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January 5, 2007
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
CWA: AT&T-BellSouth Deal Can Spur High-Speed Buildout
The FCC's approval of the merger of AT&T and
BellSouth clears the way for increased investment and
buildout of high-speed networks that are critical to the
region's economic growth and the nation's position in
the global economy, CWA stated. Union leaders also
applauded AT&T's commitment to return jobs that have
been outsourced overseas.
CWA President Larry Cohen said the merger agreement
included real commitments by AT&T-BellSouth for an
expanded buildout of both higher speed Internet services
and DSL, an important step forward in bringing the full
promise of the Internet to areas that have been passed
by.
District 3 Vice President Noah Savant said: "Workers
at BellSouth know that the future of communications and
their own future are in the buildout of high-speed
telecommunications services. This merger should help
provide the resources to make this possible, and at the
same time, should help create quality jobs."
"Of course we remain concerned about the net effect
on jobs within the region for frontline employees and
the services we provide," Savant noted. "We are pleased
to see AT&T's commitment to bringing thousands of
support jobs back to the United States." Under the
agreement, some 3,000 jobs are slated to return to the
U.S.
Cohen stressed that CWA strongly supports an open
Internet "where consumers can go where they want, when
they want. Nothing should be done to degrade or block
access to websites," he said. CWA also believes that
reserving proprietary video bandwidth is essential in
order to make such a buildout possible. The FCC
recognized this in reserving the IPTV space as
proprietary, much as cable controls the bandwidth on the
set-top box, Cohen noted.
NLRB Charges
Illegal Lockout at the Toledo Blade
The NLRB this week backed CWA's charge that the
August lockout of CWA printers and other workers at the
Toledo Blade was illegal, while also citing a wide range
of other labor law violations by the newspaper.
The director for NLRB Region 8, Frederick J.
Calatrello, set a hearing date of March 19, 2007, to try
charges that the publisher has failed to bargain in good
faith with its unions, illegally locked out over 200
printers, mailers, paper handlers and engravers, and
engaged in multiple acts of coercive surveillance and
illegal threats to fire workers.
"The NLRB complaint has vindicated our locals'
bargaining position and focused the blame for this
unnecessary labor dispute on the company. Hopefully,
they will now bargain in good faith so that our members
can get back to work with a fair contract," said CWA
Printing Sector President Bill Boarman.
Journalists represented by The Newspaper Guild-CWA
also have been in bargaining with the newspaper but so
far have not been locked out.
If the Blade is convicted of the labor board's
charges, the workers could receive a sizeable award for
back pay and benefits.
Issues in the dispute include demands by the Blade
for major cutbacks in wages, health care and other
benefits as well as virtually eliminating job
protections and weakening of grievance provisions and
union rights.
Go to
www.stoptheblade.com for more information on the
dispute.
CWA Vigilance Brings Down Texas Privatization Scheme
In a major victory for CWA public workers and social
service recipients in Texas, the state is taking back a
large share of the Health and Human Services work it had
contracted to a private company in 2005.
Members of the Texas State Employees Union-CWA Local
6186 put enormous pressure on state officials and
lawmakers as the union campaigned against the scheme,
which was gradually replacing walk-in state offices with
call centers staffed by a non-union contractor.
In the process, according to the union and media
reports, thousands of program recipients were dropped
from the rolls for Medicaid, food stamps, Children's
Health Insurance and other state-managed assistance
plans. Applicants complained that their documents were
lost and mishandled. And there were none of the savings
promised by the private employer, Accenture, a
Bermuda-based company that won an $899 million contract
to run the call centers.
"We're excited, really excited," said TSEU-CWA
President Judy Lugo. "We fought hard. This has been my
whole life for a long time. We wrote letters, we made
phone calls, we went to every meeting, every hearing.
We'd go around to our members and tell them, 'Don't give
up. We're going to win this.'"
Many employees, even some with as much as 18 years
seniority, were getting e-mails telling them their jobs
were going to be cut. Some moved on to other agencies,
and others were laid off, Lugo said. Now the DHS
commissioner is promising that no more jobs will be lost
and that 900 temporary workers will be made permanent.
Accenture will continue some of its contract work
through 2008, but its employees will largely be confined
to data entry jobs, leaving experienced state workers to
once again determine clients' eligibility for aid.
The news media also is paying attention. A Houston
Chronicle editorial called the scheme an "expensive
blunder" and said the lesson "is that some state
services, particularly those that provide a social
safety net for the most vulnerable of Texans, should not
be contracted out to companies more interested in
amassing profits than serving needy citizens."
