January 17, 2008

CWAers Meet with Arkansas Senators to Build EFCA Support

In Arkansas, CWAers and other union members have put the Stewards Army to work on the union movement's biggest priority: passing the Employee Free Choice Act. CWA members and union activists met this week in Little Rock with Arkansas Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor to talk about the Employee Free Choice Act and its importance to working people.

Lincoln and Pryor, both Democrats, are critical to building enough support in the U.S. Senate for the measure so that opponents can't filibuster the bill and prevent an up or down vote despite its majority support.

Regina Cain, left, meets with Senator Lincoln

Meeting with Lincoln, Regina Cain, a steward and member of Local 6507, contrasted conditions at her workplace today – the AT&T Mobility call center in Little Rock – with those under previous management when workers who wanted a union voice were harassed and intimidated.  When Cingular, now AT&T, bought the company, workers were able to quickly organize under the company's neutrality and majority card check organizing agreement with CWA.

Cain told Lincoln about the real value a union contract brings to the lives of the mainly women workers at the call center and called on the senator to support the Employee Free Choice Act so more workers could make a fair choice about union representation. Alan Hughes, president of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, also attended that meeting, along with representatives of the USW.

Separately, Ricky Belk, president of CWA Local 6502 and secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, had a similar meeting with Senator Pryor. Both senators have agreed to future follow-up meetings with CWAers on the Employee Free Choice Act.

CWA Battling Idearc over Unilateral Pension Freeze, Health Cutbacks

Battling a unilateral pension freeze and benefit cutbacks by Idearc Media, CWA is mounting a major grassroots mobilization and corporate campaign against the directory advertising firm, which was spun off from Verizon in 2006 but remains the official publisher of Verizon directories.

About 700 CWA and IBEW members in New England and Upstate New York have been working without a contract since June when the company declared a bargaining impasse and imposed steep concessions in all benefit programs as well as job security and sales commission plans.

The unions have filed unfair labor practice charges, currently being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board, against the company for declaring an illegal impasse, bad faith bargaining, refusing to provide information and making unilateral contract changes.

"We have fought hard over 45 years to gain the contracts we currently enjoy, and the company wants to take it all back in one round of bargaining," said District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton.  The CWA workers are represented by Massachusetts Locals 1301 and 1302.

Other CWA contracts with Idearc expire this summer and at various points throughout 2009.  Altogether, CWA represents 1,700 Idearc workers in 17 locals in Districts 1, 2 and 13 in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.  Their jobs include sales, customer service, graphic design and clerical support.

Representatives from the Idearc locals are meeting with union officers and staff today in New Jersey to map out a strategy that includes reaching out to shareholders, the financial community and news media. 

The unions' message:  Idearc is compounding poor management decisions that have tanked the company's stock by 48 percent in the past year by creating labor turmoil and poor employee morale.  While Idearc's revenues are dropping, those of its major competitor AT&T Directories grew by 26 percent in the first three quarters of 2007.

Vermont Regulators Refuse to Fast-Track New FairPoint Deal

Despite intense lobbying from the companies for fast-track regulatory approval in Vermont of Verizon's proposed sale of phone lines to FairPoint Communications, the state Public Service Board listened instead to key lawmakers and ruled yesterday that it would hold hearings to examine terms of a revised deal.

The companies had submitted a new sale plan in Vermont similar to one approved earlier in Maine, which reduced the debt load on FairPoint by $247 million.   Verizon's bid to sell its business in northern New England requires approval of all three states, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. 

Four legislative leaders this week had urged the board to call for hearings and give "careful scrutiny" to the revised deal, citing CWA's and IBEW's contention that the modified proposal falls far short of leaving tiny FairPoint as a viable company capable of providing quality telecom service, let alone bringing high-speed Internet service to the region.  FairPoint, currently the 18th largest telecom company, would have to borrow $2.7 billion in the transaction.

Even as modified, the deal "would allow FairPoint to invest $40 to $50 million a year less in the northern New England network than Verizon has in recent years," the lawmakers wrote to the regulatory board.  Signing the letter were Sen. Vincent Illuzi, chair of the economic development committee; Senate Pres. Peter Shumlin; Speaker of the House Gaye Symington; and Rep. Warren Kitzmiller, chair of the commerce committee.

In opposing the sale, CWA has been running radio and print ads in the region comparing the companies' modification to "putting lipstick on a pig"  (www.nofairpoint.org). The ads note that FairPoint's top Internet speeds are 20 times slower than Verizon's, and the crushing debt burden on FairPoint would leave it in a financially shaky condition.

Union Flight Attendants, Agents Play Key Role in Piedmont Election

CWA and AFA-CWA-represented workers at Piedmont, US Airways and other airlines are playing an important role in Piedmont agents' campaign to get a union.

Their union election begins next week when the agents start receiving balloting information from the National Mediation Board, and voting runs until Feb. 19, when the ballots are counted. "At this stage in the campaign it means a lot for agents to hear from their union co-workers because management's anti-union campaign of supervisor one-on-ones and mandatory meetings is in full gear," said CWA Local 13000 organizer Harry Arnold. "Given the problems we have with access to the workers, support from union agents and flight attendants is critical," he noted.

With the heightened security measures put into place since the events of 9/11, only ticketed passengers and other airline employees can get access to parts of the airport where the Piedmont agents work.

The union message is personally being carried to Piedmont agents by CWA-represented mainline (US Airways) agents who are talking with the workers every chance they get. "Hearing from a union agent goes a long way to debunking the anti-union message that the agents are getting from Piedmont," said CWA Local 13301 Secretary Deborah Robinson.

