast-Track
New FairPoint Deal
Despite
intense lobbying from the companies for fast-track regulatory approval in
Vermont of Verizon's proposed sale of phone lines to FairPoint
Communications, the state Public Service Board listened instead to key
lawmakers and ruled yesterday that it would hold hearings to examine
terms of a revised deal.
The
companies had submitted a new sale plan in Vermont
similar to one approved earlier in Maine,
which reduced the debt load on FairPoint by $247 million.
Verizon's bid to sell its business in northern New England requires
approval of all three states, Maine, Vermont and New
Hampshire.
Four
legislative leaders this week had urged the board to call for hearings
and give "careful scrutiny" to the revised deal, citing CWA's
and IBEW's contention that the modified proposal falls far short of
leaving tiny FairPoint as a viable company capable of providing quality
telecom service, let alone bringing high-speed Internet service to the
region. FairPoint, currently the 18th largest telecom company,
would have to borrow $2.7 billion in the transaction.
Even
as modified, the deal "would allow FairPoint to invest $40 to $50
million a year less in the northern New England
network than Verizon has in recent years," the lawmakers wrote to
the regulatory board. Signing the letter were Sen. Vincent Illuzi,
chair of the economic development committee; Senate Pres. Peter Shumlin;
Speaker of the House Gaye Symington; and Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, chair of
the commerce committee.
In
opposing the sale, CWA has been running radio and print ads in the region
comparing the companies' modification to "putting lipstick on a
pig" (www.nofairpoint.org).
The ads note that FairPoint's top Internet speeds are 20 times slower
than Verizon's, and the crushing debt burden on FairPoint would leave it
in a financially shaky condition.
Union Flight Attendants, Agents Play Key Role in Piedmont
Election
CWA
and AFA-CWA-represented workers at Piedmont,
US
Airways and other airlines are playing an important role in Piedmont
agents' campaign to get a union.
Their
union election begins next week when the agents start receiving balloting
information from the National Mediation Board, and voting runs until Feb.
19, when the ballots are counted. "At this stage in the campaign it
means a lot for agents to hear from their union co-workers because
management's anti-union campaign of supervisor one-on-ones and mandatory
meetings is in full gear," said CWA Local 13000 organizer Harry
Arnold. "Given the problems we have with access to the workers,
support from union agents and flight attendants is critical," he
noted.
With
the heightened security measures put into place since the events of 9/11,
only ticketed passengers and other airline employees can get access to
parts of the airport where the Piedmont agents work.
The
union message is personally being carried to Piedmont agents by
CWA-represented mainline (US Airways) agents who are talking with the
workers every chance they get. "Hearing from a union agent goes a
long way to debunking the anti-union message that the agents are getting
from Piedmont," said CWA Local
13301 Secretary Deborah Robinson.
"We
were glad to help," said Betsy Tettelbach, a flight attendant who
heads the union's master executive council at Piedmont Airlines.
"It's important that union airline workers -- flight attendants,
pilots, or agents – are always willing to support our co-workers,
whether they are trying to organize or need bargaining support.
Solidarity really matters in our industry," she said.
Union
agents and flight attendants will be wearing "We Support Piedmont
Agents" bag tags and lapel stickers, and flight attendants have
enlisted the support of pilots who have also agreed to wear pro-union
stickers.
NABET-CWA
Members Ratify Contract with ABC
NABET-CWA
members nationwide have ratified a new four-year contract with Disney ABC
after months of tough, tense bargaining and an overwhelming vote to
authorize a strike if necessary. The pact covers 2,500 technicians,
camera operators, news writers and other employees.
"On
behalf of our bargaining committee, I want to thank our ABC members for
their support and patience during these difficult negotiations,"
NABET-CWA President John Clark said. "Without their support, we
wouldn't have been able to win the numerous and significant concessions
we were able to wrest from the company during the intense final week of
bargaining."
Among
the union's victories, negotiators got ABC to drop its demand to
eliminate its workers' defined-benefit pension plan, one of the key
issues that led to the strike vote last spring.
Wage
increases will be effective retroactively to Dec. 15, 2007. Most
members will see raises of 3.5 percent
immediately, followed by 3 percent in April 2008, another 3 percent in
April 2009 and 3.5 percent in the contract's final year.
