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June 14, 2007
Debate on Employee
Free Choice Act Begins June 18
The United States Senate will begin debate on the
Employee Free Choice Act – S. 1041 – on Monday, June 18,
with a vote likely to come on Wednesday, June 20.
That means time is growing short to let our senators
know that this critical legislation must be passed, said
CWA President Larry Cohen. In a recorded telephone
message going to tens of thousands of CWA members,
President Cohen is calling on CWAers to contact their
senators to urge them to vote yes on the Employee Free
Choice Act.
CWA activists and union members nationwide are
gearing up to do just that, and plan to send thousands
of telephone calls and messages to their senators,
especially in the 11 target states of Alaska, Arkansas,
Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Nationally, CWA members can call 1-800-455-7104 and
enter their zip codes to be connected to their Senator's
office. In speaking with a staff member or leaving a
message, CWAers are asked to give their name, city or
town, and let the senator know they're part of CWA.
In Washington, D.C., union members will rally on
Tuesday, June 19, at Upper Senate Park near the U.S.
Capitol to let senators know that this bill is a
priority for working families. The AFL-CIO also is
coordinating rallies and events in 60 communities across
the country.
During CWA's week of action for the Employee Free
Choice Act, May 14-18, CWAers generated 7,000 telephone
calls.
The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on
March 1 by a 241-185 vote.
Hub & Router
Installers Organize at AT&T Contractor
A unit of 25 contract employees who install hubs,
routers and video equipment at AT&T central offices in
Reno, Nevada, won representation last week with CWA
Local 9413. The vote in the NLRB-sponsored election was
14-8. The workers are employed by NorthStar
Communications Group, a contractor performing
installations at AT&T central offices that are part of
"Project Lightspeed" and support the rollout of U-Verse,
AT&T's high-speed, fiber optic video, internet, data and
communications service.
The workers, technicians and others with engineering
job titles are believed to be the first to organize at
NorthStar or other AT&T contractors involved in the
installation of hubs, routers and video equipment.
CWA has been pressing AT&T to give CWA members
training and full access to the company's "jobs of the
future," of which U-verse is the leading component. "We
prefer that these installations be done by our members,
but we're not going to pass up the opportunity to help
organize contract employees who want a union too," said
CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, head of
CWA's new Telecom Office.
The workers reached out to CWA Local 9413 President
Chuck Benway who works at AT&T's central office in Reno.
"Besides wanting a union and a fair grievance procedure,
the workers wanted to get reimbursed fairly for their
travel expenses," said Benway who assisted the workers
in their campaign. The workers were having a hard time
making ends meet on a per diem of just $70 a day that is
supposed to cover not only meals but also hotel expenses
if they had to stay overnight. Some workers share rooms
to make the per diem go further, but the company cuts
their per diem in half if it finds out, Benway said.
Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., NorthStar, the
telecommunications subsidiary of BE&K, Inc., provides
infrastructure, network, and outsourcing services to
telecommunications companies nationwide.
CWA:
Alcatel Lucent Repays Workers with Job Cuts
CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, communications and
technologies, blasted Alcatel Lucent's proposed plan to
close the North Andover, Mass., facility (also known as
Merrimack Valley) unless union-represented workers find
and agree to accept $6.6 million in cost cutting
adjustments.
"This demand is typical of the new Alcatel Lucent,"
Maly said. "The company says if 250 union-represented
workers bear the brunt of $6.6 million in cuts, it might
reconsider keeping the operation open. But Alcatel
Lucent seems intent on shutting down its U.S.
union-represented facilities and shifting more work
overseas."
Alcatel Lucent said it plans to shift work from North
Andover, which employs a total of 500 employees, to
Italy. Maly said that it was CWA and local unions at
North Andover that made the product lines produced there
a success. "Now, Alcatel Lucent is repaying union
workers by threatening to take away their jobs and their
livelihoods," he said.
Maly said he will continue to work to keep the
facility open.
Members of CWA Local 1365 in North Andover produce
network communications equipment to enable companies to
transmit data over fiber optic networks. CWA and the
local also were instrumental in building new demand for
a long distance data transmission system, Lambda Xtreme,
a product Lucent was unable to successfully market.
"This past quarter, we gave Lucent the best
financials that it has received over the past four
years, with costs coming in below all budget
expectations," said Local 1365 President Gary Nilsson,
adding, that Lucent's treatment of union workers at
North Andover is a disgrace.
Workers are mobilizing and building support
throughout the North Andover community, with a public
meeting scheduled for June 24.
