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May 22, 2008
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
Alliance Unions Put Political Program in Place
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As part of the new four-union
Alliance CWAers join United Steel Workers
members in Pittsburgh for grassroots training.
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The strategic alliance established by CWA, the United
Auto Workers, the United Steel Workers and the
International Federation of Professional and Technical
Engineers already is showing results from the unions’
joint political actions with more plans underway to
carry out a successful strategy for Election 2008.
Members and activists of the Alliance unions in seven
states -- Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia,
Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania – will work
together this election year to elect senators and more
members of Congress who support our key issues of
Employee Free Choice, health care reform, retirement
security and fair trade.
In a May 22 conference call, the union presidents
plus political staff from all four unions rolled out the
program.
"We all know what we have to do," said UAW President
Ron Gettelfinger. "There’s a lot of hard work needed to
get this job done. The most effective action comes from
the field, and our unions are determined to put together
a program that’s strong and successful," he said.
IFPTE President Greg Junemann outlined the key races
in the states, noting that the unions have a real
opportunity in Virginia, Mississippi and Minnesota to
elect Democratic senators, and can make a real
difference in all seven states.
"Our unions have made a huge commitment to getting
more done than ever before," said USW President Leo
Gerard. "The efforts will be coordinated at the state
level, with each union’s state, legislative and
political staff playing a key role. We’ll look at
congressional districts and U.S. Senate races where we
can make a real difference, as well as be very involved
in the presidential race," he said.
CWA President Larry Cohen recounted the Alliance’s
successes so far in the special House election wins in
Mississippi and Louisiana, where Alliance unions were
particularly active. "We did joint worksite leafleting
and joint phone banking, contacting 10,000 union
households. Neighborhood walks, "robo calls" and phone
banking in conjunction with the USW helped reinforce our
four key issues for members," he said.
The program will be coordinated at the state level by
the political staff of all four unions, who will hold
weekly conference calls and conversations. There will be
joint mailings and materials, as well as block walks so
activists can meet face-to-face with their co-workers
and neighbors, plus other activities. The first meeting
will be held the end of May.
Together, the four unions of the Alliance represent
more than 3 million active and retired members.
Workers at FairPoint, Translators, Day-Care Workers
Join CWA
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Solidarity by workers at
Books & Rattles day-care centers in Queens,
N.Y., overcame management's brutal anti-union
tactics. |
More than 300 workers gained CWA representation last
week during separate organizing victories in New
England, New York and California.
In the rural Maine communities of South China and
Winthrop, 72 workers at two FairPoint call centers
extended CWA representation to formerly nonunion workers
at the small telecom that purchased Verizon's New
England landline business. This is the first group of
FairPoint workers to organize since the deal was
approved, according to District 1 Vice President Chris
Shelton.
They organized through the neutrality and card check
provision CWA negotiated in its recently-approved
contract extension for the 3,000 former Verizon
employees at the company. CWA Local 1400 shop stewards
Jonathan Putnam and Jeanne Picardi assisted the workers
along with local President Cheryl Ahearn.
At five locations in Queens, New York, 90 workers at
Books & Rattles day-care centers withstood a brutal,
anti-union campaign to prevail and gain representation
with CWA Local 1180. The vote was 60-27 in an NLRB
election where management engaged in blatant violations
of the law to frighten union supporters. The company
conducted captive-audience meetings the day of the
election, a clear violation of the law, disciplined
three workers for their protected union activity, and
posted supervisors outside the voting area to intimate
workers.
Chief concerns are low pay, health care, pensions,
and job security. The workers, assisted by Local 1180
organizer Erin Mahoney, refused to buckle under. More
than 20 workers made up a vocal inside committee who
publicly sported pro-union buttons.
In a 14-month long campaign, 162 workers at
Metropolitan Translators, a firm contracted to
translate wiretaps for the Drug Enforcement
Administration, gained representation with CWA Local
9400, Los Angeles. The vote in the NLRB election was
67-41. The workers overcame an anti-union campaign and
geographical obstacles – they are scattered throughout
Southern California. They were assisted by Local
organizers Jeff Finley and Marco Ramirez.
