April 13, 2007
New Jersey
State Workers Ratify Contract
CWA state workers in New Jersey overwhelmingly
ratified a new four-year agreement that provides for a
13 percent wage increase over the contract term and
safeguards workers' health care and retirement security.
"This settlement was negotiated against a backdrop of
state lawmakers trying to impose extreme concessions and
legislate pension and health care cuts, newspapers
editorializing against public worker bargaining and
media coverage that pretty much ignored the real issues
our members care about," said Chris Shelton, CWA
District 1 vice president.
The agreement was ratified by a nearly two-to-one
margin in each of the four voting units, with a record
voter turnout. It covers 40,000 New Jersey state workers
in seven CWA locals. The mail ballots were counted by
the American Arbitration Association.
"We had to fight to preserve our bargaining rights.
But in the end, our bargaining committee was able to
negotiate a settlement that addresses our members'
critical concerns health care, pensions and fairness."
Shelton stated.
The contract improves the health care system by
providing for an expanded PPO network, eliminating
restrictions on use of specialists and guaranteeing no
changes in benefits over the contract term. It also was
the first state worker contract in 15 years that didn't
call for a wage freeze, instead providing a 13 percent
increase over the contract term.
Recognizing massive shortfalls in state pension
funding and rising health care costs, CWA agreed to a .5
percent increase in the workers' pre-tax pension
contribution and a 1.5 percent pre-tax contribution to
health care costs. While the age for full retirement for
new hires was raised from 55 to 60, the penalty for
early retirement was reduced from 3 percent to 1 percent
per year.
The bargaining team successfully fought back against
the recommendations of a joint legislative committee
that wanted to impose concessions in as many as 41
different contract provisions, including hours worked,
reduced leave time and others.
Thousands of union members rallied throughout the
state, calling on legislators to let the collective
bargaining process work and keeping up the call for a
fair contract.
This contract represents a real victory for state
workers, said Shelton.
NLRB
Slams CNN for Tearing Up NABET-CWA Contracts
It took more than three years, but the National Labor
Relations Board has finally backed charges by NABET-CWA
against CNN for using a restructure ploy to tear up
union contracts for 350 field camera crews and other
technical workers in its news operations in New York and
Washington, D.C.
The NLRB's general counsel ordered a hearing before
an administrative law judge this September and will
press for an order for CNN to restore the previous
contractual provisions, recognize and bargain with the
union, and reinstate with back pay the many union
workers who had been terminated in the two news bureaus
in late 2003 and early 2004.
That's when the big cable news network dropped a
long-standing contractual relationship with Team Video
Services, whose union-represented workers gathered news
for the cable network, and shifted the operation
in-house. CNN hired many of the TVS workers, but to get
rid of the union, "CNN expanded and packed the D.C. and
N.Y. units in order to avoid a successorship obligation
to recognize and bargain" with NABET-CWA, the board's
ruling stated.
Declaring that the workers no longer had
representation, CNN immediately slashed wages, benefits
and other working conditions and protections.
"Although this ruling has been a long time coming,
we're gratified and confident that the board's decision
will finally put us on a path to justice for these CNN
workers," said NABET-CWA President John Clark.
Ed McEwan, president of the union's Local 11 in New
York, said: "From the beginning, we told the workers it
would be a long fight given the current political
climate, but to have faith. We're not going to let CNN
walk over us."
In Washington, D.C., NABET-CWA Local 31 president
Carl Mayers said: "This is a very important decision
for our members, and it also is a statement that no
matter how long it takes, we're determined to protect
our jobs and bargaining rights."
New
Stewards Army Online Course: Speed & Public Policy
CWA has launched the first of a series of free
online, interactive training courses as part of the
effort to build a Stewards Army of activists for
grassroots action on key issues and campaigns.
Developed by CWA/NETT's professional trainers, the
course is a user-friendly and self-paced look at "The
Changing Telecom Industry and Why Speed Matters." (It
generally takes about 30 minutes to click through the
course and answer short quizzes at the end of each
topic.)
Log in today and check out the course at
www.cwanett.org.
Slides with text and animated graphics describe the
major forces that are transforming the telecom world
and changing job patterns for the future. These include
the move away from wireline telecom with the emergence
of wireless, the growth of Voice over Internet Protocol
and competition from cable providers that currently have
an edge with "triple play" services.
