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May 3,
2007
Verizon Shareholders
Give Record Support
To Labor-Backed
Proposals on Executive Pay
Murdoch Bid for Dow
Jones
Verizon Shareholders Give
Record Support
To Labor-Backed Proposals on
Executive Pay
CWA and IBEW members
spotlighted Verizon's
anti-worker attitude at the
May 3 shareholder meeting in
Pittsburgh, and shareholders
expressed their own
dissatisfaction with the
corporation by giving
record, near-majority
support to labor-backed
proposals that address
executive pay and other
governance issues.
Nearly 1,200 workers,
including supporters from
Pittsburgh-based USW and
others, rallied then marched
to the meeting, where
inside, CWA and IBEW
officers and members focused
attention on three key
shareholder resolutions. All
of the labor-supported
proposals received enough
votes to signify the need
for a serious shift in CEO
compensation at Verizon.
Activists at the rally,
also heard from CWA District
13 Vice President Jim Short,
IBEW President Edwin Hill,
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer
Richard Trumka and other
state and local union
officers who talked about
labor's determination to
restore workers' rights,
beginning with Verizon.
John Elia, a Verizon
Business tech in Burlington,
Mass., said a union contract
brings "a voice in our
future and the security of
knowing what to expect in a
rapidly changing business
environment. All we are
asking is that the company
drop the intimidation and
honor the neutrality and
union recognition procedure
that other Verizon employees
have benefited from," he
said.
CWA has called Verizon
the poster child for bad
corporate behavior, citing
its refusal to acknowledge
workers' rights and concerns
over its corporate
governance practices. (Read
the report to Verizon
shareholders at
www.cwa-union.org and
http://investor.cwa-union.org/verizon.)
Inside the meeting, Short
introduced the resolution
sponsored by the CWA
Members' Relief Fund which
calls for true transparency
and full disclosure
regarding the work of
compensation consultants
hired to make
recommendations on the
compensation packages of
senior executives. That
proposal received 47 percent
of shareholder votes.
Short pointed out that
Verizon's Human Resources
Committee had allowed a
conflict of interest
regarding its compensation
consultant for far too long
and that played a critical
role in the "vote no"
campaign targeting its six
members.
Ron Collins,
administrative director for
CWA District 2 Vice
President Pete Catucci,
spoke in support of the
proposal calling for a say
by shareholders on executive
pay decisions. That proposal
received at least 49 percent
of shareholder votes,
with the final count likely
to continue into next week.
IBEW President Hill
supported an
AFL-CIO-sponsored proposal
would give shareholders the
right to vote on severance
agreements. That proposal
received 46 percent of
shareholder votes.
CWA Prepares Major
Grassroots Push for EFCA
U.S. senators can expect
to hear from tens of
thousands of CWA members and
their families the week of
May 14, as CWA steps up
pressure on the Senate to
pass the Employee Free
Choice Act.
All CWA districts and
locals have been given lists
of senators and phone
numbers and are urged to
flood them with phone calls
from their constituents.
IBEW will also be joining in
the week's effort.
"We are going to rise up
as if we were bargaining our
toughest contract, because
we are," CWA President Larry
Cohen said in a conference
call with local officers
this week.
CWA and IBEW are focusing
primarily on 11 senators who
are considered swing votes
on the Employee Free Choice
Act, including several who
sponsored it in the last
Congress.
The 11 are Democrats
Blanche Lincoln and Mark
Pryor of Arkansas, Ken
Salazar of Colorado and Ben
Nelson of Nebraska and
Republicans Susan Collins
and Olympia Snowe of Maine,
Norm Coleman of
Minnesota, John Sununu of
New Hampshire, George
Voinovich of Ohio, Gordon
Smith of Oregon and Arlen
Specter of Pennsylvania.
Union members are also
being asked to call the 47
senators who have signed on
as co-sponsors to thank them
and to counter the pressure
being put on them by the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and
other anti-union
organizations bitterly
opposed to the bill, which
would restore workers' badly
eroded rights to
organize and bargain
contracts. The U.S. House
passed the bill in March by
a vote of 241-185.
Noting that some senators
say they're getting calls
almost exclusively from
opponents, Cohen said it's
critical that working
families make their voices
heard. "Good jobs, health
care and retirement security
are not just union values,
they are American values,
and they are fundamentally
tied to the right to bargain
collectively," he said.
He pointed to polls
� that show a majority of
Americans support unions and
that more than two-thirds
support the Employee Free
Choice Act.
To illustrate the
critical need for the
changes the bill would
bring, Cohen addressed
Verizon's aggressive
union-busting and CWA's
campaign to "tear down the
wall" the company is
building between its
existing union workforce and
other units Verizon is
determined to keep
union-free.
On the conference call,
Local 9586 President Gregg
Gibson described the
company's recent campaign to
destroy a union drive at its
West Coast DSL
maintenance-control office
in Long Beach, Calif.
Nearly two-thirds of workers
signed cards seeking
representation but in the
days leading to an election,
Verizon -- completely
violating the neutrality
agreement covering this unit
-- unleashed a relentless
anti-union campaign,
slamming CWA, lying about
the union and making
threats.
