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August 21, 2008
Quality Jobs, Improved Working Conditions Highlight Qwest Pact
CWA's tentative settlement with Qwest Communications meets the union's key goals of quality jobs, improvements in a range of workplace issues, wage and pension increases, and maintaining adequate health care benefits, reported District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell. The three-year agreement covers 20,000 employees in 13 states and was reached early Monday morning after marathon negotiations following the expiration of the previous contract at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 17. General wage increases total more than 9 percent compounded over the contract term. Sales employees receiving commissions received a raise in their base salary as well. The settlement also provides a 3 percent increase in pension bands. Workers providing directory assistance services were brought under the main CWA agreement and will receive a wage increase in the third year of the contract. Other improvements include new language governing work quotas for technicians under the "quality jobs per day" provision that has been a source of contention. Job security was strengthened for building maintenance workers and other job titles. CWA and Qwest negotiated a health care plan design that mitigated cost increases for actives and for retirees. "Ultimately I think we all agree that America faces a health care crisis, and it cannot be solved at the bargaining table alone. It demands a national solution. Qwest shares these concerns and is working with us to achieve national health care reform with universal coverage," said Vice President Caddell. "We didn't get everything we wanted," she noted, "but we achieved the best settlement possible in light of Qwest's struggle to regain its financial health. This is a settlement that protects careers and living standards for our members and allows us to move forward with the company in building Qwest's success for the future." Caddell stressed that, "The unity of our locals and members, their mobilization activities in support of the bargaining teams, and their willingness to strike if necessary was critical to achieving this settlement." CWA represents Qwest workers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Sign Ups for Million Member Mobilization Hit 37,000
The number of CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act jumped nearly 40 percent since last week – reaching 37,101 as of Aug. 20 - as local unions and member activists gear up for activities centered around the final two months of the 2008 elections. This week, IUE-CWA Local 83761 sent in the most cards from a single local - over 900. Local union stewards had little trouble in getting the cards signed, which were distributed among members at a threatened GE appliance plant in Louisville. Over 40 percent of the local's members have signed up. "Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is key to helping us organize and build bargaining strength in our troubled industry," said local President William Spires. Nationwide, CWA members are signing up to host Aug. 28 viewing parties to watch Senator Barack Obama accept the Democratic presidential nomination and enlist more card signers. Already, 243 CWA locals and members have signed up to host parties. One of the largest is being hosted in St. Paul, Minn., by CWA Minnesota State Council President Tim Lovassen and the other Alliance unions, the United Auto Workers, the Steelworkers, and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. Among Alliance unions, the goal is 1,000 parties attended by 10,000 participants. To order a CWA party kit with issue handouts, sign-up sheets, and tips for activities, visit www.cwavotes.org/partykit. Since last week's Newsletter, 26 more CWA locals have met or exceeded their goal of signing up 15 percent or more of their members: Dist. 1: 1060, 1150, 1170, 81313, Dist. 2: 2010, 2205, 82162, 82167, 82670, Dist. 3: 3104, 3106, 3108, 3115, 3201, 3315, 3406, 3865, Dist. 4: 4250, 4300, 4385, 4390, 4474, 4475, 84725, 84749, 84800, Dist. 6: 6001, 6210, 6215, 6222, 6327, 6350, 6450, 86122, Dist. 7: 7055, 7705, Dist. 9: 9413, 89177, Dist. 13: 13552. Click here, http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwa/localinfo/, for a full listing of locals that have fulfilled their 15 percent pledge. Democratic Platform Backs Employee Free Choice, High Speed InternetTwo of CWA's key policy goals – Employee Free Choice and a national broadband strategy – are part of the Democratic platform that will be presented to next week's national party convention in Denver. In the plank devoted to "Good Jobs with Good Pay," the central point is the right to organize and bargain collectively: "We know that when unions are allowed to do their job of making sure that workers get their fair share, they pull people out of poverty and create a stronger middle class." The platform pledges: "We will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions and fight to pass the Employee Free Choice Act." The platform also commits the party to fight to ban the permanent replacement of strikers, vigorously oppose "right to work" laws and ballot initiatives to