Real high-speed Internet networks are the key to the
survival and growth of CWA's employers and the source of
job opportunity for our telecom members. But there are
many political and policy roadblocks to overcome in
transforming essentially a 20th Century phone network
into a communications system for the 21st Century.
Learn how CWA is mounting an ambitious Speed Matters
campaign for job and economic growth and how CWA
Stewards Army activists can play a key role in this
fight for our job future.
As President Larry Cohen says in the introduction to
the course, "CWA has long recognized that stewards are
the heartbeat and the strength of our union." Join us as
a Stewards Army activist as we ignite a new movement to
change America's priorities.
AFL-CIO Targets Verizon for
Excessive CEO Pay
CWA has launched a website in support of a campaign
by the AFL-CIO to oust Verizon board members who voted
what it said is excessive pay for company CEO Ivan
Seidenberg. The federation says the board paid
Seidenberg $110 million over a five-year period while
share prices have sagged.
"I defy anyone to say this guy's earned the money,"
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told
reporters on April 5, outlining the federation's plan to
vote against Verizon's compensation committee at the
company's May 3 annual meeting. He called Verizon "the
poster child for pay for pulse."
The federation has already had discussions with the
office of the New York State Comptroller and California
State Teachers' Retirement system and planned meetings
to win support for its proposals from mutual funds that
hold shares of Verizon.
On the CWA investor website, visitors are urged vote
"for" Verizon shareholder proposals 4, 5 and 6 to
improve transparency and accountability of executive
compensation and to vote "no" for directors who sit on
the board's compensation committee: Walter Shipley,
chair, Richard Carrion, Robert Lane, Joseph Neubauer,
Clarence Otis Jr. and John Stafford.
Complete information, including news coverage by the
Chicago Tribune and New York Times, is available at
http://investor.cwa-union.org/verizon.
'Meet and Consult' Process for West VA State Workers
With support from CWA and other unions, West Virginia
Gov. Joe Manchin announced a new experimental process
for state employees to gain input on improving working
conditions and delivering state services more
efficiently. The "meet and consult" reforms will apply
to 200 CWA-represented employees in the Regional Jail
and Correctional Facility Authority and three other
state government divisions where workers are represented
by AFSCME and the Mine Workers.
Meet and consult is part of a two-year pilot program
to address staff shortages and promote government
efficiency. State employees, who do not have collective
bargaining rights, endorsed the plan as a way to improve
working conditions and improve public safety, said CWA
Rep. Elaine Harris. CWA also represents the West
Virginia state troopers, state corrections and juvenile
service employees.
The state's ten regional jails currently are
overcrowded and the facilities often face difficulty in
recruiting and retaining experienced personnel. "It's no
secret that our overcrowded jails pose a big public
safety risk," said CWA Local 2055 member David Ice, a
regional jail employee. "That's why we need open
communication with the state to identify risks and make
them right. Gov. Manchin's reforms help us do just
that," he said at an April 11 news conference to
announce the program.
Other agencies covered by "meet and consult" include
the Division of Highways, General Services Division and
Purchasing Division.
IN BRIEF:
- A multinational poll shows that strong
majorities around the world including nine out of
10 people in the United States want trade
agreements to meet minimum labor and environmental
standards.
"The American public is clearly concerned
that trade agreements fail to protect either workers
or the environment," said Christopher Whitney of the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which helped
conducted the poll.
Large majorities in Argentina, Eastern Europe, China
and India, among other countries and regions also
support mandatory minimum protections. World Public
Opinion, which also helped conduct the poll, has the
questionnaire and results on its website at
www.worldpublicopinion.org.
- Maryland has become the first state to
require its contractors to pay employees a living
wage, a victory for working families pushed by a
coalition of union members, religious leaders and
civil rights advocates.
"It's going to lift tens of thousands of
Marylanders out of poverty," state Delegate Tom
Hucker told the Washington Post. "It makes Maryland
a leader in ensuring that our tax dollars are
helping build the middle class rather than
perpetuating poverty."
Despite huffing-and-puffing from the Chamber of
Commerce and fits from Republicans, the Maryland
Senate voted 31-16 on its last day in session to
approve the measure, which the House passed last
week. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who campaigned for
the legislation, has promised to sign the bill.
The new law will require service contractors doing
business with the state to pay employees $11.30 an
hour in urban areas and $8.50 an hour in rural
areas. The state's minimum wage is $6.15 an hour.
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