By Huge Margin, House Votes to Make Flight
Attendants FMLA Eligible
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Intense lobbying by AFA-CWA
flight attendants, pictured with supporters
Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Lynn Woolsey
(D-CA), secured near unanimous House approval
for legislation to extend FMLA leave coverage
for flight crews. |
With unprecedented bipartisan support from
Republicans and Democrats, the House of Representatives
voted overwhelmingly, 402 to 9, to approve
AFA-CWA-supported legislation that will enable flight
attendants and pilots to be eligible for coverage under
the landmark Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend called the vote "a
major victory for the tens of thousands of airline
workers who have repeatedly been denied access to this
vital law that has benefited working families for over a
decade." Congress never intended to exclude airline
workers, but flight attendants and pilots are regularly
denied leave because of the way the airlines calculate
their work schedules. While working flights, flight
attendants are away from their homes up to 20 days a
month but this time is not counted toward FMLA coverage.
Because support was so strong for correcting this
inequity, the House agreed to approve the measure in a
special "suspension vote" which allows non-controversial
legislation to be quickly brought to a vote without
being subject to amendments or lengthy debate.
"We have been working for years to clarify FMLA
language," Friend stated. "This victory is truly a
testament to the spirit of involvement that is a
trademark of AFA-CWA members. It was because of the tens
of thousands of letters you sent, the phone calls you
made, and your face-to-face visits with your
representatives that we were able to garner the support
that allows this legislation to literally sail through
the House of Representatives," she said.
The legislation is expected to win approval in the
Senate where companion legislation, S. 2059, has been
introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton along with 26
co-sponsors.
Guild Election Set for June for Bay Area Newspaper
Workers
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San Francisco Bay Area
staffers working for MediaNews-owned papers
chat after a Northern California Newspaper Guild
mobilizers meeting at CWA offices. Workers will
vote on TNG-CWA representation on June 13.
(Photo by D. Ross Cameron) |
Workers eager for a union at the San Francisco Bay
Area's largest newspaper chain will cast ballots June 13
under an agreement reached with MediaNews Group
management.
Earlier this month, a solid majority of 250 eligible
workers at Bay Area papers in six communities signed
cards seeking representation by TNG-CWA's Northern
California Media Guild. Management refused to recognize
the card-check vote but agreed to an election date after
the union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board.
"So many of us have been working for months to get to
this moment," said reporter and organizing campaign
co-chair Sara Steffens. "We're eager for the opportunity
to have a union that works productively with management
like our colleagues at The New York Times, San Francisco
Chronicle, Washington Post, and news outlets across the
Bay Area and across the country. We have a lot of
practical, solution-oriented contributions to make
during this challenging time for our profession."
The would-be Guild members have put on an energetic
and positive campaign dubbed "One Big BANG: One Guild
Universe," which is online at
www.onebigbang.org. Their newspapers are operated by
the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB), owned by
Denver-based MediaNews.
Last summer, MediaNews merged newsroom operations at
the Oakland Tribune and four smaller newspapers with the
non-union Contra Costa Times. As a result, overall Guild
membership in the new entity stood at less than half,
which allowed MediaNews to withdraw recognition of the
Guild units at the five unionized papers, dissolving a
20-year bargaining relationship.
The Guild saw an opportunity of its own, and began to
organize the Contra Costa paper and re-organize the
other papers. Throughout, they have tried to maintain a
positive relationship with MediaNews.
"We're looking forward to continuing the productive
working dynamic with management that allowed us to
quickly nail down this election date and related
issues," said another reporter and campaign co-chair,
Michael Manekin. "We're focused on working together to
ensure our papers and Web sites are as efficient and
high-quality as possible."
Newspaper Guild Banquet Honors the Best in
Journalism
The Newspaper Guild-CWA celebrated the best in
journalism Wednesday night at the annual Freedom Fund
Award banquet, whose honorees included a BBC journalist
who was held hostage in the Gaza Strip for four months
and Washington Post reporters who exposed abusive
conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center.
Alan Johnston, the former BBC Gaza correspondent,
received the Herbert Block Freedom Award in recognition
of his commitment to reporting in the face of grave
personal danger.
The last Western reporter remaining in Gaza in March
2007, Johnston was abducted by Palestinian militants
barely two weeks before he was supposed to leave. He
spent 114 days in captivity, all of it taking a huge
psychological and physical toll on him, and an emotional
toll on his family. He was finally released on July 4,
2007.
