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August 7, 2008
Bargainers Focus on Jobs as Verizon Talks Continue
Sustained mobilization activities by members throughout Verizon East territory has continued ever since CWA and IBEW stopped the clock as contract expiration approached last Saturday night, citing enough progress on major issues to postpone strike action and keep negotiating. More rallies are being planned for tomorrow in all three districts, 1, 2 and 13. Major union goals, in addition to jobs and jobs of the future, include protecting health benefits for both active and retired workers, retirement security, bargaining rights for technicians who have been seeking recognition for nearly two years at Verizon Business, and a fair wage settlement in line with Verizon's profitability. CWA Hits 1/3 of its Million Member Mobilization August Goal
The number of CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act reached 21,230 as of Aug. 4 as CWA kicks off its union wide "August blitz" to gather 65,000 signed cards by Aug. 29. The night before, August 28, hundreds of CWA members across the country are planning to host or attend house parties to view Barack Obama's acceptance speech as Democratic presidential nominee, using the occasion to gather more signatures. In terms of percentage of members signed up for the Employee Free Choice Act mobilization, District 2 is leading all others, having reached over 56 percent of its goal. "Our mobilization coordinators are really doing a terrific job of reaching out to members who want to add their names to the campaign," said District 2 Staff Representative Bill Evitt, who is the district's Million Member Mobilization coordinator. Local activists in the district have set up tables at large call centers, giving hundreds of CWA-represented workers the opportunity to sign up. Some 150 workers alone signed up at a 400-person Verizon call center in Hampton, Va. Locals throughout the district have continued to sign up supporters even after surpassing their individual goals. Locals 2001 and 2055 have collected twice as many signatures as they had pledged, and Local 2107 is close behind at 150 percent of its goal. This week, CWA's Executive Board asked local union leaders and staff to attend or host the house parties on Aug. 28 to kick off CWA's three-month effort with other Alliance unions to assure the election of pro-worker candidates on Nov. 4. CWA has prepared a kit for the house parties, with issue handouts, sign-up sheets, and tips for activities. For information about hosting a party and ordering a kit visit www.cwavotes.org/partykit. Since last week's newsletter report, 17 more CWA locals have met or exceeded their goal of signing up 15 percent or more of their members: Dist. 1: 1102, 51026, Dist. 2: 2055, Dist. 3: 3102, 3601, 3950, 3990, Dist. 4: 4302, 4321, 4703, 4998, 84808, Dist. 6: 6310, 6320, 6355, Dist. 7: 7290, Dist. 13: 13100. Click here, http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwa/localinfo/, for a full listing of locals that have fulfilled their 15 percent pledge. FCC Cites Comcast for Violating Open Internet PolicyCWA commended the Federal Communications Commission for its ruling that cited Comcast Communications for violation of the FCC's open Internet policy principles. By secretly and deliberately blocking transmission of legal peer-to-peer traffic, and without letting customers know it was doing this, Comcast interfered with consumers' rights to access the lawful content of their choice and to run the applications of their choice over the Internet. Over the past years, CWA has called on the FCC to punish any broadband providers that blocked or degraded consumers' access to content on the Internet, as Comcast did. In a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, CWA President Larry Cohen urged the FCC to act to protect consumers' rights. Strong enforcement, as the FCC has shown in this case, will ensure that network operators refrain from similar violations, CWA said following the FCC ruling. The FCC has demonstrated that it will act promptly to address any actions violating consumers' rights regarding the Commission's broadband policy, the union said. Maintaining an open Internet is one of CWA's key principles for a national high speed broadband policy. Get Active: Fight Anti-Union Retaliation Against Newest Bay Area Journalists' UnitNewspaper workers in the Bay Area who were laid off just days after organizing a new TNG-CWA unit this summer are asking fellow union members to help send a strong message to MediaNews management. Through a new Get Active campaign, online at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/medianews, Guild and all CWA members can send a message to Denver-based MediaNews urging the company to treat its workers fairly and negotiate a fair, first contract. In July, the Guild filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the 29 fired workers. Twenty of them were active supporters of the union organizing drive, including newly elected Unit Chair Sara Steffens, an award-winning reporter for the Contra Costa Times. No leaders of the anti-union effort were let go. The new unit, part of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, now represents about 200 newsroom workers at nine newspapers that are part of the Bay Area News Group (BANG) – East Bay. The union campaign