January 18, 2006
CWA Has Hard Questions about
Verizon New England Deal
A proposed deal to sell off Verizon's wireline
business in three New England states to a minor player
in the telecom industry poses serious concerns about
both customer service and jobs, CWA President Larry
Cohen said.
He told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that
CWA will be asking tough questions of the companies and
state regulators in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont as
the $2.7 billion sale to North Carolina-based FairPoint
Communications is scrutinized.
"Transferring those lines and customers to FairPoint
is relegating those states to the basement in terms of
Internet access," he said, pointing out that FairPoint
is heavily debt-laden and "doesn't have the capital
structure to offer 21st century network services. It
takes $100 billion companies to roll out FIOS," he said,
referring to Verizon's fiber to the premise Internet
service.
CWA will be asking both companies and public service
commissioners about specific commitments to investment
in services and jobs, he said. CWA and IBEW represent
about 3,000 Verizon workers in the three states, whose
bargaining agreement expires next year.
While FairPoint has said it will maintain existing
union jobs and add 600 positions, the company's track
record is troubling. It recently closed several dozen
call centers in 17 states, consolidating the jobs in
Maine and Washington. CWA leaders want to know what
FairPoint plans to do with the 350 CWA-represented
Verizon customer service workers now employed in the
three states.
FairPoint currently has about 250,000 access lines
among its 28 rural telephone operations. The Verizon
deal would jump FairPoint to the 8th largest U.S.
telecom company, adding 1.5 million residential and
business lines, 234,000 high-speed data subscribers and
600,000 long distance customers.
Chinese Daily News Workers Win Major Back Pay
Judgment
Although their union organizing efforts have been
thwarted so far, workers at the Chinese Daily News in
Monterey Park, Calif., won a big victory as a federal
jury awarded them a multi-million dollar judgment for
the newspaper's willful violations of federal and state
wage and hour laws.
The jury verdict in the class action lawsuit found
that the Chinese Daily News violated California
provisions on overtime pay and meal and rest periods, as
well as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The jury
awarded the workers a minimum of $2.5 million, with the
final amount depending on damages assessed by the court
because the violations were found to be willful, along
with additional damages for the state violations.
Employees at the Chinese Daily News have been
fighting for fairness and a union voice since 2001 with
help from TNG-CWA but have been blocked by a long
management campaign of intimidation, illegal firings and
other fear tactics. During this long process of delay
and denial of workers' rights, the Chinese Daily News
employees remained determined to win workplace justice
and filed wage and hour lawsuits which were certified
as a class action last year.
"This decision brings some justice for workers who
have been intimidated and abused by management just
because they wanted to exercise their workplace rights,"
said Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of
TNG-CWA Local 39521.
TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said the fact that the
jury recognized the unfair treatment and shoddy behavior
of the Chinese Daily News management was a sweet victory
for workers after years of taking their charges and
complaints to the National Labor Relations Board and
getting no redress, despite findings of illegal actions
by their employer.
"Management had too many years to harass and
intimidate workers who should have long ago had their
union," Foley said. "This is a key example of why our
labor election system is broken and why we need to make
company neutrality and card-check recognition the law of
the land through the Employee Free Choice Act."
350 Workers Win Recognition at New Cingular Call
Center
More than 350 workers at a new Cingular call center
in Pueblo, Colo., gained CWA representation on Jan. 16
with AAA certification of their cardcheck organizing
victory, District 7 Vice President Annie Hill reported.
Their number will grow to 500-600 workers by May, when a
new class of trainees goes on the job.
CWA-negotiated health care benefits and contractual
raises attracted workers to the union but, said District
7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler, "The town has a rich
union history. The steel mill there, in its heyday
employed about 20,000 workers. That's down to less than
1,000 now, but it left a labor heritage there for a lot
of people."
Local 7702 took advantage of that to build community
support for an organizing campaign by marching in the
town's Labor Day parade. The marchers displayed a banner
welcoming Cingular and passed out the "Tale of Two
Companies" flier comparing Cingular to anti-union
Verizon Wireless.
