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April 24, 2008
Workers Organize at Iowa AT&T Call Center
A unit of nearly 200 workers at the new AT&T Mobility customer care center in Davenport, Iowa, organized with CWA Local 7110 in just one day, according to District 7 Administrative Director Kevin Mulligan. A majority of the workers – over 70 percent – signed up through card check on April 14 and the election was certified by the American Arbitration Association this week. The call center, just opened in December, is expected to have over 500 employees within two years. Mulligan credited an exceptionally committed inside committee with the victory. "Each of them had been talking with the co-workers for weeks about the need to organize." Affordable health care, decent pay with regular wage increases, consistent and fair company policies were key issues. "This clearly demonstrates the need for enacting the Employee Free Choice Act," said District Vice President Annie Hill. "When given a choice to organize through card check, and without management intimidation, workers have shown time and time again that they want to be able to have a real say in their jobs," she said. Today's economic squeeze makes workers even more eager to seek union representation, said Ananda Foster, a CWA-represented AT&T Mobility employee from Local 7901 (Portland, Oregon) who assisted the workers in the lead up to the card signing. In a second card check recognition announced this week, a
unit of 70 pathway techs at AFA-CWA to Congress: Bargaining Rights Critical for Workers at 'New Delta'AFA-CWA is calling on Congress to urge Delta Airlines executives to remain neutral in the current union representation election among Delta flight attendants, and further to monitor management's behavior, noting that bargaining rights are vital for flight attendants to be able to negotiate over the impact of the proposed Delta-Northwest Airlines merger. Testifying today before a House panel reviewing the pending merger, Veda Shook, the union's international vice president, pointed to Delta management's history of anti-union behavior and said the airline is using consultants to oppose the employees' representation drive now underway. "In the context of this merger, the company's anti-union tactics take on added urgency; the merger should not be permitted to become a vehicle for union busting," she said. AFA-CWA is concerned that "Delta executives will use the merger to eliminate the rights of employees to have a seat at the table when the airline is fully merged with Northwest," Shook testified. Because of arcane rules governing labor relations in the airline industry, flight attendants already unionized at Northwest Airlines could be in jeopardy of losing their union after a merger unless the Delta employees win their drive. AFA-CWA represents about 9,000 flight attendants at Northwest and is campaigning to represent an additional 13,500 at Delta in an election now underway that runs through May 28. Under unique airline election rules, 50 percent plus one of the employees must actively vote in the election; people who fail to vote are counted as voting "no union," encouraging management to focus on voter suppression, she told lawmakers. After the merger, if the smaller Northwest unit was the only one unionized, flight attendants would have to win an election among the combined unit or potentially lose bargaining rights that Northwest flight attendants have had for 60 years. "It is our hope and the hope of thousands of Delta flight attendants that they will overcome these difficult election procedures and decide next month to join AFA-CWA," Shook told members of the Taskforce on Competition Policy and Antitrust laws of the House Judiciary Committee. "They will then have the right to bargain for improved work rules through a legally binding contract and the historic collective bargaining rights of the Northwest flight attendants will have been protected in the newly merged Delta Airlines." Earlier this week, 26 U.S. senators sent a letter to the CEOs of Delta and Northwest urging both parties to "demonstrate a genuine commitment to cooperative labor relations" and to remain neutral in representation elections. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) who led the effort, stated, "Delta and Northwest Airlines should honor the loyalty and hard work of their employees by immediately offering them a seat at the table in merger talks." ‘Save Our Parks Protest’ Spotlights Looming N.J. Budget DebateCWA New Jersey state workers were among 500 demonstrators who
rallied Wednesday outside the Statehouse in Trenton to urge Gov.
