September 6, 2007
Utica
Time Warner Techs Stand Strong for Their Union
Dealing a big blow to their anti-union employer, Time
Warner Cable, CWA-represented cable technicians in
Utica, N.Y., this week overwhelmingly rejected a
decertification attempt.
The 33 members of CWA Local 1126 voted 24-9 to stick
with the union, which has represented them through a
parade of owners for 35 years.
High morale and unbreakable solidarity got the unit
through the past 45 days of the decertification
campaign, Local 1126 President Mike Garry said. “They
won by standing up for themselves, showing strength and
unity, wearing stickers, asking questions at captive
audience meetings – really putting the company in a
lose-lose situation.”
And they involved the community with lawn signs,
print ads and radio spots encouraging them to call Time
Warner in support of the workers – a campaign that will
continue as contract negotiations get underway Sept. 25.
Their support was so strong that their local New York
assemblywoman came to their victory party Wednesday
night, Garry said.
The struggle began about two years ago when Time
Warner Cable bought Adelphia, which had a contract, now
expired, with the Utica workers. Time Warner quickly
showed its lack of respect for the union by stripping
members of the pension and 401(k) plan it offered its
non-union workers.
Although they couldn’t legally come right out and say
they’d give the benefits back to workers if they
decertified, CWA District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim
Dubnau said Time Warner “hinted very strongly” that it
would happen. “They ran a vicious campaign,” he said.
But he and Garry said the company grossly
underestimated its workers. “They thought they could buy
them off,” Garry said. “They thought the whole thing was
going to hinge on the fact that they were withholding
the 401(k) and pensions.”
CWA countered with a highly effective campaign that
included testimonials from former CWA members in Texas
who deeply regret decertifying their own union at Time
Warner cable.
“They spoke anonymously because they still work for
the company,” Dubnau said. “But they told us it was a
huge mistake. They talked about how much forced overtime
they have to work now and how they never see their
families. And they told us that the person who
spearheaded the decertification got two promotions and a
trip to Hawaii.”
Another big coup was contact with a former Time
Warner manager who’s now a member of CWA at Verizon in
Syracuse. “He called into one of our meetings and told
them what to expect and said, ‘They can’t wait to crush
you guys,’” Garry said. “I think that was the final
straw.”
In addition, Dubnau said a strong inside committee
did an excellent job of helping workers understand the
difference between being an at-will employee and one
with union rights. He said the company had to know it
was in trouble when 22 of the workers wore union
stickers to a captive-audience meeting.
Calif. Court Interpreters Strike to End Double
Standard
California court interpreters, forced to strike over
the court’s refusal to bargain a fair contract, have
strong and growing support from state and local elected
officials and the communities they serve in their fight
to be treated equitably with other court employees.
Some 400 members of the California Federation of
Interpreters (CFI), part of TNG-CWA Local 39521, set up
picket lines on Sept. 5 at courthouses in Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Despite
months of negotiations on a wage-reopener, the court
continues to reject proposals for a fair wage increase
for interpreters. The group has had only one cost of
living increase in eight years and they are denied
salary step increases that all other court employees
enjoy, according to CFI.
The union is pointing out that below-standard pay
treatment has caused a shortage of court interpreters in
Southern California, which causes delays and
postponements that handicap non-English-speaking
citizens. "The population we serve includes the most
victimized people in society when it comes to crime,
consumer fraud and employment issues, and our services
open the doors of justice to them," said CFI head Silvia
Barden.
Separate letters supporting the interpreters have
been introduced by lawmakers in the State Senate by
Senator Gil Cedillo and in the State Assembly by
Representative Mike Eng, who are urging their colleagues
to sign on.
Senator Cedillo said court interpreters are
“indispensable in the administration of justice and to
California diversity” and should be “treated with
dignity, respect and rewarded appropriately for the
critical service they play in our Justice system.”
Interpreters also have received overwhelming support
from California’s legal community, including judges and
other court personnel.