The
contract also includes improvements for daily hires, including making
some frequent daily hires eligible for health care coverage and other
benefits through Disney's Signature Benefit Plans.
CWA
President Larry Cohen praised Clark and the rest of the bargaining team,
calling the contract, "an enormous accomplishment given the
management demands to end seniority and the pension, and
the intensity of this fight for so many months. Your leadership
and the outstanding bargaining committee, working with great local
leaders and mobilizers, are a model for all of us."
Stewards
Army Beats Verizon
Deregulation Drive in Virginia
Action
by the Stewards Army produced a big win in Virginia for Verizon consumers. In
response to CWA's campaign to safeguard Verizon consumers and quality
service and keep oversight of a critical public utility, Verizon has
dropped its efforts in the state legislature to end the regulation of the
sale of a telephone company.
District
2 staff, CWA locals throughout the state and the Virginia AFL-CIO are
continuing to fight Verizon's attempt to end regulation of basic
telephone service rates across the board for residential and business
customers. Bills pending in both houses of the legislature would permit
the total price deregulation of Verizon's operations; last year the State
Corporation Commission had established a competitive test to assess
whether prices could be deregulated.
In
testimony to regulators and other public officials, CWA members have
cited numerous examples of Verizon's failure to maintain basic telephone
service across the state; the company is focusing attention on the build-out
of FiOS – fiber optic Internet, television and phone service
– in select areas but isn't building these next-generation networks
in most communities in the state.
IN BRIEF:
- The
AFL-CIO has launched an expansive online survey about America's
broken health care system that will be shared with all presidential
candidates, current senators and representatives and everyone
running for Congress, as well as candidates for state and local
offices nationwide.
The
survey is available for the next month at www.healthcaresurvey.aflcio.org.
Questions cover such topics as whether Americans are going into debt
because of medial bills, whether they are skipping follow-up visits,
treatments and prescriptions because they can't afford them, whether
they are locked into jobs for fear of losing health insurance and
what they pay out of pocket annually for health care.
Participants are encouraged to tell their own health care stories in
as much detail as possible. They can submit them anonymously or have
them published using their first names.
"No doubt, special interests like insurance and pharmaceutical
companies will try to scare Americans into accepting the
unacceptable system we have now," AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney said. "The results of this survey will keep America
on track, reminding everyone of how little there is to lose and how
deeply the problems run."
- When
state governments shop for companies to do business with, they have
the responsibility to choose those that respect workers' rights and
"treat their workers fairly and with dignity" Oregon Gov.
Ted Kulongoski told Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg in a letter urging
him to respect his employees' right to organize.
"I
am supportive of companies that adopt a worker-friendly posture as
they tend to enjoy a relationship that benefits both management and
employees," Kulongoski wrote. "Employees, if they choose
should have a contract that includes greater potential for job
growth, a fair grievance procedure, enhanced job security and
scheduled wage progression and annual increases."
The Jan. 4 letter didn't specifically cite the Verizon Wireless or
Verizon Business campaigns in which the company has refused to
recognize unions despite having a majority of workers in many
locations sign cards seeking representation. However, Kulongoski's
message was clear.
"I have long believed that the right to form and join a union
is something that we must protect for everyone," he wrote.
"As your employees look to the future, I encourage you to work
with them and respect your workers' right to organize. I believe
such a stance is in the best interest of all of Oregon's working men and
women."
- Chamber
to 'Populist' Candidates: We'll Bite You Until You Bleed The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce has issued a warning to those pesky
"populist" candidates for president: If you consider
workers' rights anywhere near as important as the right of
businesses to make money hand over fist, we're going after you.
No, those weren't the exact words of Chamber President Tom Donohue.
These were: "We plan to build a grass-roots business
organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you
bleed," Donohue told the Los Angeles Times last week in a story
about the Chamber's plans to spend more than $60 million to defeat
any candidate it deems "anti-business."
Donohue told the Times the Chamber plans to be active in 140
congressional districts, nearly four dozen state attorney general
and supreme court races, as well as the
presidential race.
"I'm concerned about anti-corporate and populist rhetoric from
candidates for the presidency, members of Congress and the
media," Donohue said. "It suggests to us that we have to
demonstrate who it is in this society that creates jobs, wealth and
benefits -- and who it is that eats them."
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