April 17, 2008

Delta Flight Attendants Gear Up for Election after Merger Announcement
 
Activists shown here in Atlanta and elsewhere use phone banks as well as one-on-one contacts to discuss issues with Delta flight attendants.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said this week's merger announcement by Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines moves Delta's flight attendants one step closer to getting union representation and a contract like Northwest's AFA-represented flight attendants. Delta's 13,400 flight attendants filed for union representation with AFA in February and begin voting next week (April 23) in a union election that runs until May 28.

"Delta flight attendants want a voice in their future and a legally binding contract that they can count on," said AFA International Vice President Veda Shook. "Top airline executives at both carriers negotiated legal agreements protecting their security, compensation and benefits," Shook noted adding: "Delta flight attendants want the same right. They're tired of depending on management to do the right thing," she said.

Kevin Griffin, president of AFA's Master Executive Council at Northwest, pledged solidarity with the Delta flight attendants. "Our top priority is to work with our Delta colleagues to preserve union representation at the merged airline and to negotiate a contract that combines the best from our Northwest contract and the best from Delta's policy manual along with raises and other improvements," he said.

Noting that, "Mergers are very difficult in the best of circumstances, often alienating front line workers who are the face of the airline," Griffin stated:  "Delta management needs to remain neutral in the Delta flight attendants' representation election and let the flight attendants decide their own futures." For more information about the campaign, visit www.deltaafa.org.

If the merger wins government approval the new airline will get Delta's name and be based at Delta's current Atlanta headquarters. Delta's top two executives would become the new airline's CEO and board chairman.

CWA President Larry Cohen is urging CWA locals, staff and retirees to work with AFA-CWA in get-out-the-vote phone banking that will be carried out in the following locations beginning April 24 and running through May 27 in Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Washington, D.C. and Ft. Lauderdale, and running through May 11 in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth, and New York City. To volunteer and for more details, contact Ed Sabol at esabol@cwa-union.org.

AT&T Members Launch 'One Year to Contract' Mobilization

CWA locals representing members at AT&T across the union kicked off the "one year to a new contract" mobilization with leafleting and workplace actions across the districts in advance of 2009 negotiations. AT&T Mobility members also joined in, to show support for a united CWA at AT&T and to gear up for the AT&T Mobility Orange negotiations; that contract expires in February 2009.

From Minnesota to California to Florida, CWAers leafleted the public outside AT&T offices, handed out flyers to members, got information to Mobility members at retail stores and other locations and mobilized at work locations. In Ohio, members of Local 4320 wore stickers stressing that CWA at AT&T was "one union, one fight and one future."

CWAers from every district and the Communications and Technologies sector are meeting this week as part of the National AT&T Mobilization Committee, to coordinate actions, improve communications and begin to plan strategies across districts for bargaining.

CWA's telecom vice presidents set up the committee to show AT&T that even though CWA will be bargaining different contracts, we're one union with shared bargaining goals across the company.

"At the new AT&T, rapid changes to technology and other developments require us to think about new ways to deal with our issues and to develop innovative strategies and unified action that will result in successful negotiations for our members," said CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, who heads the Telecom Office.

Separately, members at AT&T Internet Services ratified a new agreement covering about 1,800 CWA-represented workers in Districts 3, 4, 6 and 9.

Locals Battling Idearc Get Jump on Employee Free Choice Campaign

A Massachusetts local in the midst of a battle with its yellow-page employer has already submitted Employee Free Choice support postcards from 30 percent of its members and its leader is determined to get 100 percent of them to sign.

As part of the labor movement's "Million Member Mobilization" for Free Choice legislation to restore workers'collective bargaining rights, CWA has launched a campaign to gather cards from 15 percent of its members – about 90,000 people. But all it took to get Local 1301 President George Alcott on board was the initial announcement from CWA President Larry Cohen.

"We got the e-mail saying CWA was going to be undertaking this, so I clicked on, got the form and printed it out," Alcott said. "It happened that we were about to have a membership meeting and everyone there signed the cards."

A couple of hundred people turned out for the meeting, mostly members of Alcott's local, but also members of Local 1302 and CWA retirees. The locals, both in the Boston area, represent members at Idearc, the directory advertising company that was spun off from Verizon in 2006.

About 700 CWA and IBEW members at Idearc in New England and New York have been working without a contract since last June when the company declared a bargaining impasse – illegally, CWA has charged -- and rolled back benefits, job security and sales commission plans.

Both unions have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.  Local leaders and members are also planning to be on hand to speak and leaflet at Idearc's annual shareholder meeting on May 1 in Dallas.

A campaign website, www.cwa-union.org/idearc, details the company's many bad management decisions that have caused Idearc's stock to plummet by 87 percent in less than a year.

Alcott said his local's struggle shows just how important the Employee Free Choice Act is, and that's why he's committed to getting every one of his members to sign a postcard.

"Look what this company is doing to us, and we have a union," Alcott said. "It's a disgrace what they can get away with. Think what would happen if we didn't have a union at all.  Unions give us strength in numbers and we need to increase that strength."

The AFL-CIO has set a target of gathering 1 million of the postcards along with photographs of the people who sign them for a display in the U.S. Capitol after the November election. The postcards urge Congress and the new president to make the Employee Free Choice Act law, helping level the playing field for workers who have little leverage today against union-busting employers who thwart organizing drives and stall contract talks.

CWA locals representing 40 percent of the union's membership have already signed up to pledge that they will collect signatures from at least 15 percent of their members.  To add your local to the list, click on www.cwa-union.org/efca/pledgeyourlocal/ and sign up.

Lorraine Wetle, Retired District 9 Assistant, Dies

Lorraine Wetle, 76, retired assistant to the District 9 vice president, died April 11 following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

"Lorraine was a great trade unionist who helped build CWA," said District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler. "She will be missed."

Wetle joined CWA when she was hired by Pacific Telephone in its San Francisco benefits department in 1966. She rose through the ranks of Local 9423 in San Jose, serving as steward, treasurer, vice president and president.

Also a member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, first vice president of the Santa Clara Central Labor Council and an active community volunteer, she was in 1981 named CWA District 9 Woman of the Year.

Wetle joined the staff as a CWA representative in 1983, serving in the Burlingame, Calif., district office. She was named administrative assistant in February 1992 and promoted to assistant four months later. She retired in December 1996.

Wetle chaired the 1992 and 1995 Pacific/Nevada Bell bargaining committees and, said Bixler, "She was a leader who fought for the operators so that they would have a decent living wage."

She is survived by two sons, Michael and David; two brothers, David and Stephen Robinson; a sister, Phoebe Robinson, and four grandchildren.

Workers Memorial Day Event to Break Ground on National Memorial

Marking Workers Memorial Day 2008, CWA will join with other unions Monday, April 28, at the National Labor College in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., to break ground on a garden-style national memorial honoring fallen workers.

The memorial will feature bricks, pavers and benches that unions can sponsor to honor members who died on the job. Plans for a CWA section are underway and information about how locals and members can participate will be publicized soon.

The memorial will also honor the legacy of Mother Jones, the self-described hell-raiser who organized workers and fought for their health and safety during most of her 100-year life. Mother Jones, who died in 1930, is famous for her saying, "Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living."

The events at the labor college are among hundreds of events that union locals and labor councils will be holding throughout the country. CWA locals will take part in memorials and moments of silence. Some are submitting op-eds and letters to the editor to newspapers in their areas that seek to raise awareness about worker safety and health issues.

A toolkit to help locals plan activities, including a sample letter to the editor, is available on the AFL-CIO website at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/.