• Employee Free Choice Act Introduced with Bipartisan Backing
• CWA Fights Verizon Attempt to Muzzle State Regulators
• CWA Launches Lifetime Membership Program for Retirees' Council
• CWA Ramps up Bargaining Pressure on Rochester Frontier
• Study: U.S. One of the World's Worst Countries for Family/Medical Leave
• IN BRIEF:
  • Coalition Calls for Universal Health Care by 2012
  • Court Rejects Ban on Employee Socializing
  • If Tax Cuts are Permanent, Top 1% Get a Trillion Dollars in Tax Relief

Employee Free Choice Act Introduced
with Bipartisan, Majority Backing

Years of building support on Capitol Hill for the Employee Free Choice Act paid off this week when labor leaders joined the bill's sponsors to announce that the bill — H.R. 800 — was introduced in the U.S. House with bipartisan backing from a majority of members and full support of the new leadership.

CWA President Larry Cohen and other supporters herald the bill as American workers' best hope to form unions and bargain contracts with employers who brazenly break labor laws to keep unions out, knowing they will suffer few, if any, consequences.

Cohen said CWA will step up its already vigorous campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act with a week of action beginning Feb. 19 that will include events in every district, including news conferences, worker round tables, meetings with lawmakers, rallies and more.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said 229 House members have joined him as co-sponsors — 223 Democrats and seven Republicans. "We cannot continue on our nation's current path, where CEOs have complete freedom to negotiate lavish pay and retirement packages for themselves while workers have no leverage to make their own lives better," said Miller, the bill's long-time champion and chief sponsor. "Our economy is more unequal than it has been at any point since before the New Deal."

Workers who have been fired, threatened and harassed trying to form unions testified about the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act at a Feb. 8 hearing before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions.

Witnesses included CWA Local 2204 member Teresa Joyce, who talked about the difference it made when union-friendly Cingular took over anti-union AT&T Wireless. Unhappy with low wages and unfair treatment by supervisors, the then-AT&T Wireless workers in Virginia began to form a union through CWA.

"Once word reached management that we were trying to organize, they did everything they could to stop us," Joyce said. "Supervisors constantly threatened that AT&T Wireless would leave town and we would lose our jobs. They also claimed that if we did succeed, our union dues would be so enormous we may actually need two jobs."

Joyce described other flagrant acts of intimidation and disrespect, from supervisors tearing down union flyers in the workers' break room to relentless harassment of union supporters. Months into their struggle, workers learned that Cingular was purchasing the company and that it would remain neutral if employees wanted to organize.

"It was a relief to know that we could finally speak openly about the union without the fear of employer retaliation," she said. "In 2005, a majority of us voted for the union by signing authorization cards and on Sept. 6, 2005, we were officially recognized as CWA members. Management even helped us arrange a cookout at the call center to celebrate."

Similar to what happens now at Cingular, the Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers nationwide to organize when a majority signs cards indicating they want union representation. The bill calls for first contract arbitration so that employers can't use the stalling tactics they get away with today to avoid bargaining in good faith. Employers could be fined up to $20,000 per violation. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups are aggressively opposing the bill.

The seven Republican House members who have signed onto the bill include the lead GOP sponsor, Peter King of New York, along with Chris Shays of Connecticut, Steve LaTourette of Ohio, John McHugh and Vito Fossella of New York and Chris Smith and Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey. 

CWA Fights Verizon Attempt to

 Muzzle State Regulators

District 2 and Virginia locals are fighting an attempt by Verizon to sneak through a bill in the legislature that would keep state regulators from having any say in the event of the sale or merger of a telecom carrier.

CWA is running radio ads in Richmond, where lawmakers are slated to vote on the legislation next week, alerting the public that consumers would have no voice over the impact on rates, quality service, high-speed network rollout or jobs in the event Verizon sold off operations in Virginia, as it plans to do right now in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. Embarq also provides local service in parts of Virginia.

CWA and consumer advocates have used the state regulatory review process to protect jobs and service standards in several states where there have telecom mergers, sales and spinoffs over the years.

New Lifetime Membership Program for Retirees' Council

To help retired members stay connected to CWA, and to harness their energy for protecting key retiree issues — pensions, health care, Social Security and Medicare — CWA is now offering a special Lifetime Membership in the Retired Members' Council for a one-time payment of $25.

"We must do a better job of realizing the tremendous potential that CWA retirees can play in our employer and legislative campaigns to maintain and protect the hard-won benefits we all count on when we retire," said CWA's national officers in announcing the program to locals.

The Executive Board created the lifetime Council memberships in response to CWA's Ready for the Future convention resolution calling for doubling the number of Council members to 50,000 by 2009.  Previously Council membership required payment of annual fees.

Under the program, the 20,000 current members of CWA local retiree chapters will automatically be enrolled in the program. CWA last week mailed a brochure and application form to 128,000 retirees who don't now belong to local chapters outlining the new program. To become lifetime members of the Council, retirees can either return the form with a check or credit card information or else join directly online at a new website — www.CWAretirees.com.

On the website, retirees will find information about the activities of the Retired Members' Council as well as money-saving discount programs available to Council members through the CWA Union Privilege program.

CWA Ramps up Bargaining Pressure on Rochester Frontier

Local 1170 members are mobilizing behind an e-activist campaign to pressure Frontier Communications in Rochester, N.Y., to bargain a fair contract for 600 workers.

"Voice! Video! Data! Frontier Communications is steadily losing market share in Rochester to competitor Time-Warner who can provide it all. But instead of investing to upgrade services, Frontier would cover its losses by freezing wages and passing massive health care costs on to employees," says the introduction to the campaign which will reach thousands of CWA and other union members through the AFL-CIO's e-activist network.

