November 19, 2009
Tax Our Health Care? No Way!
Get the latest news on the Senate bill
that taxes health care benefits for middle class and
working families. CWA President Larry Cohen has an
update and action alert for CWAers,
click here to view.
TU Gets the Attention of Management in U.S. and
Germany
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|
CWA Pres. Larry Cohen talks
about TU at National Press Club. Panel, from
left: "X," a disguised U.S. T-Mobile worker;
Prof. Adrienne Eaton, Rutgers; Ado Wilhelm,
ver.di; and interpreter Hae-lin Choi. |
U.S. and German workers at T-Mobile sent a message to
management on both sides of the Atlantic this week. A
group of nine workers, plus CWAers from AT&T Mobility,
came to Washington to talk more about TU, the global
union for German and U.S. workers at T-Mobile, and to
meet with NLRB, Labor Department and other government
officials about T-Mobile's assault on workers in the U.S
who want a union.
German workers were stunned at how American workers
are treated by T-Mobile and the atmosphere of fear and
repression that the U.S. workers live under, especially
as they work to get a union voice. That message quickly
got back to German parent Deutsche Telekom, Ado Wilhelm,
a ver.di official and leader of the German worker group,
reported.
The U.S. workers almost couldn't believe how T-Mobile
in Germany respects workers' rights and supports the
right of workers to form a union; that's not what
happens in the United States.
At a media briefing at the National Press Club, CWA
President Larry Cohen said the goal of TU was to
overcome the double-standard of how T-Mobile and parent
Deutsche Telekom treat workers in their home countries
compared to how U.S. workers are treated. In TU, CWA
works with U.S. members and telecom workers and ver.di,
which represents workers at T-Mobile and DT, is
responsible for overall relations with the company.
"X," a U.S. T-Mobile employee, told reporters how
workers are forced to listen to anti-union messages at
closed door meetings and intimidated about even taking
union leaflets. "X" was fully disguised, because "people
who support a union are just fired, gotten rid of.
That's why I'm wearing a disguise. That's why I can't
even let you hear my voice."
New research by John Logan of San Francisco State and
the labor center at Berkeley documents T-Mobile's record
of harassment and intimidation of workers who want a
union. Since T-Mobile entered the U.S. market in 2001,
it has created an atmosphere of fear and repression for
workers. Logan outlined his research at a forum attended
by the wireless workers, other academics and
representatives of the Friedrich Ebert center,
Georgetown University's program for labor and the
working poor, and American Rights at Work.
The group also attended a CWA organizing institute
and the German workers joined AT&T Mobility workers and
CWAers in leafleting a T-Mobile operation.
Compass Airlines Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA
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Flight attendants at Compass
Airline celebrate. From left: transitional
AFA-CWA Compass secretary Jay Krohn, Teresa
McKissick, Robert Mason, Jason Zessin and
Catriona Bagley, transitional AFA-CWA Compass
president. |
Flight attendants at Compass Airlines voted
overwhelmingly to join AFA-CWA this week.
"Compass flight attendants look forward to
negotiating a contract that will provide security, as
well as advance our careers. As AFA-CWA members, we will
have a voice at the bargaining table and work alongside
management in creating a leading regional airline
contract that recognizes our role as safety
professionals," said Catriona Bagley, a Compass flight
attendant and transitional AFA-CWA president of the more
than 300-person unit.
Compass Airlines, formed in 2007 as a Northwest
Airlink partner, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta
Air Lines.
Qwest Cuts Management Pay, Pensions
Qwest Communications says it will save about $100
million by stopping contributions to managers' pension
plans and freezing their pay. The cuts will take effect
on Jan. 1.
The move is a red flag to CWAers at Qwest, who have
sacrificed over the past decade to help restore their
company's economic viability.
"We're putting Qwest management on notice now that it
better not be thinking about trying to cut workers'
pensions, pay and benefits," said District 7 Vice
President Mary Taylor.
"CWA bargained hard last year not only for the real
improvements in wages, benefits and working conditions
that our members deserved, but for the acknowledgement
from management that frontline workers are critical to
Qwest's success and deserve respect. We will keep
pushing forward," she said.
CWA's contract with Qwest, covering about 20,000
workers, expires in 2012.
