September 18, 2008

 

 

CWA Surpasses 82,000 Million Member Mobilization Goal

Interns at CWA headquarters are a big part of the Million Member Mobilization.

Energized by CWA's Million Member Mobilization for Employee Free Choice, union activists have moved CWA past its campaign goal of 82,000 card signers and are continuing the nationwide sign-up.

As of Wednesday, 83,432 cards have been sent in from locals and entered in the database.

With piles of cards waiting to be tabulated, and more arriving in the mail or over the Internet every day, CWA's card total of Employee Free Choice Act supporters likely will grow even bigger in the remaining six weeks before the presidential and congressional elections in November. "The cards keep flowing in because of our members' activism and understanding about exactly what's at stake in the upcoming elections," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Let's celebrate what we've achieved and push for 100,000 cards," he said.

The enthusiasm generated during the campaign built as locals continued to sign up members weeks after meeting the goal of reaching at least 15 percent of membership. More than half of the 404 CWA locals that met their MMM goal have surpassed it by more than 200 percent.

IUE-CWA led all sectors and districts with 151 percent. District 2 achieved 149 percent, District 6, 124 percent; Districts 3 and 13, 21 percent; and District 4, 119 percent.

When the new Congress comes to Washington, the cards and member photos from CWA and other unions will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol to show the massive support for Employee Free Choice. The action was recommended earlier this year by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee and is the key sponsor and supporter of the Employee Free Choice Act. "Imagine in January 2009 that there are one million cards and photos at the U.S. Capitol. That's the kind of momentum we need to prevail," he said.

Here are all of the locals that have met or exceeded their goal as of Wednesday, Sept. 17:

District 1: 1020, 1031, 1040, 1051, 1060, 1062, 1077, 1080, 1082, 1083, 1101, 1102, 1103, 1106, 1108, 1109, 1114, 1117, 1118, 1122, 1123, 1128, 1133, 1150, 1152, 1168, 1170, 1300, 1301, 1302, 1365, 1395, 1701, 14199, 31003, 31026, 31027, 31247, 51011, 51016, 51017, 51024, 51025, 51026, 81045, 81106, 81134, 81154, 81204, 81206, 81212, 81214, 81215, 81232, 81244, 81246, 81248, 81250, 81255, 81266, 81274, 81284, 81288, 81298, 81301, 81304, 81310, 81313, 81320, 81323, 81336, 81347, 81353, 81359, 81380, 81384, 81386, 81388, 81408, 81440, 81441, 81455, 81467, 81475, 81495, 81496 and 81981.

District 2: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2055, 2101, 2106, 2107, 2108, 2201, 2202, 2205, 2206, 2272, 2275, 2336, 14201, 52027, 82075, 82109, 82130, 82160, 82161, 82162, 82167, 82173, 82174, 82472, 82627, 82647 and 82670.

District 3: 3102, 3104, 3105, 3106, 3108, 3109, 3113, 3114, 3115, 3121, 3122, 3150, 3176, 3178, 3179, 3180, 3181, 3201, 3250, 3290, 3309, 3310, 3315, 3371, 3372, 3403, 3406, 3407, 3411, 3412, 3414, 3511, 3601, 3607, 3616, 3682, 3683, 3685, 3704, 3706, 3708, 3719, 3802, 3865, 3903, 3904, 3911, 3950, 3990, 14348, 23086, 33091, 33225, 83105, 83190, 83698, 83701, 83706, 83709, 83711, 83718, 83740, 83761, 83766, 83767 and 83799.

District 4: 4004, 4008, 4025, 4032, 4034, 4070, 4100, 4107, 4108, 4123, 4216, 4217, 4250, 4252, 4260, 4300, 4302, 4309, 4310, 4318, 4319, 4320, 4321, 4322, 4326, 4370, 4371, 4373, 4377, 4378, 4379, 4385, 4390, 4473, 4474, 4475, 4501, 4603, 4611, 4640, 4703, 4780, 4818, 4998, 14430, 34086, 54041, 54042, 54044, 54048, 84001, 84060, 84078, 84101, 84161, 84302, 84705, 84707, 84715, 84716, 84717, 84725, 84727, 84734, 84737, 84742, 84745, 84749, 84750, 84755, 84765, 84773, 84800, 84802, 84807, 84808, 84811, 84840, 84845, 84846, 84848, 84855, 84859, 84863, 84865, 84888, 84901, 84903, 84924, 84950, 84963 and 84999.

District 6: 6001, 6007, 6009, 6086, 6110, 6113, 6127, 6137, 6139, 6150, 6151, 6171, 6200, 6201, 6206, 6210, 6215, 6222, 6228, 6290, 6310, 6311, 6316, 6320, 6327, 6350, 6355, 6374, 6391, 6401, 6402, 6409, 6410, 6411, 6450, 6733, 36047, 86000, 86004, 86017, 86023, 86029, 86116, 86122, 86129, 86782 and 86787.

