• 'No Stripping' Campaign Fights for Jobs at Lucent
• Union Support Building among Verizon Business Workers
• Employee Free Choice Act Moves to the Full House
• IN BRIEF:
  • CWA's E-Activist Campaign Builds Support at Frontier
  • AFA-CWA Files for Relief from Givebacks at Northwest, Citing Profit Surge
  • CWA Locals Rev Up
  • CWA Media Members to Testify on FCC Ownership Rules

'No Stripping' Campaign Fights for Jobs at Lucent

CWA members at Alcatel Lucent are fighting back against the company's assault on their jobs and their livelihoods.

Because Alcatel, which recently purchased Lucent, is French-owned, Lucent created a shell company, Secure Lucent, to meet U.S. government demands that contract work be performed by a U.S. firm. Lucent management was transferred to Secure Lucent, but the company has refused to transfer CWA-represented technicians. Instead, these workers are being stripped of their security clearances and their work handed over to contractors.

Some 65 CWA technicians will lose their security clearances and their livelihoods if Lucent has its way. CWA represents about 2,600 Lucent workers overall.

"Alcatel Lucent management admitted that it could have transferred our members, but it wanted to get rid of collective bargaining and wanted a cheaper deal," said CWA President Larry Cohen in a video message to Lucent members, with CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, communications and technologies. (Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnkufTWsK3c.)

"Alcatel Lucent management must learn — and quickly — that there will be considerable losses to shareholder value when management acts as if our jobs, our rights and our union can be stripped away," Cohen said.

Maly stated: "This is a blatant disregard for those members who served the company well for many years — members who are dedicated employees, who have obtained the highest security clearances and have been the backbone in maintaining government contracts for Lucent."

This outrage, plus an announced 12,500 job cuts worldwide, is the focus of CWA's "No Stripping" campaign, which will build support from the labor movement, Congress, the public, European governments and others to stop the stripping of union jobs across the country and around the world.

Workers and their unions in several countries protested Alcatel Lucent's actions on Feb. 15. In France, a two-hour strike was organized by a joint committee of all five unions at Alcatel-Lucent, and in Belgium, workers held a half-hour strike. In Italy, the Netherlands and the United States, workers leafleted and held other solidarity actions.

Union Support Building among

 Verizon Business Workers

Despite Verizon's efforts to build a wall between its non-represented workforce at Verizon Business and its union workforce, a majority of former MCI employees at Verizon Business have demonstrated support for union representation at many locations throughout the country, CWA organizers report.

The workers have been signing up for union representation at an accelerated pace following Jan. 25 demonstrations outside the company's New York City and Boston headquarters. At the rallies, hundreds of Verizon's CWA- and IBEW-represented workers showed support for their Verizon Business co-workers by circulating a petition signed by more than 3,000 union members at Verizon.

This prompted 150 technicians from Verizon Business to sign an "open letter to management" that stated why they wanted a union. One of the signers was John Lindner, a field tech from Long Island who is currently stationed in Iraq. He put the workers' campaign in perspective: "While I am defending the country, my co-workers are defending our job security and are fighting for better working conditions."

"The company's anti-union campaign appears to have backfired as most of the Verizon Business technicians have rejected the company's fear tactics by showing support for union representation," said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton.

Said a Verizon Business worker from NYC: "I want to express the thanks that I and other workers at Verizon Business felt when our union co-workers came downtown in great numbers and in the cold to support our bid for fair wages and benefits and, most importantly, the right to organize." 

Employee Free Choice Act

Moves to the Full House

The Democratic majority on the House Education and Labor Committee voted Wednesday to approve the Employee Free Choice Act and send it to the full House even as Vice President Dick Cheney vowed that President Bush will veto it.

In addressing the anti-union National Association of Manufacturers this week, Cheney claimed the administration is only concerned about protecting the rights of workers by maintaining secret ballot elections in representation drives — a system NAM, its members and other businesses have illegally thwarted for decades.

"Dick Cheney concerned about the rights of workers — that's too funny," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Let's be clear: The only thing this administration is concerned about is making sure that its big business friends can continue to threaten, intimidate and illegally fire union supporters with impunity."

The House committee vote was 26 to 19, with only Republicans voting against the bill. It calls for recognition based on majority authorization, first contract arbitration, if necessary, to prevent employers from dragging out the bargaining process, and stronger penalties for labor law violations.

While the bill proceeds in the House, it is gaining momentum nationwide. This week, the Baltimore City Council, at CWA's urging, was the latest municipality to adopt a resolution calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. The council members voted unanimously to urge the Maryland congressional delegation to support the legislation.

IN BRIEF:

• CWA's e-activist campaign in support of bargaining at Citizens Frontier in Rochester, N.Y., definitely has management's attention, though there has as yet been little movement at the bargaining table, Local 1170 President Linda McGrath reported.
  
  More than 1,200 e-mails have been sent to Citizens Frontier CEO Maggie Wilderotter since the campaign was announced a week ago. Yet management is still seeking a wage freeze, job consolidations and significant health care cost shifting.
  
  Last Friday morning, within the first half-hour of bargaining, said McGrath, management's representative came into the room spouting, "Maggie's getting hundreds of e-mails from across the country. This is not the way to get a contract."
  
  More than 100 Local 1170 members conducted informational picketing outside a Rochester Frontier location on Feb. 9, and the local continues to mobilize. McGrath thanked all who have so far participated in the e-activist campaign and encouraged CWA members to keep up the pressure by e-mailing Citizens Frontier's CEO at Maggie.Wilderotter@czn.com.
  
   
• Citing a better profit picture than Northwest Airlines management had projected two years ago, AFA-CWA this week filed a motion for relief from concessions imposed on flight attendants through the bankruptcy process.
  
  The court had authorized the airline to throw out the workers' collective bargaining agreement and slash wages and benefits by $195 million per year. But with the concessions in place for only five months last year, Northwest posted a $301 million pre-tax profit — more than management had anticipated even if the labor concessions had been in place for all of 2006, the union pointed out.
  
  "Clearly, management overreached and the employees of Northwest deserve to get back more than just the profit sharing," said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend. "Management should not be rewarded because it used the bankruptcy process to extract more from the employees than was necessary for a successful reorganization."
  
   
• CWA districts and locals are mobilizing around "Speed Matters," with actions planned for Feb. 22 and Feb. 28. CWAers will distribute flyers at CWA worksites, encouraging members to take CWA's speed test to determine how fast — or how slow — their Internet connection really is. The test is available at www.speedmatters.org/cwatest.
  
  After taking the test, participants can send a message to their member of Congress stressing the need for true high-speed Internet networks and access.
  
   
• Members of CWA's media sectors are planning to attend and testify next week at the third of six public hearings on more proposed changes to Federal Communications Commission media ownership rules that would cause further consolidation of print and broadcast companies.
  
  All five FCC commissioners are expected to attend the hearing in Harrisburg, Pa., on Friday, Feb. 23. The hearing will be an "open-microphone" event, allowing testimony on a first-come, first-served basis. Newspaper Guild and NABET members will be among those lining up.
  
  "As the union that represents journalists and other media workers, we're at the vortex of the important fight to preserve journalism and the democratic values it fosters," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said.
  
  "To be informed and engaged, our citizens need to have access to as much information as possible about what is going on in their country and the world," NABET-CWA President John Clark said. "Media consolidation reduces the number of sources available for information and restricts the view points we can hear in ways that can potentially endanger the impartiality of the press and our freedom of speech."