The campaign goes on to explain that Frontier is also seeking unlimited freedom to contract work to the lowest bidder, to consolidate work to non-union locations and to offer bonuses instead of a pay raise. It asks e-activists to send an e-mail to Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Frontier's parent company Citizens Communications, at Maggie.Wilderotter@czn.com, urging her to bargain fairly.

Local 1170 negotiators have been in bargaining with the company since Dec. 20, 2006. Their old contract expired Jan. 31.

"Frontier's answer to competition is to attack the very people who help them compete," said Local 1170 President Linda McGrath, following the 18th session of bargaining that failed to produce a wage increase offer.

Members have been wearing black CWA t-shirts to work on Thursdays as a sign of solidarity and have picketed the home of Rochester Frontier Senior Vice President Ann Burr. To further show the company they are united, they have also lined the halls of RIT Conference Center, where bargaining is taking place. In late January they voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, though no strike date has yet been set.

District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said: "Citizens is not bargaining just with 600 members of Local 1170 but with the entire strength of District 1 — 180,000 members," Shelton said. "We will do whatever it takes to win a fair contract."

Study: U.S. One of the World's Worst Countries
for Family/Medical Leave

Just as Big Business is getting revved up to go after Americans' meager Family and Medical Leave benefits, a university study of 173 countries shows that the United States ranks as one of the worst for providing leave for illnesses, new babies and family emergencies.

"When it comes to ensuring decent working conditions for families, U.S. public policies still lag dramatically behind all high-income countries, as well as many middle- and low-income countries," say the authors of "The Work, Family and Equity Index: How Does the United States Measure Up?"

The United States, for instance, is one of only five countries out of the 173 that don't guarantee paid maternity leave. The four other countries that don't are the African nations of Lesotho, Liberia and Swaziland and the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea.

The newly released research, from Harvard and McGill universities, also finds that:

• At least 145 countries require that employers provide paid sick leave, with 127 of them guaranteeing at least a week of sick time.
  
   
• Unlike the United States, 137 countries require paid annual leave, with 121 of them guaranteeing at least two weeks.

The study comes as the U.S. Labor Department is wrapping up a comment period that could lead to devastating changes for workers in the 13-year-old Family and Medical Leave Act, the first bill signed by President Bill Clinton.

CWA and other unions are righting to save the law. FMLA provides only unpaid leave and many employers make it difficult for workers to take any time off. Yet the business lobby and its Republican backers want to make it even harder for workers to use the law.

More than a hundred CWA members responded recently when the union asked who had used the law and how they felt about it, comments that are being included in CWA's response to the Labor Department.

Members pleaded with CWA and the DOL to save the law, saying it had changed — and even saved — their lives, or allowed them to take care of sick or dying family members. One member said FMLA gave her time to see doctors and specialists who ultimately cured her severe migraine and eye problems. "Without FMLA, my life would not be what is today," she wrote.

A telecom member, with an ill son, a dying grandmother and her own health problems said she fears she would be "fired and forced on to the systems of welfare and Social Security" without FMLA protection.

For updates on the FMLA review process and a link to the McGill University report on family leave worldwide, go to www.cwa-union.org.

IN BRIEF:

• CWA and AT&T joined other corporations and labor and policy groups in a new coalition — Better Health Care Together — calling for a national program guaranteeing universal access to quality, affordable health care by no later than 2012.  
  
  The press announcement this week drew widespread attention largely because of the inclusion in the coalition of WalMart along with the Service Employees union, which operates the WalMart Watch campaign highlighting worker abuses at the giant retailer.
  
  "It's a group that usually doesn't agree on much, but we do agree about the urgent need for real reform that will fix our broken health care system," said CWA President Larry Cohen. At the news conference, Cohen quoted from CWA members who are worried about the future of health care for themselves and their children. He also noted that, "Most labor disputes today — such as the recent 3-month strike at Goodyear — are caused by workers trying to protect their families' health security."
  
  AT&T's Jim Cicconi, EVP for external affairs, told the press that AT&T is committed to providing quality health coverage for its workers, but pointed out that a huge portion of its medical costs comes from coverage of dependents who work for employers that don't offer benefits.
  
   
• Corporate America and its friends at the NLRB tried to kill Happy Hour and other socializing among colleagues with a board decision in July 2005 that said employers could ban "off-duty fraternizing" among co-workers. The D.C. Circuit Court just said no way.
  
  The court this week overturned the board's decision, saying that letting employers ban fraternizing was illegal because it could be construed as a ban of union or concerted activity outside of work hours.
  
  American Rights at Work heralded the court decision, noting that the NLRB ruling sent "shockwaves far beyond the labor community," with worker and privacy advocates and many other groups agreeing that the board had gone too far.
  
  "While we should all meet up after work to celebrate this decision, it's a sad day when a higher court has to save workers' rights from destruction from the agency created to protect them," American Rights at Work said.
  
  
   
• Under the Bush scheme to make tax cuts permanent, the top 1 percent of households will receive more than 1 trillion — yes, that's trillion, with a T — in tax relief over the next 10 years.
  
  Meanwhile, the president's 2008 budget proposal would put workers' retirement security at risk, force seniors to pay more for doctors' visits and prescriptions and cut off hundreds of thousands of low-income children from publicly funded health care.
  
  "The president's budget is filled with debt and deception, disconnected from reality, and continues to move America in the wrong direction," said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "This administration has the worst fiscal record in history and this budget does nothing to change that."
  
  The proposed budget includes plans to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to private accounts, a scheme Bush won't let go of even though it went nowhere under a Republican Congress.
  
  As for the handouts to America's richest citizens, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities say they total more than the government spends on veterans' medical care, K-12 education and vocation schools and countless other domestic programs.