• Cohen: Broadband Act First Step for Internet for All
• Workers Strike Over Deutsche Telekom Attack on Jobs, Pay
• IUE-CWA Set to Bargain Jobs, Health Care and Pensions at GE
• CWA Steps Up Campaign Against Verizon-Fairpoint Deal
• CWA Takes Action on Employee Free Choice Act
• Day of Action Spotlights Policies that Hurt Workers, Passengers
• IN BRIEF:
  • Unions Seek Meeting Over Reuters - Thomson Deal
  • Contract Talks to Resume at ABC
  • Techs Unite Has a Message for Microsoft's Bill Gates

Cohen: Broadband Act First Step for Internet for All 

Stating "the United States is stuck with a 20th century Internet in the 21st century," CWA President Larry Cohen urged Congress this week to establish a national Internet policy that will improve the quality, availability, and affordability of broadband service to every community.

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Cohen spoke in support of a discussion draft of the Broadband Census of America Act and called the legislation a significant first step in bringing high speed Internet access to every American.

"We desperately need a national Internet policy to reverse the fact that our nation, the country that invented the Internet, has fallen to 16th in the world in high-speed Internet penetration," he said.

"Unfortunately, we don't know the full extent of our problem because our data is so poor. We don't know where high-speed networks are deployed, how many households and small businesses connect to the Internet, at what speed, and how much they pay. Without this information, we can't craft good policy solutions. So we continue to fall farther behind," he told the subcommittee.

Cohen urged lawmakers to require the FCC to conduct a national survey of broadband service in the U.S. to determine the price, speed, and availability of broadband services for customers in urban, rural, and suburban areas. "This information will help policymakers determine whether Internet services are affordable, which communities are being left behind, and where to target policy solutions."

Average download speeds in the United States – 1.9 megabits per second according to a recent survey by CWA – are dwarfed by speeds available to Internet users in virtually every other industrialized country. In Japan, average download speeds are 61 megabits per second, in South Korea, 45 megabits per second, and in Sweden, 18 megabits per second.

Cohen urged lawmakers not to overlook the importance of setting reasonable standards for upload speeds. "Consumers' ability to be able to quickly transmit important medical, educational and financial information will become more essential in the future," he said.

He also called on lawmakers to adopt five principles that underscore CWA’s “Speed Matters” policy. These call for establishing a national high-speed Internet policy, affordable and universal service accessible to every community, raising the FCC’s definition of “high-speed” Internet to 2 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream, guaranteeing an open non-discriminatory Internet for all, and public Internet policies that protect the interests of consumers and workers.

Workers Strike Over DT Attack on Jobs, Pay

Union members around the world can show their solidarity and support for workers at Deutsche Telekom in Germany who are fighting back against management demands to shift 50,000 jobs to subsidiary T-Services, where workers would face big cuts in pay and increased hours. 

Members of ver.di, the German union of telecom workers, voted nearly unanimously in support of strike action; the strike began May 11 and has spread throughout Germany, with more than 15,000 workers now off the job. 

Union Network International, the global labor group, and ver.di are asking workers to send a protest message to Rene Oberman, the chief executive officer of Deutsche Telekom. A copy of the letter also will be sent to ver.di.

Click on http://www.union-network.org/uniindep.nsf/ProtestDTMay07?openform.

UNI also has called on the German government, Deutsche Telekom's largest shareholder, to safeguard workers' benefits and working conditions. Since Blackstone, a private equity company, obtained a minority share in Deutsche Telekom, it has been pressing for huge cuts in worker compensation and other changes.

Blackstone wants cuts in pay for existing workers of 15 percent, with new workers to receive wages that are 40 percent below existing levels and lower than European minimum wage levels, UNI noted.

"Once again we are seeing the questionable pace of Private Equity and Hedge fund activity," said Philip Jennings, UNI General Secretary. A minority shareholder is seeking to fundamentally change the company, and "the price has fallen on the heads of the workers in terms of drastic cuts in working conditions and job security."
 

IUE-CWA Set to Bargain at GE

With job security, health benefits and pensions all under attack, IUE-CWA locals have been gearing up since March for bargaining with General Electric, scheduled to begin in New York City on May 21.