and website is dubbed "One Big Bang – One Guild Universe." "These brave media workers are going to need your active support in the coming weeks and months to keep the pressure on MediaNews," union leaders said. "Join us in urging the company to respect their workers and come to the table to negotiate a fair contract that's in the interests of ownership, workers and our communities." More information about the new unit and its fight for fairness is at www.onebigbang.org. John Krieger Dies, Retired NABET-CWA Network CoordinatorJohn Krieger, retired NABET-CWA network coordinator, died on Aug. 1. He was 81. Krieger, a union activist for decades, received numerous print and broadcast journalism awards over a career spanning more than 50 years. He joined NABET's staff as an international representative in 1981 after serving 10 years as vice president of NABET Region 2. Earlier, Krieger was vice president and president of NABET-CWA Local 51025. Following the merger of NABET with CWA in 1994, Krieger was network coordinator until his retirement in 2005. In this role, he headed up bargaining and worked with locals at the NBC, ABC and FOX networks. From 1996 until 2004, Krieger negotiated agreements for network coverage of the Olympic games. Krieger started out as a general assignment reporter in 1951 for the Buffalo Evening News and entered broadcast journalism in 1956 while working for WBEN-AM and FM radio in Buffalo. He went on to become a government and political reporter and executive producer at WIVB-TV in Buffalo. From 1970 to 1980, Krieger was a correspondent for Newsweek magazine. On his retirement, NABET-CWA President John Clark praised Krieger for playing "a significant role in improving the lives of workers in broadcasting." 'Green' Manufacturing: Tales of Job Growth and Job ExportTwo IUE-CWA members with very different stories about job security in today's economy were among a dozen people who testified last weekend during a three-hour session of the Democratic Party platform hearing in Cleveland. Shawn Grimes works for Cobasys, a company making batteries for fuel-efficient hybrid cars that had just three employees when he started 10 years ago. Now 246 workers work in shifts around the clock to make batteries for three hybrid General Motors vehicles. Rita Bugzavich worked for 39 years as a shipping clerk at General Electric Lighting in Youngstown, Ohio. The plant produced filaments for everyday light bulbs, which many people today are swapping for energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs. GE announced last year it was closing the plant and moving the new technology for energy-saving bulbs – a technology GE invented -- to plants in China where it is opening new facilities. "After October 31, I'll be pounding the pavement looking for a new job," Bugzavich, of IUE-CWA Local 84734, told the platform committee. "I'll be starting at the bottom of the totem pole at age 57. I don't know what I'll find, given that four other plants recently closed in Youngstown." A former IUE member who took a buyout in 2006 from General Motors, where she worked on the assembly line at a Moraine, Ohio, plant, also testified. Misti Wells said she used the money to go back to school and earned an Associates Degree in automotive technology. "Yet today, months later, I'm still without a job," said Wells, a single mom who has run out of unemployment and is two months behind on her rent. "Everyone tells me the same thing – that they're on a hiring freeze." Grimes, chief steward for IUE-CWA Local 84755, said many of his coworkers had been laid off from other plants in Ohio when employers shut down or moved overseas. "In contrast, Cobasys is adding jobs," Grimes said. "Why is Cobasys growing when so many other manufacturing facilities are closing their doors? What can we learn that will help us rebuild manufacturing in America?" One of the lessons, he said, is that a union workforce with good wages and benefits -- and a positive working relationship with management at Cobasys -- builds morale and loyalty. "We feel we have a future with this company," he said. "We work with management to make sure Cobasys remains competitive." Bugzavich said despite GE's decision to close her plant and others, she's luckier than many workers because she's had a strong union. "I've loved my job," she said. "We made a good product. I earned good wages and benefits, enough to raise a family. Thanks to my union, I'll have a pension and retiree health care." But with fewer union, family-wage jobs in America, Bugzavich said she worries "about the future of this country. We've got to stop making it so easy for companies to send jobs overseas. We should make the new, green technology here in America. That would create good jobs so people could pay for the products they make. You can't buy a $1,100 washing machine on a $10-an-hour paycheck." Grimes said that if more companies are encouraged to follow Cobasys's lead, America can bounce back. "I truly believe that if our country invests in green technology, adopts fair trade policies, strengthens workers' ability to organize by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, and passes health care reform so that we can compete on a level playing field with other countries, we'll be able to revive American manufacturing," he said. IN BRIEF:
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