weaken union political programs, and restore the role of the U.S. Labor Department and OSHA to that of protecting workers rather than aiding employers. In a section calling for "A Connected America," the platform backs the goals of CWA's Speed Matters campaign for a national program to spur development of high speed broadband networks as "part of the solution to many of our most important challenges: job creation, economic growth, energy, health care and education." It pledges Democratic leaders to "implement a national broadband strategy (especially in rural areas and our reservations and territories) that enables every American household, school, library and hospital to connect to world-class communications." CWA members testified at DNC platform committee field hearings on job and organizing issues and Speed Matters. 500 AT&T and Municipal Employees Organize with CWAMore than 500 workers from AT&T Mobility in Boardman, Ohio, and the city of Stillwater in Oklahoma, took different paths to union representation following recent majority signup elections. For 262 city workers in Stillwater, Okla., their drive required two separate card filings of strong majority support before the city's public employee representation board granted them recognition as part of Local 6012 on Aug. 14. In April, the local filed with an overwhelming majority – over 65 percent – and should have been granted recognition according to the state's collective bargaining law for municipal employees. Despite this, the PERB was going to require a mail ballot election because city managers, who were hostile to the workers' union drive, charged that many of the signature cards were too old. But immediately after the PERB ruling, the local re-filed the next day after more than 55 percent of the workers quickly signed new cards, resulting in recognition. Two workers from a unit of city workers in Broken Arrow, Okla., that organized with Local 6012 several years ago, assisted local President Cindy Mills and organizers Micah Timmons and Rick Durmer in the campaign. In Boardman, Ohio, 250 customer service representatives at a newly-purchased AT&T Mobility call center won union certification on Aug. 12 following a majority signup campaign. They will be represented by Local 4320. The call center was operated by Dobson Communications until the company's business in northern Ohio became part of AT&T earlier this year. The workers sought union representation when the center's holdover management team told employees that Dobson's policies and practices – harsh discipline, hard-to-meet sales goals, arbitrary scheduling, and unequal pay treatment – would continue in force. Local Vice President Cathy Mason and mobilizer Phil Pennington helped employees build a strong inside committee that garnered over 66 percent support from co-workers. Another 60 retail sales and techs from Dobson will be accreted into the local. 2nd Speed Matters Report: U.S. Continues to Lag in Broadband RolloutCWA released its second annual survey of Internet connection speeds in the United States and the results show that our nation continues to lag behind other advanced countries when it comes to broadband speed and availability. This year's results show that the median real-time download speed in this country is 2.3 megabits per second (mbps), far slower than Japan, which is 30 times faster; South Korea, 25 times faster; France, eight times faster; and Canada, nearly three times faster. The U.S. download figure was slightly greater this year than last year's rate of 1.9 mbps. The survey is based on unique data from nearly 230,000 Internet users who took the online Speed Matters Speed Test at www.speedmatters.org. Speed Matters is a Strategic Industries Fund project to spur job creation and economic growth through high speed Internet development. The campaign is gaining the attention of key regulators and lawmakers and pushing forward an initiative in Congress as the first step toward a national broadband policy. A brochure summarizing the survey findings will be included in delegate kits at next week's Democratic Convention in Denver, and the full report will be available at a CWA Speed Matters booth at the gathering. CWA is pressing for Senate passage of S. 1492, the Broadband Data Improvement Act, to move the United States toward a national broadband policy. Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed a similar measure, the Broadband Census of America Act, to support the collection of data about broadband deployment. "This isn't about how fast someone can download a full-length movie. Speed matters to our economy and our ability to remain competitive in a global marketplace," said CWA President Larry Cohen. The United States "is the only industrialized nation without a national policy to promote universal, high-speed Internet access—and it shows," Cohen said. True high speed is critical for a growing number of applications – in telemedicine, education, public safety, small business and many more, he said. Internet speed "determines whether we'll have the 21st century networks needed to create the jobs of the future, develop our economy and give our children access to unlimited information." IN BRIEF:
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