Local President Ralph Mathews helped with handbilling
and conducted several meetings with the workers'
organizing committee. Secretary-Treasurer Carolyn
Martinez and Executive Vice President Tim Higgins also
assisted.
The call center opened in October when the first
class of 120 trainees went online. Because the company
negotiated certain incentives from the city, Kogler
said, Cingular is committed to maintaining an employment
level of at least 500 workers for the next several
years.
CWA Gears Up 'Speed Matters' Campaign
CWA released a major policy paper as part of its
"Speed Matters" initiative, a strategic campaign to help
bring affordable, high speed Internet to all Americans
and help create quality, 21st century jobs.
In a teleconference with reporters, CWA President
Larry Cohen stressed that the failure of the United
States to develop a national policy supporting true high
speed Internet access means that consumers are trapped
in a 20th century model while much of the world is
building on the advances of the 21st century.
Cohen cited Japan, where a public policy of
accelerated depreciation for high speed Internet
investment and low interest loans to promote build-out
have resulted in 80 percent of the population —
including those living in rural areas — having access to
true high speed Internet through fiber to the home.
"At least 15 countries in a few short years have gone
years and years ahead of where we'll ever get unless we
develop an aggressive policy to compete," he said. The
U.S. spends less on telecommunications as a percentage
of national income than our major competitors, he said,
adding that, we're missing a real opportunity to create
a stronger economy and the 21st century jobs that our
nation needs.
CWA's Speed Matters campaign calls for the build-out
of universal high speed access in the United States and
stresses that the Federal Communications Commission
should immediately upgrade its definition of high speed
from the current 200 kilobits per second to 2 megabits
per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream,
with additional benchmarks for future years.
The latest policy paper is available at
www.speedmatters.org, along with other news and
information. Consumers also can take a speed test to
measure their connection speed and compare it to their
state's average and other countries. It's followed by a
link to Congress to press elected officials to adopt a
national high-speed internet policy.
Urgent: Comments Needed to Save FMLA
As CWA fights to preserve the Family and Medical
Leave Act, the union quickly needs to hear from members
who have benefited from the law, or else have had
employers reject their requests for FMLA time.
CWA will be filing a response to the Labor
Department's request for comments in what the AFL-CIO
says could be the first step in a process to revise the
law and make it harder for workers to take FMLA leave.
Corporate America launched a campaign last year to
water down FMLA, which has helped an estimated 50
million working Americans since it became law in 1993.
Michael Eastman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said,
"Changing FMLA is our No. 1 priority right now in terms
of labor issues."
CWA General Counsel Mary O'Melveny said she needs
information from members by the end of January. She
asked members to e-mail her their stories at
maryo@cwa-union.org.
More information about the comment process, including
a sample letter, is available on the website of the
National Partnership for Women and Families. Go to
www.nationalpartnership.org and click on the FMLA
regulations link under "In the News." E-mail and postal
addresses are available if members want to submit
letters directly to the Department of Labor. O'Melveny
requested that members send her a copy of their letters.
CWA Retiree Champion Ed Creegan Dies at 75
Edward F. Creegan, chair of the CWA Retired Members
Council, died Jan. 12 of respiratory failure. He was 75.
"Throughout his career as an officer of Local 1106,
Ed never lost sight of the needs of his members and
their families," said CWA President Emeritus Morton
Bahr, a longtime friend. "That recognition extended into
retirement, where he became a champion for retirees, not
only for CWA but for all retirees."
A former president of Local 1106, New York, and later
president of the local's retired members chapter,
Creegan was elected as a District 1 board member of the
national RMC in 1999. He became head of the national RMC
in 2002.
Addressing the 2006 CWA convention, Creegan told
delegates: "As part of the extensive agenda to rebuild
and energize our union, I want to emphasize that
retirees, more than ever, are a vital part of the local
and national structure of CWA. An organized and active
retiree council can be a tremendous weapon when dealing
with unreasonable and anti-union employers."
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