October 4, 2007
CWA
Presidential E-Poll Up and Running
CWA's first-ever online poll asking members and
retirees to tell the Executive Board which candidate the
union should endorse for U.S. president is up and
running, and locals are urged to get the word out.
"We want our local leaders to rally members to go to
the polls – online polls in this case – with the same
energy and enthusiasm we bring to state and national
elections," CWA President Larry Cohen said.
The goal is for every local to have at least 10
percent of its members vote online at
www.CWAVotes.org. CWA headquarters will send updates
to locals about how many of their members have voted as
of Oct. 17 and Oct. 30, as well as a third tally on Nov.
13. The voting deadline is Nov. 9. Locals are urged to
use websites and e-mail lists, to post flyers about the
e-poll in workplaces and use their mobilization
structure to get the word out.
In the e-poll, CWAers are asked to check whether or
not they think CWA should make an endorsement before the
primaries are held next year, and to select the
candidates of their choice.
The website includes answers to CWA questions on key
issues from seven of the eight Democratic candidates for
president -- Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd,
John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Bill
Richardson. Candidate Mike Gravel didn't respond, nor
did any of the Republican candidates, despite repeated
requests to their campaign offices.
All candidates from both major parties received
letters from the Executive Board asking them about their
commitment to the Employee Free Choice Act, their
specific plans for health care reform and how they would
retain and increase American jobs and reduce the trade
deficit.
Shorter versions of the candidates' responses,
reduced because of space restrictions, will appear in
the upcoming issue of the CWA News, which will be in the
mail in mid-October.
CWAVotes.org also includes a form members can use to
post their own questions for candidates. They can also
sign up for training to help them present the views of
working America in the fast-growing world of political
blogs.
Cohen and CWA Executive Vice President Jeff
Rechenbach said they are counting on local leaders to
make the CWAVotes.org project a success by getting as
many members involved as possible.
"This historic opportunity to help shape our
presidential endorsement represents CWA democracy at
work," Rechenbach said. "Help bring back bargaining
rights in the United States, win the fight for real
health care reform, and create policies that support
American jobs by making our voice heard."
344 More AT&T Mobility Workers Organize in N.C.
Just two weeks after more than a 1,000 of their
co-workers organized in Florida, a unit of 344 of AT&T
Mobility's retail sales workers in North Carolina gained
recognition this week when the American Arbitration
Association certified that a majority of the workers
supported union representation through CWA's card check
and neutrality agreement with the company.
With their latest organizing gains in District 3, 79
percent of AT&T Mobility's retail employees, or 7,600
workers, have organized nationwide, gaining recognition
in 35 of the 45 states where the company has retail
stores and outlets.
Two AT&T Mobility workers in Winston Salem took the
lead in the early stages of the campaign by creating a
web presence, and by networking with other retail
workers across the state and holding meetings online.
Their website is
www.cwa4nc.blogspot.com.
It was a statewide effort with many locals helping
out in the campaign. Local 3607 Organizer Dave Coker
assisted the workers, and local President Gary Hunter
made the local's resources available to wherever the
workers needed help across the state. Local 3603
President Bonnie Overman and the local's organizers
assisted workers in the Charlotte area, with support
also coming from Locals 3601, 3602, 3605, 3610, 3611,
and 3616.
NLRB
Continues Attack on
Organizing Rights
In yet another attack on workers' organizing rights,
the Republican majority members on the National Labor
Relations Board ruled that decertification petitions, or
an election petition from a rival union, can be filed
within a 45-day period of the time an employer grants
union recognition to employees based on majority card
check.
The decision represents a dramatic, 180-degree shift
in Board policy, which, since 1966, had held that a
"recognition bar" took effect when union recognition was
granted and lasted for one year. The case, decided Sept.
29, involved a challenge to card check
elections recognition of United Auto Workers at two auto
parts dealers.
Board chairman Robert J. Battista and members Peter
C. Schaumber and Peter N. Kirsanow ruled that any
post-recognition contract would also not bar an election
if the Board's new 45-day time window requirements were
not met. "If a valid [decertification or rival union's]
petition supported by 30 percent or more of the unit
employees is filed within 45 days of the notice," they
said, "the petition will be processed." They also said
that petition signatures may be obtained before and
after the date of recognition.
The Board's two dissenting members, Wilma Liebman and
Dennis Walsh, slammed the majority's decision, charging
that the ruling "cuts voluntary recognition off at the
knees."
The employer "has little incentive to recognize a
union voluntarily if it knows that its decision is
subject to second-guessing through a decertification
petition," they noted. The Board's "new window period
leaves the parties' bargaining relationship open to
attack by a minority of employees at the very outset of
the relationship, when it is at its most vulnerable."