CWAers Rally to Support Striking DT Workers
Lead by CWA President Larry Cohen, more than a
hundred union activists in Washington, D.C.,
demonstrated outside the German Embassy to show
solidarity with 16,000 striking workers at Deutsche
Telekom in Germany. The workers are fighting management
demands to shift 50,000 jobs to subsidiary T-Services,
where workers would face big cuts in pay but increased
working hours. The workers, members of ver.di, the
German telecommunications union, went on strike
beginning May 11.
Cohen blasted the German government for its failure
to condemn the company's actions on the basis that it
was neutral and it could not take sides. "The German
government is part owner of Deutsche Telekom and could
have a powerful influence on this company's management.
It's inexcusable that Chancellor Angela Merkel has
chosen to remain silent as this company seeks to crush
its workers and their standard of living," he said.
Union Network International also has called on the
German government to safeguard the workers' benefits and
working conditions. The company has been pressing for
huge cuts in compensation and other changes since
Blackstone Group, a private equity company, obtained a
minority stake in the company. Go to
www.unionvoice.org/campaign/dt and urge DT's chief
executive officer to bargain fairly with workers.
Canadian Unions Hail Court Ruling on Bargaining
Rights
In a landmark victory for Canadian workers, the
country's Supreme Court ruled 6-1 last week that the
right to collective bargaining is protected by the
Charter of Rights, similar to the Bill of Rights in the
United States.
"The right to bargain collectively with an employer
enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of
workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the
establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some
control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their
work," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and
Justice Louis LeBel.
The ruling – from a court with a generally
conservative reputation -- came in a case involving a
2003 British Columbia law that allows health-care
employers to break union contracts and eliminate job
security provisions by replacing union workers with
non-union contractors. Thousands of workers lost their
jobs.
CWA and TNG-CWA represent more than 7,000 workers in
Canada. TNG-Canada Director Arnold Amber said that while
the ruling "doesn't affect many of our members, every
Supreme Court judgment that moves the cause of labor
forward is really, really important. This is a
tremendous victory, a reaffirmation of the legitimacy
and the importance of the labor movement in Canada."
CWA President Larry Cohen said the justices "took a
legal and moral stand for workers that is a sharp
contrast to countries like the United States where many
corporations would like nothing more than for workers to
have no rights at all."
The court suspended the effect of its decision for
one year to give British Columbia time to pass
acceptable legislation. Lawyers and union leaders said
they don't know yet whether the court's decision will
offer any recourse for the thousands of union members
whose jobs were contracted as a result of the B.C. law.
CWA a Vital Partner for South African Workers at
Vodacom
A victory for workers struggling to bargain
collectively at South Africa's Vodacom could have ripple
effects for workers throughout the African continent and
around the world – including Verizon Wireless employees
in the United States, union leaders say.
Vodacom's parent company, Vodafone, operates in much
of the African continent and countries that include
Spain, France, Germany and England. It also owns 45
percent of Verizon Wireless.
"These workers will prevail," CWA President Larry
Cohen said. "Their struggle serves as a reminder of what
we can achieve despite history and the odds. A little
more than a dozen years ago, these workers would have
been jailed under South Africa's brutal anti-worker
apartheid regime. Yet today, apartheid is gone and South
Africa's labor laws are more progressive than our own in
the United States."
For two years, CWA has been working with the
Solidarity Center and the Communications Workers Union
of South Africa to help the country's roughly 3,000
Vodacom workers – mostly young, black women – organize a
union and bargain a contract.
Since apartheid ended in South Africa, labor and
government have generally had a good relationship,
seeing themselves as partners in the struggle to end
segregation and rebuild a vibrant country based on
social justice.
Because of that, "it used to be blasphemy to oppose
unions in the workplace," Solidarity Center Organizing
Director Hanad Mohamed said during a presentation June
14 at CWA headquarters.
But attitudes are changing for the worse. And Vodacom
made things even more contentious by hiring what may be
the first union-busting attorney in South Africa – an
American. Under her direction, Vodacom employees have
been the targets of anti-union fear and intimidation
tactics familiar to many American workers. Mohamed said
the South Africans were so shocked by the behavior they
were often heard to say, "This kind of thing only
happens in America."
The workers went on strike in March – an especially
courageous act, Mohamed said, in a country with 40
percent unemployment -- but a court injunction ended the
walkout several days later. The injunction was
overturned last month. To push the company to bargain,
the workers have threatened to go on strike again and
this time take the country's landline workers with them.
The company agreed to talks but so far has done
little but throw up roadblocks by demanding bargaining
sessions in places far away, forcing union leaders and
the workers who will join them to deplete their
resources by paying for airfare. But the union is
standing strong.
CWA's support and advice have been invaluable,
Mohamed said, helping the union do unprecedented
research on the company and map out a coordinated
campaign and message. "People feel and believe that CWA
is in this fight with them," he said.