The Herbert Block Award, which comes with a $5,000
check, is named for the famed Washington Post cartoonist
– known as Herblock -- who died in 2001. A Guild member
for 67 years, Block left $50,000 to the international
union. His gift funds the annual award for journalists
who embody the true spirit of freedom of the press.
Dana Priest and Anne Hull of the Washington Post were
awarded the 2007 Heywood Broun Award for their series on
the abysmal conditions and bureaucratic failures that
badly wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been
forced to contend with at Walter Reed Medical Center in
Washington, D.C. The series also won the 2008 Pulitzer
Prize.
The revelations about Walter Reed brought national
outrage, spurred the resignation of the Secretary of the
Army and senior hospital officials, and led to the
creation of a bi-partisan commission to review the
situation and improve it. The Broun award, named for the
columnist who helped found the Guild, also comes with a
$5,000 check.
The Broun judges – a six-member team of top American
journalists who read 117 entries -- also gave awards of
substantial distinction to print reporters Michael Riley
of the Denver Post and Charles Duhigg of the New York
Times. Riley uncovered massive failure by the federal
judicial system to investigate and prosecute serious
crime on U.S. Indian reservations and Duhigg reported on
the financial exploitation of older Americans. Both
received a $1,000 cash prize.
An honorable mention was awarded to Ray Ring of the
High Country News for his investigation of the rising
trend in accidents and deaths among oil and gas workers
in six western states. Ring works in a one-person bureau
850 miles from his magazine's headquarters.
The banquet also honored some of the most promising
young journalists, who received awards named for the
late Guild attorney David S. Barr. High school student
Sophie Cox of Atlanta won a $500 scholarship for her
reporting on subsidized housing and the dire effects of
cuts in federal funding. Titania Kumeh of San Francisco
State University won a $1,500 scholarship for exposing
the environmental crimes of Pacific Gas and Electric
Company. A honorable mention went to Erin Rosa of Metro
State College in Denver, whose three-part series on a
federal prison probed labor issues, dangerous conditions
and neglect.
Locals Representing 350,000 Sign Million Member
Pledge So Far
So far, 327 CWA locals representing 350,000 members
have signed on to recruit at least 15 percent of their
members to sign cards and add their photos as part of
the Million Member Mobilization to restore workers'
rights in America.
CWA and the rest of the labor movement are working to
deliver a million cards supporting the Employee Free
Choice Act to the new president and congressional
leaders early next year, and to plaster the House and
Senate chambers with the faces of rank and file workers
demanding passage of the bill. CWA's goal is to get at
least 85,000 signed cards with many thousands of photos.
To add your local to the pledge list, go to
www.cwa-union.org/efca/pledgeyourlocal and sign up;
you will be taken to a page to order cards for your
members to sign.
Locals that have enlisted in the Million Member
Mobilization so far are as follows:
District 1:
1022, 1025, 1031, 1032, 1033, 1034, 1037, 1040, 1077,
1079, 1080, 1081, 1084, 1086, 1087, 1088, 1089, 1101,
1102, 1103, 1104, 1105, 1106, 1108, 1109, 1113, 1115,
1117, 1118, 1122, 1126, 1133, 1152, 1168, 1170, 1177,
1180, 1182, 1298, 1301, 1365, 1400, 1701, 14148, 14156,
14164, 14169, 14177, 21005, 21027, 31003, 31034, 51011,
51014, 51016, 51017, 51021, 51025, 51026, 51211, 81076,
81106, 81134, 81201, 81298, 81319, 81381, 81384, 81408,
81427, 81440, 81455, 81475 and 81495
District 2:
2001, 2100, 2101, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2201, 2202, 2204,
2205, 2222, 2252, 2275, 2336, 32035, 52027, 52031,
82075, 82130, 82161 and82627
District 3:
3106, 3122, 3179, 3201, 3204, 3372, 3402, 3407, 3603,
23060, 23086, 23089, 83181, 83698, 83701, 83711, 83718,
83761 and 83799
District 4:
4004, 4008, 4034, 4040, 4050, 4100, 4108, 4123, 4202,
4217, 4300, 4302, 4309, 4319, 4320, 4322, 4326, 4340,
4371, 4400, 4401, 4501, 4502, 4603, 4611, 4620, 4621,
