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January 15, 2008
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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"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 coordinating 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. |