District 7: 7001, 7019, 7050, 7055, 7102, 7109, 7206, 7212, 7219, 7250, 7290, 7301, 7505, 7603, 7610, 7621, 7704, 7705, 7707, 7750, 7777, 7810, 7990, 14752, 37123, 37194, 57045, 57052, 87020, 87140 and 87160.

District 9: 9333, 9400, 9410, 9413, 9415, 9423, 9477, 9509, 9510, 9573, 9575, 9586, 29043, 29098, 59051, 59054, 59057, 89177 and 89850.

District 13: 13000, 13100, 13301, 13500, 13552, 13572, 13573, 13591, 14838, 14845, 14888, 38010, 38187, 38218, 88064, 88120, 88315, 88389, 88607, 88612, 88623, 88628, 88648, 88651and 88681.

NMB Drops Anti-Union Proposal after AFA-CWA Protests

After pressure from AFA-CWA, other transportation unions and members of Congress, the National Mediation Board announced that it will drop – for now -- a proposal that would make it more difficult for airline workers to maintain their union representation following a merger with non-union carriers.

AFA President Pat Friend and CWA President Larry Cohen called on Congress to hold a hearing on the proposal and to investigate the board's increasingly anti-worker policies. That hearing is set for Sept. 24 before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In July, the NMB proposed some radical changes to longstanding policies that maintain union representation and recognition at the newly merged carrier if union employees make up 60 percent of the combined pertinent workforce.

The NMB wanted to rewrite the law so recognition would be required only when the union represented a "substantial majority" of the combined workforce - but without defining what substantial majority means. Leaving the interpretation up to the NMB would be disastrous considering the current board's poor track record in safeguarding workers' right to organize and its failure to address the growing anti-union tactics by airline management.

The timing of the board's proposal -- before the pending Northwest-Delta merger -- was suspicious since the NMB is chaired by a former lobbyist for Northwest.

"Our challenge to Congress to increase its oversight of the NMB does not stop with the NMB's reversal of one biased proposal," stated AFA President Friend. "We continue to demand that Congress keep vigil over this agency."

Alliance Activities Underway in Critical Election States

CWAers from Local 13571 and Steel Workers members leaflet outside a Frontier Communications call center in Wilkes Barre, Pa.

With just about six weeks until Election Day, Alliance union members – from CWA, the Auto Workers, the Steel Workers and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers -- are working hard and working together in seven critical states to elect a president and members of Congress who support Employee Free Choice, health care reform, retirement security and fair trade.

The Alliance unions are concentrating efforts in states where all represent a significant number of active and retired members and families. For example, the four unions represent more than a million workers and retirees in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Alliance political activities also are underway in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Minnesota. 

In Michigan, CWA and Alliance partners have a strategy set for walks, member-to-member contacts, worksite leafleting, phone banking and other actions across the state. 

Several rounds of phone banking already have been held, most recently in Detroit with 21 volunteers, and more are scheduled in additional locations, said CWA Representative Shannon Kirkland. In Port Huron, Local 4107 will coordinate CWA phone banking and the UAW has phone banks up and running in its regional offices.

Member walks are being held every Saturday in Kalamazoo and other areas, and worksite leafleting – before work and lunch and for shift changes -- will be held every Thursday at CWA and Alliance locations. “We will hit members with information at least six times between now and Election Day,” Kirkland said.  

A very big part of the Alliance strategic plan is the “voter protection program,” to ensure that eligible voters aren’t blocked from exercising their rights, Kirkland said. The unions also will call the list of absentee voters to make sure they have all the information they need to vote for candidates who support working people.    

In Mississippi, CWA activists are holding door-to-door canvassing walks three days a week until November 4, and are helping to coordinate mailings and distribute leaflets to members. "Locals are taking our message to wherever members work," said Kim Sadler, president of CWA Local 3511. Stewards have been reaching out to members who work in remote locations, she noted. Alliance unions also worked together in Mississippi during two special congressional elections this year, in districts that elected Democrats to long-held Republican seats.

In Pennsylvania, CWA locals "are leafleting members at local membership meetings and at work sites, conducting voter registration drives, and e-mailing literature to locals for distribution," said District 13 legislative-political coordinator and staff representative Alex Minishak. CWA and USWA recently joined together in leafleting outside a call center in Wilkes Barre.

Alliance activists in Virginia are adopting worksites and coordinating voter registration drives.

In Louisiana, back to back Hurricanes Gustav and Ike forced the postponement of some actions, but Alliance members had leafleted worksites and are planning a bus trip to the first presidential debate set for Sept. 26 in Oxford. 

CWA will be reporting on actions and political efforts in battleground states every week. Please send your reports and photographs to news@cwa-union.org.

Alcatel Lucent Workers Tell Executives: Give up Golden Parachute, Bonus

Thousands of Alcatel Lucent workers around the world are telling Chief Executive Officer Patricia Russo and Chairman Serge Tchuruk to forego a huge golden parachute severance payment for Russo and a merger bonus paid to Tchuruk. In a campaign coordinated by 17 unions, petitions from workers worldwide who have been hit hard by management's failures were sent to Russo and Tchuruk, in different languages.