Jon Corzine and the Department of Environmental Protection not
to close nine state parks as part of a budget-cutting
move. "Governor Corzine's budget takes New Jersey in the wrong direction. It cuts vital public services, like state parks, subsidies for prescription drugs for seniors, and state aid to hospitals and higher education, threatening the quality of life for New Jersey working families,” said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. “We will fight these budget cuts, and push for better choices--closing corporate tax loopholes and raising taxes on the wealthy in order to preserve state services and protect our members' jobs." CWA members from several locals were joined by protesters
from the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, various historical
societies and other environmental and community groups at the
“Save Our Parks” protest. CWA Battling Corporate Greed at Shareholder MeetingsCWA members will be turning out in force for the Verizon, Idearc and IBM shareholder meetings next week, taking on issues that include out-of-control stock options, corporate governance and executive pay as well as anti-labor policies. IBM's meeting is Tuesday, April 29, in Charlotte, N.C. Verizon and Idearc both meet May 1; Verizon in Lincoln, Neb., and Idearc in Dallas. Idearc, whose CWA and IBEW-represented workers in New England and New York have been without a contract since last summer, is a directory-advertising company spun off from Verizon in 2006. CWA and IBEW activists will deliver thousands of proxy votes from worker shareholders to the Verizon meeting. The unions are supporting two shareholder proposals: the first would curb stock options awarded to senior executives and bar current stock options from being re-priced; the second would separate the role of CEO and chairman of the board in the Verizon hierarchy. Doing so is "fundamental to sound corporate governance," the resolution states, asking, "How can the CEO be his own boss? Directors are responsible for protecting the shareholders' interests – and they must do so primarily by monitoring and evaluating the CEO's performance." CWA and IBEW, which have spent years battling the company's union-busting at Verizon Wireless and lately at Verizon Business, are also backing a "no confidence" vote against the election of the board of directors. The unions will hold a press briefing immediately before the shareholders meeting starts, explaining how the company has built a wall between Verizon's unionized landline operations and its rapidly growing non-union areas. The wall blocks union members "from the high-growth, high-profit segments of the company in Verizon Wireless and its large accounts acquisition from the former MCI, Verizon Business," the unions say in a joint statement. "Over the last five years, union membership has slipped from producing 70 percent of revenues to only 33 percent; substantially weakening workers bargaining power." At the Idearc meeting, CWA members from Locals 1301 and 1302 will be joined by supportive CWA members from Dallas Local 6171 to leaflet outside and raise questions inside the meeting. About 700 CWA and IBEW members at Idearc 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. A campaign website, www.cwa-union.org/idearc, details the company's many bad management decisions that have led the Idearc's stock to plummet by 87 percent in less than a year. On Tuesday, members of CWA's Alliance@IBM will picket and rally outside the company's meeting in Charlotte, raising worker and retiree concerns about executive pay, off-shoring of jobs, pay cuts and shrinking pensions. "While IBM employees face a decline in their standard of living and retirees see pension checks evaporate due to lack of cost of living adjustments coupled with increases in medical retirement co-pay, our executives live the life of luxury. Executive greed and bloated compensation needs to be challenged," said IBM employee and Alliance Vice President Earl Mongeon. Lee Conrad, national coordinator of the Alliance, said members are calling on IBM to halt the shifting of its U.S. jobs to low-cost countries. "At a time when the U.S. economy is in recession and unemployment is rising it is unconscionable to continue to move work offshore," Conrad said. "The Alliance is urging elected officials, community leaders and citizens to call on IBM to halt this destruction of U.S. jobs." AFL-CIO Documents Increase in Worker Deaths, InjuriesThe nation's workplaces remain unsafe, and current safety laws and penalties are too weak to protect workers. That's the conclusion of the AFL-CIO's annual "Death on the Job" report, which provides grim statistics on how many workers were killed and injured on the job in the past year, as well as information on penalties assessed for serious violations and other data. In 2006, the most recent year for which government statistics are available, 5,840 workers were killed by job hazards, an increase of 106 deaths from 2005. Some 4.1 million workers were injured and an estimated 60,000 died due to occupational disease. On an average day, 153 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and disease, and another 11,233 are injured, the AFL-CIO report found. The full report is available at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/. David LeGrande, CWA's occupational safety and health director, said the increase in the fatality rate was a major concern, because it demonstrated that our nation's system of safety rules and enforcement simply wasn't addressing workplace hazards and protecting workers. He also pointed to the Labor Dept.'s underreporting of workplace injuries and illnesses, as documented by the report, as more evidence that workplace safety and health has declined over the past eight years. Certain health and safety issues, like job stress and ergonomics, have received virtually no attention under the Bush administration, he said. Those topics will be discussed at the District 3 health and safety meeting next month in Jacksonville, Fla., with a panel of local leaders to discuss ergonomic and job stress issues for customer service and outside plant workers. On April 28, CWA locals across all districts will be joining with other unions and AFL-CIO labor councils to remember their co-workers killed on the job and focus attention on the need to better address workplace hazards. To check on events on your area, go to http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/. |