"Many of us have forgotten how the benefits we enjoy today were won, said Bob Santamoor, IUE-CWA GE Conference Board chairman. Most of us did not have to strike, walk picket lines, and lose our house or struggle through financial difficulties for these benefits. That may not be the case this time," he told local officers, urging locals to be prepared for a tough fight.

GE makes aircraft engines, locomotives, appliances, medical imaging equipment and other products. Despite revenues of $164 billion last year, GE already has announced cuts in retiree health care and other benefits for non-represented new hires. Santamoor said he expects company demands to include:

• Elimination of early retirement opportunities.
• Increased cost-sharing on prescription drugs. 
• Higher medical co-pays.
• Elimination of post-65 medical benefits.
• Elimination of pension and retiree medical benefits for new hires.

Locals have been informing their members about the issues through presentations and newsletters and are planning for mobilization activities.

IUE-CWA President Jim Clark has been meeting with locals and members of the IUE-CWA bargaining team. Clark, who will be at the bargaining table for the first time this year, brings new determination to the talks and pledged, "We will have a successful contract." Clark's experience includes heading national negotiations at General Motors, Visteon, DMAX, Delphi and Valeo when he was chairman of the IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board. CWA President Larry Cohen will join Clark at the opening of negotiations.

IUE-CWA will bargain on behalf of about 10,000 workers in various GE industries nationwide, while the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) will bargain for another 4,000. GE also will bargain local contracts with the Machinists, IBEW, Auto Workers, USW and other unions. All belong to the 13-union Coordinated Bargaining Committee, formed in 1966 to share information and strategies.

In all, 23,000 workers will bargain with GE, making it one of the largest rounds of bargaining this year. The talks are likely to set the bar for bargaining with other manufacturers, particularly on health care and pension issues. IUE-CWA's current contract expires June 17.

CWA Steps Up Campaign Against Verizon-Fairpoint Deal

As opposition builds against Verizon's plan to abandon 3 million landline customers in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire, CWA urged the Federal Communications Commission to reject the company's $2.7 billion deal with Fairpoint Communications.

In a joint filing, CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers told the FCC that the proposed deal would result in "significant harm to the public interest." The deal was a mismatch, making it nearly impossible for Fairpoint, a small telephone company, "to invest enough capital to maintain current plant, improve service quality. . . hire more workers, and expand broadband availability," the unions said.

Fairpoint would be saddled with $1.7 billion in additional debt and eight times as many access lines, increasing from its current 249,000 to over 1.7 million. Fairpoint has made few commitments in terms of broadband build-out to its current customers and plans to spend even less per line after the sale. "Verizon spent 45 percent more per line in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in 2006 than Fairpoint projects that it will spend in 2008 if the deal is approved," the unions said.

On May 19 in New Hampshire, hundreds of union members and concerned citizens, joined by community leaders and others, will rally to "Stop the Sale" at an action sponsored by CWA Local 1400 and IBEW Local 2320. Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is scheduled to speak, along with CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton, New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark Mackenzie, the presidents of CWA Local 1400 and IBEW Local 2320 and others. Earlier this week, more than 300 people in Exeter, NH, jammed a Public Utility Commission hearing on the sale; nearly every speaker opposed the deal.

VZ purposely avoided selling its lines in New England to a company of greater size and assets because it would not have been able to reap the benefits of a tax loophole called the Reverse Morris Trust. Under the rule, Verizon is able to avoid the nearly $700 million in taxes such a sale would ordinarily entail by selling to a company whose value is less than the assets being sold.

The FCC is expected to make a decision on the Verizon-Fairpoint deal by early fall, with state regulators likely to make their determinations shortly afterward.

CWA Takes Action on

 Employee Free Choice Act

This week, CWA and IBEW are taking the lead in mobilizing union members to build support from elected officials for the Employee Free Choice Act.

CWAers are calling their U.S. Senators, urging them to support legislation to restore workers' rights. The House passed the measure in its first 100 days by a 241-185 vote; the Senate will likely take up the measure in mid-June. In a message to activists, CWA President Larry Cohen said "moving this legislation towards Senate passage will take a huge mobilization on the part of CWA and all unions" and he called on all CWAers to take action.

Cohen also asked activists to send a message to their governor, asking for support of the Employee Free Choice Act, and specifically, for support of bargaining rights for Verizon workers who have seen their fight for workers' rights thwarted by the company.