CWA Launches New Web Resource for Union
Communicators
A one-stop shopping center for CWA newsletter
editors, webmasters, local leaders and organizers and
anyone who needs a hand communicating with members or
the public is now available at a new website, The
Source, online at
www.cwa-union.org/source.
The Source replaces the old Editors' News Service –
once a hefty packet of paperwork mailed to editors every
few months and later a limited-use website.
Calling the new site a valuable resource, President
Larry Cohen noted: "Communications and member education
is vital to all of our programs and goals. No matter how
hard we work as national and local leaders, victory
depends on our members knowing what the issues are and
what we need them to do."
The new site is packed with news, photos, graphics,
how-to's and other resources for union communicators.
News stories, updated at least weekly, can be picked up
and used as-is or edited in local newsletters and on
websites. Photos of demonstrations, conferences and
other events are posted in photo galleries and can be
downloaded as low-resolution files for web use or
high-resolution files for print publications.
Templates are available to help communicators create
flyers, press releases and media advisories. The site
will also have video and audio files and occasional
online chats.
Users can post "Ask the Expert" questions about any
aspect of the process of putting out a newsletter,
taking photos, creating a website, writing a news
release – anything at all involved in communicating with
members.
The site is in its infancy and will grow and change
as staff gets new material and feedback from users. Feel
free to make suggestions via the "Contact Us" link at
the bottom of the site.
CWA Members Walking to Defeat ALS
"For Pete's Sake." That's the slogan District 2
locals have adopted in organizing fundraising walks to
help in the fight against ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease.
The slogan refers to Pete Catucci, CWA vice president of
District 2, who is himself fighting ALS and who gave an
appeal on behalf of stem cell research at the CWA
convention.
CWA President Larry Cohen will participate in an ALS
Walk in Ocean Pines, Md., this Saturday, Oct. 6, and
Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach and Catucci
will join walkers in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 21. More
than 150 walks are scheduled around the country
including Center Valley, Pa., on Oct. 20 and Wayne, Pa.,
on Nov. 10.
District 2 members have already turned out for at
least one walk, in Hagerstown, Md. on Sept. 29, and
District 13 members walked in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15.
District 13 members are walking in honor of Julie
Kmetyk, a former Verizon employee and daughter of Local
13500 President Sandy Kmetyk, who died of ALS at age 20
in 2000, about a year after first displaying symptoms.
"I applaud CWA for participating in this," said
Kmetyk, "and I hope our members throughout the country
will walk to defeat ALS." Kmetyk serves on the board of
the Western Pennsylvania-West Virginia Chapter of the
ALS Association.
Said Paula Vinciguera, Local 2106 president, who is
coordinating the Ocean Pines walk, "We're doing this in
honor of Pete, hoping it will help him and anyone else
affected with ALS." She pointed out that Verizon will
make matching contributions for funds raised by its
employees.
Last year, walkers for ALS raised more than $12
million for research and to provide services to families
of those with the disease.
CWA members can find a walk in their area and sign up
as participants or sponsors by visiting the ALS
Association website,
www.alsa.org. Members can also sign up to become ALS
legislative advocates either through their website or at
tables staffed by volunteers at each walk site.
Both the House and Senate passed bills in July to
lift restrictions on stem cell research. Stem cell
treatments show vast promise for the treatment of ALS
and many other diseases. President Bush has vowed to
veto the legislation. Proponents say they are short in
the Senate by one vote necessary to override a veto and
are closely monitoring the legislation, awaiting action
by the Senate leadership, possibly before the end of the
year.
IN BRIEF:
- CWA's settlement last month with Verizon
to train all Maryland technicians about electrical
safety and health issues has been expanded to cover
technicians throughout District 2.
That means members in Virginia, West
Virginia and Washington, D.C., also will receive the
training, scheduled between now and Feb. 1, 2008,
CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said.
CWA pushed for the training as part of the
settlement between Verizon and Maryland's
Occupational Safety and Health division after the
death of Local 2100 member Marvin Benson, who was
electrocuted last October while working in an aerial
bucket.
- Disgusted but not surprised by President
Bush's veto Wednesday of a health insurance program
for low-income children, union leaders joined a loud
chorus of outrage from the bill's supporters – an
unusual coalition that brought Republicans and even
insurance industry leaders together with Democrats.
Despite bipartisan support for the bill in
the House and Senate, analysts say Bush is likely to
sustain the veto of the expanded State Children's
Health Insurance Program, which provides health care
for millions of children whose families earn too
much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy
private insurance.
Bush pledged to veto the bill all along, even after
Democrats and Republicans in Congress reached
compromises on the amount of aid and other issues
the administration raised.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney noted the cruel irony
of Bush's timing, coming the same week the president
declared "Child Health Day" – described as a time to
"reaffirm our commitment to helping children develop
good nutrition habits and active lifestyles, so
that they can grow into healthy and productive
adults."
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