4622, 4630, 4671, 4818, 4900, 14408, 14430, 24046,
24051, 24094, 54041, 54042, 54044, 54046, 84101, 84415,
84555, 84705, 84707, 84717, 84719, 84725, 84727, 84742,
84745, 84755, 84798, 84800, 84808, 84809, 84911, 84913
and 84999
District 6:
6001, 6009, 6012, 6015, 6016, 6086, 6110, 6113, 6127,
6128, 6132, 6137, 6139, 6143, 6150, 6151, 6171, 6186,
6200, 6201, 6202, 6203, 6206, 6210, 6214, 6215, 6222,
6225, 6228, 6229, 6290, 6301, 6312, 6313, 6314, 6316,
6320, 6327, 6350, 6360, 6377, 6502, 6503, 6505, 6507,
6508, 6733, 86116, 86782 and 86821
District 7:
7011, 7019, 7026, 7032, 7037, 7050, 7055, 7070, 7076,
7101, 7102, 7103, 7110, 7170, 7171, 7200, 7201, 7203,
7212, 7219, 7250, 7272, 7301, 7303, 7304, 7400, 7401,
7470, 7500, 7505, 7603, 7610, 7621, 7704, 7705, 7708,
7716, 7717, 7743, 7750, 7777, 7790, 7800, 7803, 7804,
7810, 7812, 7816, 7817, 7818, 7901, 7906, 7908, 14705,
14708, 37083, 57052 and 57411
District 9:
9000, 9119, 9333, 9400, 9408, 9410, 9412, 9413, 9414,
9415, 9417, 9421, 9423, 9431, 9477, 9503, 9505, 9509,
9510, 9511, 9573, 9575, 9586, 9588, 14921, 29099, 59051,
59053 and 59057
District 13:
13000, 13101, 13301, 13500, 14827, 14830, 14842,
58213, 88329, 88502, 88612, 88623, 88643, 88648 and
88651
IN BRIEF:
- CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara J.
Easterling was honored recently by two major
organizations for her support for community
organizations and causes.
In Baltimore, 2,000 United Way top leaders
and staff attended as Easterling received the Joseph
A. Beirne Award, recognition of her years of service
to the labor movement and its longtime partnership
with the United Way. Easterling had served on the
United Way board for the past decade.
That same week, the Faith & Politics Institute
called Easterling "a model of working people's
charitable commitment to human dignity in our
communities and in the world" and honored her at the
annual St. Joseph's Day breakfast for her efforts in
the fight against Pediatric AIDS.
CWA President Larry Cohen said "Barbara is probably
the best link to community organizations in our
labor movement. At both events, it was stunning to
hear one leader after another describe his or her
personal relationship with Barbara and her support
and work on behalf of a long list of community
organizations. The benefits of Barbara's work and
relationships will continue into the future far past
her retirement."
Easterling is retiring as CWA secretary-treasurer at
the convention next month.
- CWA and its media sectors are cheering
the U.S. Senate for dealing a bipartisan blow to Big
Media last week, voting unanimously to reverse a
2007 FCC decision that lets one owner control both a
newspaper and TV stations in the same market.
CWA leaders and other opponents of what's
known as cross-ownership said they will push the
House to follow the Senate in blocking the tidal
wave of media consolidation.
Throughout the Bush administration, the media giants
have continuously pressed for FCC rules to let them
dominate media markets at the expense of the
public's right to access to diverse news, opinion
and entertainment options. Consolidation has also
cost tens of thousands of jobs.
Jonathan Adelstein, one of the two Democrats on the
five-member FCC, called the Senate's bipartisan vote
"a great victory of the people over the powerful."
- Workers at all income levels enjoy
better pay if they're represented by a union, but
for low-wage workers being a union member means an
even bigger boost in their earning power, according
to a new study from the Center for Economic and
Policy Research.
Nationwide, CEPR said the typical
union-represented worker earns 13.7 percent more
than non-unionized workers. But for those in the
bottom tenth of the wage scale, unions mean an extra
20.6 percent on average, or $1.57 an hour.
"Unions give the biggest boost to low-wage workers
because these are the workers that have the least
bargaining power in the labor market," said John
Schmitt, a CEPR senior economist and author of the
study. "Unionization has a large and measurable
impact on the bargaining power, and therefore the
wages, of low-wage workers."
The study, "The Union Advantage for Low-Wage
Workers" is available online at
www.cepr.net.
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