"Verizon, the second largest CWA employer, has become a notorious example of why we need the Employee Free Choice Act. In California at the DSL center and at Verizon Business in the northeast, strong majorities of workers have been opposed by Verizon management prepared to do anything to avoid bargaining  Had the Employee Free Choice Act been law, these workers would now be members of our union," Cohen said.

There's still time to participate in this week's campaign. Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senator(s). And Click here to e-mail your Governor.

Day of Action Hits Policies that Hurt Workers, Passengers

AFA-CWA flight attendants joined thousands of other transportation workers for a Day of Action in Washington, DC on May 17 to say "Enough is Enough" to federal policies that put corporate profits ahead of safety and security.

Speakers from Capitol Hill and the union movement criticized the corporate bankruptcies and failed federal policies that have harmed the transportation industry. They called for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, universal health care and fair trade laws to empower and protect workers.

"We have earned our rightful place in this vital debate," AFA-CWA President Pat Friend told the crowd, many of them wearing blue or orange "Enough is Enough" shirts. "Our aviation system is broken and for far too long, airline executives have dictated federal policy with workers taking a back seat."

Flight attendants and other transportation workers have enormous responsibility for passenger safety - duties that became even more demanding after  September 11th  - yet in the years since workers have suffered devastating wage, benefit and pension cuts, Friend said. "We had hoped that the promise of unity after 9/11 would produce a cooperative strategy," she said. "Instead, this administration used a national tragedy to advance its anti-worker agenda."

Issues raised by Friend and others include the new "open skies" treaty that will encourage more low-wage carriers that outsource jobs, long overdue OSHA protections for flight attendants, the need for more security training for transportation workers and major improvements to Amtrak, where workers have been without a contract for seven years.

Union workers from airline pilots to railroad signalmen came by bus from up and down the East Coast and beyond. Other union supporters turned out in solidarity, including 25 members of CWA Local 13000.

Local 13000 Vice President Tom Crawford said the message from demonstrations such as this has to be getting to anti-worker lawmakers and the White House because, "they've seen what happens when we stick together."

Speakers included presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Dennis Kucinich and other members of Congress including Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Colombia.

IN BRIEF:

• An alliance of unions representing workers at Reuters Group and Thomson Corp., is continuing to raise questions about the proposed merger of the two companies.
  
  The group has called for a meeting with Reuters trustees to address critical issues of transparency of the proposed deal, jobs and how to ensure that Reuters' standards of journalism and integrity would be maintained.
  
  The unions are TNG-CWA, representing workers in the U.S. and Canada, the National Union of Journalists, representing workers at both Reuters and Thomson, and Amicus-GPM.
  
  TNG-CWA President Linda Foley and other union leaders have called on the Reuters Founders Share Co., which is charged with preserving the company's principles of independence and freedom from bias, to address workers' concerns.
  
  Thomson proposed to acquire the 156-year-old Reuters global news and financial data service operations for $17.2 billion, giving the new company 34 percent of the market for financial data.
  
   
• Armed with an overwhelming vote by members to authorize a strike, NABET-CWA will resume contract talks with ABC next week in Chicago after a two-month break.

  The vote, conducted by secret ballot in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Hollywood, was counted on May 14. NABET-CWA Vice President Jim Joyce called it a "strong vote of national solidarity with the bargaining committee" that will help the union "win a fair and equitable contract at ABC."

  NABET-CWA broke off bargaining March 22 after ABC – three weeks into the talks – introduced a new demand to freeze the pension plan, along with proposals to weaken job security and otherwise rollback workers' rights and benefits.

  NABET represents 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other ABC employees throughout the United States. The latest contract expired March 31.
  
   
• Members of Washtech, CWA Local 37083 and TechsUnite have a message for Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates: it's time to tell the real story about what's happening in the high tech industry in the United States. 
  
  Gates is a big proponent of allowing unlimited numbers of H1-B visa holders to work in the United States, at the expense of U.S. workers who have been laid off throughout the industry. In recent testimony to the Senate, Gates said, "I don't think there should be any limit" on the number of H1-B visas issued. These visas enable companies like Microsoft to hire workers from overseas for up to seven years, at reduced wages, while U.S. workers have suffered from layoffs and job loss. 
  
  To help support the TechsUnite campaign to tell the real story about high tech jobs, go to http://www.techsunite.org/news/display.cfm?ID_Content=5160.