The union lost the
election by a handful of
votes. "We had cards signed
by 65 percent of our
members," Gibson said. "With
the Employee Free Choice
Act, we would have had a
union."
Public officials around
the country have taken a
stand for Verizon workers in
letters to CEO Ivan
Seidenberg. They include
Kansas Gov. Kathleen
Sebelius and Hartford,
Conn., Mayor Eddie Perez,
whose letters Cohen has
shared with locals.
He urged locals across
the country to seek out
other leaders to write to
Seidenberg and other
employers who are stripping
workers of their rights.
"We want to send a
message to all employers: We
are making this a hard-core
issue," he said. "We will
fight for our rights, we
will fight for our future,
we will fight for our
children."
AFA-CWA, Northwest Reach
Tentative Pact
AFA-CWA and Northwest
Airlines reached a tentative
agreement covering 8,000
flight attendants. The
ratification vote for
AFA-CWA members will begin
on May 7 with voting to end
on May 29, and roadshows --
AFA-CWA's contract
explanation meetings -- will
be held over the next
several weeks.
Northwest flight
attendants had voted down
two previous tentative
agreements. In June 2006, a
federal bankruptcy judge
gave Northwest management
permission to throw out over
50 years of collective
bargaining and imposed wage
and benefit cuts. These cuts
increased work hours while
cutting wages, benefits and
working conditions for
flight attendants.
The proposed settlement
protects a $182 million
bankruptcy equity claim and
severance option that, if
ratified by flight
attendants, could provide as
much as $18,000 in payments
per flight attendant,
AFA-CWA said.
Jay Hong, AFA-CWA
President at Northwest, said
the union will continue the
fight to restore members'
pay, benefits and working
conditions. "We will never
rest until we have rebuilt
what this bankruptcy has
destroyed," he said. The
tentative agreement does
give members the opportunity
to vote on whether to take
the $182 million bankruptcy
claim and other improvements
before the claim is lost
when the airline exits
bankruptcy, he noted.
85 Locals So Far Have
Reached
10% Stewards Army Goal
At least eighty-five
locals so far have met the
goal of having 10 percent of
their members signed up in
the Stewards Army and more
are very close to reaching
that goal. CWA has long
held that we need one
steward or mobilizer for
every 10 members.
CWA's Ready for the
Future program, adopted at
last year's Convention,
calls for recruiting 25,000
activists by this summer and
50,000 by the 2008
Convention as frontline
mobilizers in the critical
fights for jobs, health
care, retirement security
and bargaining rights.
We know the list below is
not complete at this point
because some locals haven't
updated the local's
information in the CWA
database. Locals are urged
to submit the information so
that they can receive
recognition at the CWA
Convention this July. Enter
traditional stewards as well
as mobilizers/activists.
Instructions follow:
How to Add
Stewards/mobilizers to the
Local's Member Database
If locals use MUMS, the
new 5.30 version allows you
to submit Steward/Mobilizer
changes via e-mail. You can
create new records or submit
data for existing records.
If locals do not use
MUMS, you can create your
Steward/Mobilizer records
online by going to
http://www.cwa-secy-treas.org/sa/.
The local login and password
are the same as the ones
locals use to access online
H-166's. The Sector login
and password are the same as
the ones used to access
membership development
reports.
10 Percent Locals
in Current Database
Current records show that
the following locals so far
have reached the goal of at
least 10 percent of their
members signed up with the
Stewards Army (stewards and
mobilizers): Local 1090,
1102, 1114, 1115, 1120,
1122, 1124, 1126, 1153,
1170, 1301, 2109, 2203,
2206, 2222, 3102, 3105,
3114, 3115, 3150, 3250,
3290, 3313, 3315, 3317,
3412, 3414, 3490, 3504,
3513, 3601, 3602, 3606,
3609, 3616, 3672, 3681,
3719, 3790, 3802, 3804,
3907, 3908, 3971, 3972,
4008, 4032, 4101, 4103,
4108, 4290, 4300, 4321,
4370, 4385, 4390, 4470,
4474, 4475, 4485, 4818,
4998, 6007, 6137, 6174,
6178, 6202, 6313, 6314,
6372, 6374, 6391, 6407,
6500, 6502, 7150, 7201,
7290, 7704, 7716, 7816,
9413, 13591, 81281 and
84845.
Guild Local Blasts
Murdoch Bid for Dow Jones
IAPE Local 1096 of
TNG-CWA issued a statement
strongly opposing a bid by
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
to buy Dow Jones & Co. this
week, noting: "Mr. Murdoch
has shown a willingness to
crush quality and
independence, and there is
no reason to think he would
handle Dow Jones or the
(Wall Street) Journal any
differently."
The family that owns the
controlling shares in Dow
Jones, the Bancrofts,
quickly declined Murdoch's
unsolicited offer of about
$5 billion for the company,
but Murdoch said he would
continue to talk to
shareholders and press the
deal.