Connecticut CWA Activist Handcuffed for Health Care
Determined to make universal health care a reality in
Connecticut and frustrated by broken promises from
lawmakers, CWA member Rich Benham and 21 other labor
activists decided they needed to show the legislature
how serious they are.
June 1, following a rally that drew more than 400
union members to the capitol in Hartford, the group now
known as the "Health 4 You 22" peacefully blocked
entrances to the Senate, House and governor's office.
After several warnings from police, they were each
handcuffed, arrested, cited for breach of peace and let
go.
Benham, vice president for customer information
services in CWA Local 1298, was the only CWA member
among the 22. Others included Autoworkers, Machinists,
Teamsters, Teachers and members of the New England
Health Care Employees Union.
Benham has been leading a Local 1298 project funded
with a $25,000 grant from the Universal Health Care
Foundation of Connecticut. The money is being used to
educate members about the broken health system and how
to fix it.
The foundation, whose board includes labor
representatives, describes itself on its website as an
"independent, nonprofit charity dedicated to making the
health care system work for all Connecticut residents.
The Foundation believes that health care is a
fundamental right. It sees its work as part of a larger
movement for social and economic justice."
Before last year's elections, Benham said politicians
made promises to labor and to the foundation to take up
universal health care. Though some lawmakers in the
Democratic-led House and Senate have tried, the
legislation has stalled. Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Jodi
Rell has refused to respond to the foundation's
proposals.
"We submitted a plan, we sent letters – we delivered
over 2,000 Christmas cards saying "All I want for
Christmas is universal health care. But there's been no
response," Benham said.
Led by the UAW, hundreds of union members turned out
for the June 1 rally, which followed a candlelight vigil
by the faith-based community the night before. Feeling
that more action was needed to get lawmakers' and the
media's attention, Benham and the 21 others volunteered
for civil disobedience.
Two of the 22 pleaded guilty to the charges,
primarily because summer vacations were going to get in
the way of later court dates. But 20 others, including
Benham, plan to fight the charges and keep the issue in
the news. They are headed back to court June 21.
A video of the protests and arrests is on You Tube
at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5G8Re49EOw
Staffer Ed Disch Taught Wisconsin Stewards
Edward Disch, 78, a retired CWA representative in
District 4, died on June 12. He was best known for his
commitment and effectiveness in training CWA leaders.
"Ed was a terrific teacher. He ran some of the best
steward schools we had," said CWA Executive Vice
President Jeff Rechenbach, who was District 4 vice
president at the time of Disch's retirement.
"Education was what he loved most," said his wife,
Elaine. "He enjoyed the camaraderie with the members and
staff."
Employed by Wisconsin Telephone as a fieldman for
engineering, Disch formed a deep commitment to unionism
during the national telephone strike of 1947. He served
as president of CWA Local 5522 in Oshkosh, Wis., then
joined the staff as a CWA representative in November
1953. He soon took on statewide responsibility for
stewards' training and headed Wisconsin CWA-COPE.
In 1968, he moved to the union's Chicago office and,
in August 1977, was named administrative assistant to
the then District 5 vice president. He served as
Illinois director from April 1980, then became a CWA
representative in November 1985, following the merger of
District 5 and District 4. He worked from the Itasca,
Ill., office from February 1989 until his retirement in
March 1994.
IN BRIEF:
- A U.S. House bill supported by AFA-CWA
and introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) seeks to
clarify the Family and Medical Leave Act to ensure
that its benefits are available to flight
attendants.
Currently, flight attendants face more
hurdles than other workers in order to qualify for
FMLA benefits. AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend
said that's due to language in the law that has been
narrowly interpreted and fails to take into account
the unique way the airline industry counts employee
hours. Hours worked is one of the standards in the
FMLA law for determining who's eligible for
benefits.
Speaking at a Thursday news conference with Friend,
Bishop said his bill "will clarify the intent of the
law in order to provide a fair and well-deserved
benefit to the hard-working airline crewmembers."
- Oregon is about to become the latest
state to give public workers the freedom to form
unions through card check.
"The right to organize played a critical
role in building our middle class. If a majority of
employees want to form a union, Oregon will respect
that choice. It's just common sense," Oregon Senate
President Peter Courtney said.
The measure passed 17-13 in the state Senate and
34-24 in the House, which will vote on it again
after reconciling several differences between its
version and the Senate bill. Democratic Gov. Ted
Kulongoski has promised to sign it.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain said that
in addition to e-mails, letters and phone calls from
workers around the state, more than 300 people
actively lobbied the legislature "often telling
their stories of abuse at the hands of employers."
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