More information is available at
www.cfinews.org.
Death of Verizon Tech Prompts Electrical Safety
Agreement
Under a settlement pushed by CWA after the
electrocution death of a technician last year, Verizon
in Maryland will train its 2,700 technicians – inside
and outside workers – on a full array of electrical
safety and health issues.
The agreement between Verizon and Maryland’s
Occupational Safety and Health division requires the
company to conduct training between now and Feb. 1,
2008, with future training for new hires. Topics include
power line contact with vehicles and aerial lifts,
identifying electrical hazards, health effects from
exposure to electrical power and how to resolve hazards.
CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said the
settlement doesn’t spell out the union’s role in the
training, but District 2 and local leaders, working
through the joint union-management committee at Verizon,
will insist on being involved.
"No settlement agreement can begin to make up for the
loss of our member, Marvin Benson, but by requiring
training for all technicians, it honors his memory and
will save other lives," District 2 President Pete
Catucci said. "Our job now is to make sure that CWA has
input into the training and that it's as effective as it
can possibly be."
Benson, who was 36 and a member of CWA Local 2100,
was electrocuted last October while working in an aerial
bucket placing fiber optic cable near
Baltimore-Washington Airport. The accident sent
electricity through the bucket and to the truck.
Another technician inside the truck managed to escape
injury.
District 2 Administrative Director Ron Collins and
leaders of Benson’s local – Executive Vice President
Mark Balsamo, also the safety and health chair, and
President Steve Holland – were instrumental in getting
the training into the settlement and will be working to
ensure that the union has a voice in the training
itself.
CWA leaders will also urge Verizon to expand the
training throughout District 2 and ultimately throughout
the country. Between CWA and the IBEW, four Verizon
technicians have been killed in electrocution accidents
over the last year and a half and others have been
injured, and there have been several near-miss
incidents.
LeGrande said CWA District 4 is working with OSHA in
Indiana on a similar settlement in the death of
technician and Local 4773 member Brent Cheney. Cheney,
35, was electrocuted in May 2006 while working on a
mainframe to fix a customer’s cable problem.
CWA Counters Alcatel Lucent on Plant Closing
CWA has countered Alcatel Lucent’s demand that 250
workers represented by CWA Locals 1365 and 1366 bear the
brunt of $6.6 million in cost cutting at the North
Andover, Mass., plant.
The CWA proposal will save the company millions of
dollars while continuing to keep North Andover open,
said CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, Communications and
Technologies.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also is working
with CWA to find additional savings to help keep the
plant in operation.
Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry,
with Representative John Tierney, wrote to Alcatel
Lucent CEO Pat Russo to express their support for CWA’s
plan to significantly reduce costs over the next several
years and to “urge you to give it full consideration.”
“Closing the plant, which is among the last of
Lucent’s manufacturing facilities in the United States,
would send a deleterious signal about the company’s
commitment to its workers who helped build it,” they
wrote.
IN BRIEF:
- In a letter to
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama urges him “in the strongest
terms” to reconsider his decision “not to honor the
clear decision of Verizon Business technicians” to
join CWA or the IBEW.
Telling Seidenberg that the
“hard work and dedicated service” of unionized
employees have made his company large and
profitable, the Illinois Senator reminded him it’s
been nearly six months since a majority of Verizon
Business technicians indicated their strong desire
to join the company’s 80,000 other union members.
“The next president will
sign the Employee Free Choice Act into law, so I
encourage you to show leadership by recognizing the
unions and entering into negotiations without
further delay,” Obama wrote.
- AT&T announced this week that it will be
bringing 367 new jobs to Birmingham, Ala., as part
of its agreement with CWA to return thousands of
contracting DSL/Internet tech support jobs to the
United States. Hiring will begin later this month
for a new customer care center, according to the
company. The announcement brings to close to 3,000
the number of new tech support jobs that AT&T has
created or announced this year.
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