"We were glad to help," said Betsy Tettelbach, a flight attendant who heads the union's master executive council at Piedmont Airlines. "It's important that union airline workers -- flight attendants, pilots, or agents – are always willing to support our co-workers, whether they are trying to organize or need bargaining support. Solidarity really matters in our industry," she said.

Union agents and flight attendants will be wearing "We Support Piedmont Agents" bag tags and lapel stickers, and flight attendants have enlisted the support of pilots who have also agreed to wear pro-union stickers.

NABET-CWA Members Ratify Contract with ABC

NABET-CWA members nationwide have ratified a new four-year contract with Disney ABC after months of tough, tense bargaining and an overwhelming vote to authorize a strike if necessary. The pact covers 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other employees.

"On behalf of our bargaining committee, I want to thank our ABC members for their support and patience during these difficult negotiations," NABET-CWA President John Clark said. "Without their support, we wouldn't have been able to win the numerous and significant concessions we were able to wrest from the company during the intense final week of bargaining."

Among the union's victories, negotiators got ABC to drop its demand to eliminate its workers' defined-benefit pension plan, one of the key issues that led to the strike vote last spring.

Wage increases will be effective retroactively to Dec. 15, 2007.  Most members will see raises of  3.5 percent immediately, followed by 3 percent in April 2008, another 3 percent in April 2009 and 3.5 percent in the contract's final year.

The contract also includes improvements for daily hires, including making some frequent daily hires eligible for health care coverage and other benefits through Disney's Signature Benefit Plans.

CWA President Larry Cohen praised Clark and the rest of the bargaining team, calling the contract, "an enormous accomplishment given the management demands to end seniority and the pension, and the intensity of this fight for so many months. Your leadership and the outstanding bargaining committee, working with great local leaders and mobilizers, are a model for all of us."

Stewards Army Beats Verizon Deregulation Drive in Virginia 

Action by the Stewards Army produced a big win in Virginia for Verizon consumers. In response to CWA's campaign to safeguard Verizon consumers and quality service and keep oversight of a critical public utility, Verizon has dropped its efforts in the state legislature to end the regulation of the sale of a telephone company.

District 2 staff, CWA locals throughout the state and the Virginia AFL-CIO are continuing to fight Verizon's attempt to end regulation of basic telephone service rates across the board for residential and business customers. Bills pending in both houses of the legislature would permit the total price deregulation of Verizon's operations; last year the State Corporation Commission had established a competitive test to assess whether prices could be deregulated.   

In testimony to regulators and other public officials, CWA members have cited numerous examples of Verizon's failure to maintain basic telephone service across the state; the company is focusing attention on the build-out of FiOS – fiber optic Internet, television and phone service – in select areas but isn't building these next-generation networks in most communities in the state.

IN BRIEF:

  • The AFL-CIO has launched an expansive online survey about America's broken health care system that will be shared with all presidential candidates, current senators and representatives and everyone running for Congress, as well as candidates for state and local offices nationwide.

    The survey is available for the next month at www.healthcaresurvey.aflcio.org. Questions cover such topics as whether Americans are going into debt because of medial bills, whether they are skipping follow-up visits, treatments and prescriptions because they can't afford them, whether they are locked into jobs for fear of losing health insurance and what they pay out of pocket annually for health care.

    Participants are encouraged to tell their own health care stories in as much detail as possible. They can submit them anonymously or have them published using their first names.

    "No doubt, special interests like insurance and pharmaceutical companies will try to scare Americans into accepting the unacceptable system we have now," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.  "The results of this survey will keep America on track, reminding everyone of how little there is to lose and how deeply the problems run."


  • When state governments shop for companies to do business with, they have the responsibility to choose those that respect workers' rights and "treat their workers fairly and with dignity" Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski told Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg in a letter urging him to respect his employees' right to organize.

    "I am supportive of companies that adopt a worker-friendly posture as they tend to enjoy a relationship that benefits both management and employees," Kulongoski wrote. "Employees, if they choose should have a contract that includes greater potential for job growth, a fair grievance procedure, enhanced job security and scheduled wage progression and annual increases."

    The Jan. 4 letter didn't specifically cite the Verizon Wireless or Verizon Business campaigns in which the company has refused to recognize unions despite having a majority of workers in many locations sign cards seeking representation. However, Kulongoski's message was clear.

    "I have long believed that the right to form and join a union is something that we must protect for everyone," he wrote. "As your employees look to the future, I encourage you to work with them and respect your workers' right to organize. I believe such a stance is in the best interest of all of Oregon's working men and women."


  • Chamber to 'Populist' Candidates: We'll Bite You Until You Bleed The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has issued a warning to those pesky "populist" candidates for president: If you consider workers' rights anywhere near as important as the right of businesses to make money hand over fist, we're going after you.

    No, those weren't the exact words of Chamber President Tom Donohue. These were: "We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," Donohue told the Los Angeles Times last week in a story about the Chamber's plans to spend more than $60 million to defeat any candidate it deems "anti-business."

    Donohue told the Times the Chamber plans to be active in 140 congressional districts, nearly four dozen state attorney general and supreme court races, as well as the presidential race.

    "I'm concerned about anti-corporate and populist rhetoric from candidates for the presidency, members of Congress and the media," Donohue said. "It suggests to us that we have to demonstrate who it is in this society that creates jobs, wealth and benefits -- and who it is that eats them."