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February 28, 2008
AT&T
Mobility Contract Boosts Pay, Upgrades Jobs for
District 6 Members
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Members of
Local 6016 stand up to support bargaining. |
CWA negotiators reached a tentative agreement
covering 9,000 AT&T Mobility workers in District 6 that
upgrades more than 5,000 customer service jobs,
increases pay across the board and sets up committees to
resolve retail scheduling and other issues, among other
gains.
The proposed settlement calls for a compounded wage
increase of 11.19 percent over the four-year contract
term, as well as a $500 lump sum payment and
improvements in call out and overtime pay.
Pension gains include annual pension band increases
of 1.5 percent for the next four years for current
employees along with a new lump sum payment option.
Workers hired after next January will be covered under
the cash balance pension plan.
CWA District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn commended
the bargaining committee for its hard work and
determination to remain at the bargaining table through
the contract's final hours to work out critical issues.
The pay raises and upgrades included in the tentative
agreement will be a factor in reducing turnover, he
added.
Richard Kneupper, assistant to Milburn, said
mobilization throughout District 6 to support bargaining
made a tremendous difference. CWAers wore red or black
to support their bargaining team, sent postcards showing
their support for a fair contract and signed up lots of
non-members as negotiations got underway in late
January, he said.
Contract explanation meetings will be held beginning
February 29 with ratification to be completed before the
end of March. Members of the bargaining committee are
Jim Murray, Local 6502; John Richie, Local 6200; Eva
Sustaita, Local 6143; Michael Neumann, CWA
Representative, and Kneupper.
Union Campaign Produces New Commitments from
Verizon, FairPoint
Final approval by the New Hampshire Public Utilities
Commission permits the sale of Verizon Communications
operations in northern New England to FairPoint
Communications to go forward, but the campaign waged by
CWA, the IBEW and elected officials and community groups
throughout the three states resulted in real
improvements in the final deal that will help support
quality service.
"One clear result of the effort by union members,
concerned elected officials, community and consumer
groups, and thousands of residents and activists in
Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine is that an additional
$970 million – the sum of Verizon's contributions of
$362 million and FairPoint's commitments of $610 million
as required by regulators as a condition of the sale –
will help make FairPoint a stronger operation," said CWA
President Larry Cohen. This includes a requirement that
FairPoint cut its dividends by at least $200 million in
order to reduce its debt.
Yet even with this added financial support, "CWA
continues to believe that northern New England would
have been better served by the establishment of an
independent company, one that would operate without the
huge debt load that burdens FairPoint, or by the sale of
Verizon lines to an established company that would be
capable of bringing true high speed broadband to the
region. As it stands, the benefits of true high speed
Internet networks – the economic engine of the 21st
century – simply won't be available to many businesses
and consumers in this region," said Cohen.
State regulators and the public must make certain
that FairPoint meets all of its commitments, he said.
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission also
recognized that FairPoint should meet its health care
and other obligations to retirees by requiring FairPoint
to establish an external trust fund to help cover its
liabilities.
About 2,500 workers, members of CWA and the IBEW, now
will make a transition to employment by FairPoint, and
negotiations are underway.
First-Ever Blog Strike Helps Hawaii Guild Restart
Talks
Honolulu Advertiser workers fighting for a fair
contract at their Gannett-owned newspaper made union
history last week when reporters staged what's believed
to be the country's first "blog strike."
Their action and a landslide strike vote a few days
earlier combined to push management to back down from
its "last and final" contract offer and agree to new
talks next week.
For three days, members of The Newspaper Guild-CWA
Local 39117 refused to post to the paper's online blogs,
including an especially popular sports site. Many
writers left messages for readers explaining their
absence. Reporters, photographers and artists withheld
bylines and credit lines from the print edition, a more
traditional form of protest among Guild members.
The previous Sunday, the Guild, along with members of
CWA's Printing Sector Local 14921 and four other unions
at the newspaper voted overwhelmingly to authorize a
strike if necessary. The vote, 358-17, also rejected the
so-called final contract offer. The previous contract
expired last June.
Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United
States, is seeking big hikes in the Honolulu workers'
out-of-pocket health care costs. The meager 1 percent
pay raise and one-time 1.5 percent bonus offered not
only wouldn't cover the increase but would set workers
back by about $150 a month, union leaders say.
Even so, they believe the company was stunned that
workers rejected it so fiercely and that so many of the
600 workers represented by the six unions showed up to
vote. "I think they thought our people would be cowed,
and have no choice but to accept it," Guild
Administrative Officer Wayne Cahill said. The Guild is
the largest union at the paper with 355 members.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who has long
represented Hawaii, met with the paper's publisher last
week, then rallied the next day with newspaper workers
outside the Advertiser building to decry the health care
cuts.
"They just want even more," Abercrombie said, quoted
in Honolulu's Star Bulletin. "They've lost all
perspective on what this business is all about. Their
position is indefensible."
In the middle of the blog and byline strike, Gannett
announced that it would return to the bargaining table.
Talks are set for March 6-7.
The unusual strike even caught the attention of The
New York Times. TNG President Linda Foley told the paper
it appears to be the first time reporters have refused
to blog as part of a contract dispute. The closest
previous job action, she said, was probably in 2003 when
Wall Street Journal reporters refused to appear on CNBC
during a contract fight.
CWA and USW Political Activists Train to Join Forces
CWA and the United Steelworkers (USW) have agreed to
work together in Virginia and Indiana to get information
about candidates in this year's elections to all members
in those states and to boost voter turnout in November.
In preparation for the joint effort, 12 CWAers
attended the USW Political Activists training in
Pittsburgh Feb. 24-26. The unions will divide up zones
in the two states and take responsibility for making
sure locals of both unions are actively reaching out to
members and have all the materials they need.
CWA and USW have worked closely together on political
action in the past, but the new joint approach will
allow for better coordination of ground resources. The
joint program may be expanded to other states.
IN BRIEF:
- Straight-faced, looking straight into
the camera, GOP presidential candidate John McCain
tells Midwestern working – and out-of-work --
families that, "I know NAFTA was a good idea. It's
created millions of jobs."
Actually, the controversial trade agreement
has cost the United States more than 1 million good
manufacturing jobs, according to the Economic Policy
Institute and the AFL-CIO.
You can see it yourself and the rest of McCain's
homage to the North American Free Trade Agreement on
YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86QwI-6TWic.
The AFL-CIO is keeping track of McCain's record on
trade and other issues in which he's consistently
voted against the interests of workers and
struggling American families. A webpage about his
record will be online soon and updated regularly.
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Applications for CWA's annual Joe Beirne Scholarship
Foundation awards are now being accepted for the
2008-2009 school year. This year the foundation's
Board of Directors has approved the awarding of 30
partial scholarships of up to $3,000 each. Winners
will also receive second-year scholarships for the
same amount contingent upon satisfactory academic
achievement.
Applications must be received
by April 30, 2008. Winners will be chosen by lottery
from those submitting the required essay. Eligible
for the scholarships are CWA members, their spouses,
children and grandchildren, including the dependents
of retired, laid-off, or deceased members.
Additional eligibility criteria, program
information, and application forms, can be found
at :
- Materials to help locals prepare for
Workers Memorial Day 2008 are available online from
the AFL-CIO, and CWA is encouraging union leaders
and safety and health activists to use them.
Workers Memorial Day, which falls on April
28 this year, is an opportunity to focus attention
on workplace safety and honor the thousands of
workers killed annually and the countless others
injured and sickened on the job. Over the last year,
CWA has lost four members in workplace fatalities.
The theme of this year's event is "Good Jobs — Safe
Jobs For All." A flier, poster, proclamation and
clip art, in English and Spanish, can be downloaded
from
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/.
The federation is also asking activists to fill out
an event form online so your local's activities can
be counted and possibly featured. For help planning
an event, contact CWA Health and Safety Director
Dave LeGrande at
legrande@cwa-union.org or by phone at (202)
434-1160.
Closer to the day itself, the AFL-CIO will be
issuing its annual study, "Death on the Job," which
examines deaths, injuries and illness by occupation,
state and cause. It also looks at the federal
government's track record on issuing workplace
safety standards and OSHA's record on enforcing or
ignoring safety laws.
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