Student Activists Beat Russell Athletic
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Students at Georgetown
University spread word about Russell Athletic. |
United Students Against Sweatshops stared down one of
the nation's biggest sportswear companies and got it to
agree to rehire 1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their
jobs after they voted for a union last January.
For ten months, the students ran a national campaign
against Russell Athletic after the manufacturer of lots
of college gear shut down a Honduras factory after
workers voted for union representation.
USAS organized "the largest boycott in the history of
student activism" and convinced the administrations of
Boston College, Columbia, Harvard, New York University,
Stanford, Michigan, North Carolina and 89 other colleges
to end their sales and promotional agreements with
Russell.
USAS also won the support of 65 members of Congress
who wrote to Russell about their "grave concern about
reports of severe violations" of labor rights in
Honduras.
USAS activists also picketed the NBA finals,
leafleted outside sporting goods stores and used social
networking to build an even bigger base of consumers who
would commit to boycotting Russell products.
Not only did Russell agree to reopen the factory,
rehire all the fired workers and open the new plant as a
union factory, it also agreed to neutrality and
non-interference at seven other factories in Honduras.
In 2001, USAS supported CWA members at New Era Cap in
New York who struck for a fair contract, demonstrating
at colleges and calling for a boycott of New Era. USAS
produced a report that cited New Era, a producer of
Major League Baseball caps and other college and sports
caps, for sweatshop conditions that caused injuries and
unsafe conditions.
Cohen Presses for Action to Bridge America's Digital
Divide
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Attending the Minority
Broadband Summit: CWA Local 2336 President
Michael Harris, CWA Local 2201 Equity
Committee Chair Kirk Jones, Local 2336 EVP
Valerie Matthews Monroe, CWA Pres. Larry
Cohen and Julius Hollis, chair of the
Alliance for Digital Equality.
|
With Internet speeds and access in most of the
developed world leaving the United States in the dust,
America's low-income and minority households are
particularly at risk of being left behind in the digital
world, CWA President Larry Cohen told the Minority
Digital Summit in a keynote speech Wednesday.
The event was sponsored by the Alliance for Digital
Equality, a coalition of corporate, consumer, public
policy and other organizations including CWA that is
pushing for broadband expansion in rural and inner city
areas. The summit brought together policy makers, media
and others to address the critical issues facing
underserved communities.
High speed broadband access is the key to quality and
affordable education, ending disparities in healthcare
and improving access to specialists, whether in urban or
rural areas, and promoting economic development in low
income communities, Cohen said.
"High-speed broadband and digital literacy are
necessary for economic growth and national
competitiveness and to ensure that all Americans -- no
matter where they live -- can take advantage of the
promise of the Internet," he said.
Puerto Rico Newspaper Owned by Workers is Now Online
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The Puerto Rico Daily Sun
goes online.
|
The Puerto Rico Daily Sun, the English-language
newspaper started by a cooperative of workers who were
locked out of their jobs at the San Juan Star, is now
online at
www.prdailysun.com.
The website, also in English, was launched just in
time to celebrate the newspaper's one-year anniversary.
The Newspaper Guild-CWA, which represented the workers
at the Star, contributed $25,000 toward the website's
creation.
The newspaper employs about 90 workers from the Star,
who each bought an $800 share in the new venture.
Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses Being
Underreported by OSHA
In a report released this week, the Government
Accountability Office found that the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration failed to provide an accurate
accounting of the number of work-related injuries and
illnesses from 2005-2007.
The agency cited employer pressure that caused a
serious underreporting of work-related illnesses and
injuries by employers, health professionals and workers,
and OSHA's own lax audit process. The report is an
indictment of the low priority the Bush administration
gave to protecting workers' health and safety.
More than half of the health professionals surveyed
by GAO said employers had pressured them to downplay an
injury or an illness so it would not have to be
reported. Two-thirds said they observed workers
expressing fear of being fired or disciplined if they
reported an injury or illness. One third said employers
had pressured them to provide insufficient treatment to
hide or downplay injuries and illnesses.
The GAO also criticized OSHA's auditing process
because the agency does not regularly interview workers
during workplace illness and injury audits.
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said the findings were
"alarming" and promised that OSHA would take corrective
action. |