Murdoch's media empire
includes the less than "fair
and balanced" Fox News
channel and other cable,
broadcast, publishing,
Internet and entertainment
holdings around the world.
"The staff, from top to
bottom, opposes a Rupert
Murdoch takeover of Dow
Jones & Co.," Local 1096
stated. "Despite our
differences of opinion with
current management, we
strongly encourage the
Bancrofts to continue to
stand up for the
institution's independence,
and to walk away from the
offer.
"Moreover, the massive
premium Mr. Murdoch is
offering suggests only one
recourse to make the
acquisition profitable:
gutting the enterprise and
slashing the staff that make
it the leading financial
news organization."
TNG-CWA President Linda
Foley stated: "The value of
Dow Jones lies with the
expertise and experience of
its staff. The concerns of
Dow Jones employees,
therefore, must be addressed
and are critical to Dow
Jones' future sucess."
The union currently is in
negotiations with Dow Jones
and is battling demands to
cut back health benefits and
job protections. Local 1096
represents about 2,000 Dow
Jones employees in the
United States and Canada.
Card Check Victory at
AT&T, Breakthrough at GE
Seeking fair wages and
job security, 76 of the 91
workers at the AT&T Local
Services customer service
maintenance center in
Monmouth Junction, N.J.,
gained representation with
CWA Local 1150 under the
union's card check and
neutrality agreement with
the AT&T. The workers'
majority union support was
certified on May 1 by the
American Arbitration
Association.
The card-signing campaign
took just one week,
according to Local 1150 New
Jersey Area Director Nancy
Brett who, along with Local
President Laura Unger,
assisted the workers. A wide
disparity in wages was a
major issue along with
worries over the impact of
future job consolidations.
The workers, responsible for
maintaining service for the
company's business
customers, were strongly
supported by a unit of CWA
members who worked for AT&T
in the same building.
Meanwhile, workers who
install and service GE
appliances for residential
and business customers along
Florida's east coast voted
9-3 for representation with
IUE-CWA Local 712 on May 2.
GE used captive-audience
meetings and supervisor
one-on-ones to scare off the
workers, but "the desire to
get a union won out over
fear tactics," according to
IUE-CWA Organizing Director
Howard Foshinbaur.
They were last group of
unorganized service and
installation employees at GE
along the state's east
coast. It was also the first
organizing victory by GE
workers in nearly two
decades. IUE-CWA Local 712
President Raul Garcia and
Vice President Lance
Bergmann assisted the
workers.
IN BRIEF:
- CORRECTION
TO CWA NEWS: The
April/May CWA News
incorrectly stated that
the Employee Free Choice
Act had passed the U.S.
House within the first
100 hours of the
congressional session,
when it should read, the
first 100 days. The
error appeared in the
Working Together column
by President Cohen on
page 2 and in the
article and caption on
page 3.
- IBM has
quietly laid off more
than 1,300 workers in
the U.S. over the past
week as part of its
ongoing effort to shift
work to low-wage workers
in India, China and
Brazil. The cutbacks
were not officially
revealed by the company
but were uncovered by a
coast-to-coast network
of IBM employees who
belong to CWA Local
1701, Alliance@IBM.
The union's announcement
of the job cuts prompted
widespread media
coverage this week.
The company is required
by law to notify
targeted workers, so
Alliance members were
able to piece together
an accurate picture of
the number of workers
affected, according to
Lee Conrad, national
coordinator of the
Alliance.
The cuts are in IBM's
fastest-growing Global
Services division, where
management has been
steadily replacing
long-time U.S. employees
with lower-paid new
hires from both the U.S.
and overseas. Currently,
15 percent of the
company's 355,000
employees worldwide are
based in India, but that
percentage is projected
to grow quickly. The
Alliance says that as
many as 12,000
additional workers could
be trimmed from the
company's U.S. workforce
within the next year.
- Last
January, they had
demonstrated outside the
state capital over their
low salaries � and this
week 30 Local 2055
members in Charleston,
W.Va. rallied at the
same spot to thank
lawmakers and the
governor for boosting
pay for corrections
officers by $2,000 with
the prospect of another
$3,000 the next two
years.
"Labor unions
are often recognized for
their picket lines and
demonstrations for
raises. Well this local
wanted to show we can
demonstrate to say thank
you, too," CWA Rep.
Elaine Harris told the
Charleston Gazette.
The employees work for
the Division of
Corrections, Division of
Juvenile Services and
Regional Jail Authority.
- As part of
the AFL-CIO's broadest
effort ever to involve
union members in the
process of endorsing a
presidential candidate,
the federation has set
up an interactive
website that examines
each candidate's stand
on working family
issues.
The site,
Working Families Vote
2008, provides news,
blog links, video and a
forum where participants
can discuss issues and
candidates. An "action
center" link lets people
e-mail candidates with
questions.
Candidates will be
grilled and evaluated on
issues from the Employee
Free Choice Act to good
jobs, trade, health
care, retirement
security and more. Check
it out at
www.aflcio.org/issues/politics.
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