More than 6,000 Alcatel Lucent workers from six countries signed the petition so far, with nearly 300 signers from the United States.

CEO Russo is taking a severance package of more than $9.4 million, despite the company's extremely poor performance under her tenure. The company has reported losses for the past six quarters. 

In the United States, "the last of the Alcatel Lucent manufacturing jobs have been eliminated and shifted offshore with the shutdown of the Merrimack Valley facility," said Ralph Maly, CWA vice president for communications and technologies.

Alcatel Lucent stripped security clearances from union installers, many of them military veterans who have been working on sensitive government projects for decades, and has engaged in brazen union-busting by setting up non-union operations in California and Texas but refusing to hire union workers for those jobs, Maly said. 

CWA Families Caught in Ike's Path; Some Homes Wrecked, But No Lives Lost

Some CWA members lost their homes and others have serious repairs ahead after Hurricane Ike battered Galveston, Houston and nearby Gulf Coast communities last weekend, but reports from union leaders indicate that members and their families escaped without serious injury.

"We are very fortunate that there's been no loss of life, but we do have members who lost everything they owned," said Claude Cummings, CWA at-large Executive Board member and president of Local 6222. Some of Cummings' members commute 50 miles to Houston from Galveston, where winds and water devastated the community. In Houston, wind ripped off roofs and toppled large oak and pine trees.

CWA District 6 leaders still are gathering information about the impact on members from Local 6228 in Galveston and Local 6139 in Beaumont, cities where residents were ordered to evacuate. Mike Littleton, the district's southern area director, said the area remains in such a mess that communication is difficult and it's not yet clear how many members have been able to return to their homes or their jobs.

In Houston, Cummings has turned the local hall – which wasn't damaged -- into a distribution center, and members and the general public can get water and ice there.

The hall is also available to any out-of-town technicians who can't get hotel rooms while they help repair telecom lines in Houston. Praising AT&T for its response, Cummings said the company has delivered 75 cots to the union hall, is providing meals for 5,000 employees and is offering reasonably priced gasoline from tanker trucks the company brought in.

Cummings has a conference call every day with his 60 chief stewards to try to determine how many CWA families have been affected and who needs help. He's also working with AT&T officials, community leaders and elected officials to help make sure area residents and volunteers providing help are getting everything they need. "We want to be good citizens, make ourselves available to anyone who needs us," he said.

Cummings will be providing information to members in need about CWA's Disaster Relief Program. Help is also available for Union Plus credit cardholders affected by the storm. Information is available by calling the Union Plus Disaster Relief Program at (877) 761-5028. Details are also available online at http://www.unionplus.com/benefits/money/lifeline.cfm.

AT&T Mobility Workers Organize in Oklahoma City

Concerned over pay, health care and other benefits, a majority of the workers at an AT&T Mobility call center in Oklahoma City gained representation this week through card check. The 106 workers, formerly employed by Dobson Communications, will be represented by Local 6016, reported  District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn.

The workers are the second group of Dobson employees who have gained representation with CWA following AT&T's purchase of the company earlier this year. In August, 250 customer service representatives at a former Dobson call center in Boardman, Ohio, gained representation through card check.

Local 6016 Vice President Ron Dye worked closely with inside leaders to win support for their union. The call center is located close to two other CWA-represented AT&T call centers and the workers realized the benefits of having a union. In addition to pay and health coverage, the workers sought representation so they could have due process in dealing with workplace issues.

IN BRIEF:

  • The CWA Customer Service Professionals Conference has been rescheduled for Dec. 7-9 in New Orleans. The conference was postponed from September due to the threat of Hurricane Ike.

    Over the three-day conference, participants will discuss the critical on-the-job issues facing customer service reps and operators in a changing industry. Hotel and registration information are available at www.cwa-union.org, see What's Hot. Conference and hotel registration must be made by Nov. 10.  

    Among the speakers: CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill, Rose Batt, a Cornell University professor who has done extensive research on the customer service profession, and CWA District 3 Vice President Noah Savant.

    Bargaining break-out sessions will provide a status report on negotiations at employers including AT&T and Mobility, Verizon, Qwest, Idearc and others; several workshops also will be offered. 


  • AFA-CWA is asking the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to encourage Delta Air Lines to reform its labor practices and fully respect its workers' rights to organize.

    Delta's aggressive campaign against an AFA-CWA organizing drive earlier this year violated its flight attendants' rights, which in turn violated OECD guidelines, union leaders said.

    "The guidelines provide that multinational enterprises such as Delta should respect the right of their employees to form trade unions," AFA-CWA's letter to OECD stated. Delta's campaign "was calculated to suppress voter turnout in the union election through a variety of means, including flooding flight attendants with pervasive anti-union messages, instructing flight attendants to destroy balloting instructions, harassing union supporters, interfering with pro-union communications among its employees, and providing benefits timed specifically to undermine union support."