Ken Ferguson, Retired Assistant to 4 EVPs, Dies
A. Kenneth Ferguson, retired assistant to several CWA
executive vice presidents, died Dec. 20, 2006 at age 90.
"Ken was just a super assistant. That's why so many
people kept picking him up," said retired Executive Vice
President M.E. Nichols, who was succeeded in the office
by now-CWA President Larry Cohen.
Ferguson served as Nichols' assistant from 1980 until
he retired in October 1988. Nichols credited him with
astute oversight of the union's education, scholarship
and safety and health programs. Ferguson had previously
served as assistant to former Executive Vice Presidents
James Massey, Louis Knecht, who later became
secretary-treasurer, and George Miller.
Ferguson in 1946 hired on with Southwestern Bell
Telephone in Missouri as a cable splicer's helper. He
served as a steward and president of Local 6325 between
1952 and 1960, when he joined the staff as a CWA
representative. He worked out of the union's Kansas
City, Mo., office until 1964, then from the District 6
headquarters office in St. Louis. He came to Washington
as EVP James Massey's assistant in September 1969.
Solidarity Brings Success in Labor's Fight
at Goodyear
Pressure from CWA and the rest of the labor movement
helped force Goodyear's hand at the bargaining table,
ending a three-month strike with a contract that secures
retiree health care benefits and protects jobs at 12
U.S. plants represented by the Steelworkers.
The 15,000 striking workers returned to their jobs
Jan. 2 after ratifying the three-year contract over the
holidays. The strike began Oct. 5.
CWA President Larry Cohen called the contract a "huge
victory" for the striking workers and the American labor
movement, as all unions are facing battles over health
care and job security.
"Today we can all celebrate the kind of victories our
movement can experience if we dig deeper and build the
solidarity we will need to preserve our standard of
living and build our power," Cohen said. "But we can't
rest on our laurels. There is lots of hard work ahead
and the key to our success lies in building the stewards
army."
As Cohen took a lead role in rallying labor for the
Goodyear fight, CWA members and staff turned out for
December leafleting and demonstrations at the tire
company's stores across the country.
"We owe a debt of gratitude to the entire labor and
activist communities, which rose with unprecedented
solidarity to challenge Goodyear's assault on our
members," USW President Leo Gerard said.
The contract establishes what the USW calls an
"innovative company-financed trust" of more than $1
billion that will secure medical and prescription drug
benefits for current and future retirees.
Goodyear has closed several U.S. plants and sent
thousands of tire company jobs to China and other
countries with low wages and lax labor laws. The new
contract allows the company to close one more plant, in
Tyler, Texas, by the end of 2007. However, the contract
also requires the company to triple its capital
investments to at least $550 million in
Steelworker-represented plants.
IN BRIEF:
- For the first time, workers in the
United States employed by EFE News Service, a
Madrid-based Spanish-language news agency, have a
union contract.
The News Media Guild-CWA, which also
represents Associated Press and United Press
International workers, reached the contract after a
year at the bargaining table. Workers ratified it
unanimously in late December.
"This is a big step in securing quality journalism
in the Spanish language," NMG President Tony Winton
said. "By maintaining fair standards, EFE can
attract and retain the best journalists as it
competes in the exploding Spanish language media
market."
The agreement covers about 30 professional
journalists and administrative employees in Miami,
Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.
Highlights include raises of more than 5 percent, a
401(k) savings plan with employer contributions
starting in 2008, a dental plan, improved medical
plan, better vacation and holiday benefits and
important job security provisions, including a
grievance and arbitration process.
The agreement is the first the company has signed
with workers outside Spain. Unionization efforts are
also under way in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
- As The Wall Street Journal unveiled its
smaller size this week in a bid to save money on
newsprint, members of TNG-CWA turned to a rival
paper to call attention to the other ways the
Journal is shrinking — in staff,
wages and benefits.
"These changes threaten the editorial
quality that readers have depended on for over a
century," Guild members said in an ad in Tuesday's
New York Times, explaining that journal publisher
Dow Jones wants to raise employee health care costs
by 400 percent — far exceeding the raises offered to
workers. Further, the company has fired all its
reporters in Canada and is outsourcing some
reporting to another company, as well as contracting
out 200 technical and support jobs.
"The Journal is all about quality," the ad states.
"Without good pay and benefits, Dow Jones can't
expect to attract and retain the best in the
business. If the quality journalists leave, the
editorial excellence of The Wall Street Journal goes
with them."
The ad asks Journal readers to tell Dow Jones to
preserve the quality of the paper "by preserving its
quality workforce." E-mails of support can be sent
to the union at
union@iape1096.org and will be relayed to Dow
Jones.
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