September 25, 2008

Locals Plan for CWA Debate Parties and Live Chat with Cohen

Local unions and members are signing up for debate watch parties on Oct. 7, the night of the second scheduled debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, and planning for a live online chat with CWA President Larry Cohen the next day.  That debate will get underway at 8 pm CDT on the 7th.

Go to www.cwavotes.org/partykit to register and download a new debate watch kit.

The first round of parties, held the final night of the Democratic convention, was a huge success, with CWA holding more than 800 parties. With our Alliance partners, that total hit more than 1,300.  

The Oct. 7 parties are another great opportunity to get together with co-workers, friends and families and listen as the candidates talk about the issues important to us, said CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. 

During the debate, CWAers can log on to www.cwavotes.org/debatewatch and submit questions about election issues for the live Internet chat that President Larry Cohen will hold the next day Wed., Oct. 8, from noon to 12:45 EDT.

In this live web chat, Cohen will address the questions and issues that CWA members are talking about, from bargaining to politics to health care and more.

To submit questions, go to www.cwavotes.org/debatewatch. Participants also can submit questions live during the chat, so plan to log on to www.cwavotes.org/debatewatch at noon EDT on Wed., Oct. 8. If you can't participate at noon, the chat will be available to read later in the day, posted at www.cwavotes.org.

With 40 Days Until Election, CWA Grassroots Activity Heats Up

With the presidential and congressional elections just 40 days out, CWA activists are part of an unprecedented movement to highlight the candidates' positions on the Employee Free Choice Act, and critical middle class issues like health care, retirement security, and the economy in key states.

In Virginia, activists with CWA Local 2222 have been hand billing members at worksites daily, visiting workers at garages and call centers. "We are getting the message out to hundreds of workers each week," says CWA Rep Laura Unger.

In the must-win state of Pennsylvania, members from Local 1180 in New York supported District 13 locals' efforts on Sept. 20, by holding a day-long labor walk through working-class neighborhoods in Boothwyn, Pa. "Nine busloads of CWAers from New York and New Jersey are arriving in the state this weekend to fortify our efforts in key legislative districts," said District 13 Staff Rep Alex Minishak.

Kansas City, Mo., Local 6360 set up a voter registration table at a United Way event at an AT&T building on Sept. 17.

In Missouri, members have been working throughout the state, hand billing members at work locations, holding block walks, and assisting in voter registration activities, reports CWA Rep Mark Franken, who is coordinating CWA's political activities in Missouri. "Last weekend, CWA delegates attending the state's biennial AFL-CIO convention in Kansas City, conducted block walks after the convention session ended each evening. Locals in the states will be conducting an election mailing to all members soon.

In Nevada, more than 55 CWAers from California and Nevada locals, joined by 25 other union activists, participated in a precinct walk in Reno on Sept. 20 to support the Nevada State Federation of labor's Election 2008 program, according to District 9 Staff Rep Nancy Biagini, who is coordinating activities in the state.

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. 

'Speed Matters:' Cohen Urges Senate to Pass Broadband Bill

Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Cintron was in Iraq when his wife went into labor this summer at a Brooklyn hospital. But he got to see every minute of the birth, and even saw his son before his wife did – via a high-speed webcast.

That was one of the stories CWA President Larry Cohen shared with lawmakers as he testified about the real possibilities for education, innovation, jobs, medicine and personal connections worldwide where high-speech broadband service is available.

CWA Pres. Cohen tells Senate Commerce Committee that the U.S. needs a national broadband policy to keep up with the rest of the world.

Cohen told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that the United States is falling far behind many other industrial countries in broadband penetration and speed. He urged a national policy on broadband expansion and described how CWA's "Speed Matters" campaign has been leading the way.

"Over the past 24 months, we've helped move state broadband initiatives to bring the benefits of this technology to every household, business and community," he said.

Cohen called on senators to pass the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492), a critical step in moving toward a national broadband policy. The measure would enable the U.S. to gather more information about where high-speed broadband is available and whether rural areas and inner cities continue to be poorly served. It also would make grants available to states for broadband mapping and for public-private partnerships to spur new build out of broadband networks and services.

"High-speed broadband is the critical infrastructure for the 21st century," Cohen said. "They are the platform on which we will grow jobs and our economy in the coming years," he said.

Broadband networks also must be truly high-speed, Cohen said, pointing out that CWA's latest survey of Internet speeds in all 50 states showed how much slower download and upload speeds are in the United States, compared to Europe, Canada and, especially, Japan.

Congressional Committee Questions NMB Rules, Effect on Workers' Rights

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure took a close look at the anti-worker policies of the National Mediation Board, with Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) expressing concern that "the deck is stacked against unionization."

Oberstar questioned many of the NMB's policies governing union representation elections for workers in the transportation industry, noting that in many cases, the NMB considers furloughed or inactive workers to be eligible voters.

AFA-CWA President Pat Friend told the committee that "a clear message needs to be sent to the NMB that it can no longer be a party in corporate America's efforts to usurp the stated policy and precedent of Congress to 'encourage unionization and collective bargaining.'"

Commenting on NMB rules requiring that a majority of eligible voters must actually cast ballots in a union election for results to be valid, Oberstar said, "That's a very high bar for a union to organize workers," noting that in public elections the winner only needs a majority of total votes tallied.

The NMB failed to take action against Delta Airlines for waging an intensive "anti-union campaign" that interfered with the rights of flight attendants to have a union voice, Friend said.

At stake is the future of collective bargaining rights for employees at Delta and Northwest Airlines. The airlines' pending merger means that unless 50 percent of the combined 21,000 flight attendants participate in the representation election, the entire vote will be voided and Northwest flight attendants will lose more than 60 years of bargaining rights.

Charles Perlik Dies, TNG President During Merger with CWA

Charles A. Perlik, Jr., the longest-serving president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA and an internationally recognized champion for journalists and human rights, died Sept. 17 of pulmonary failure at 84.

Toward the end of Perlik's 18 years as president, from 1969 to 1987, he helped the Guild's 33,000 media workers in the United States and Canada merge with CWA.

Among his achievements, he appointed a human rights coordinator to oversee a program to guarantee full employment opportunities to minorities and equal rights for women in the news industry. He also tried to involve the Guild in more legislative activity, designating a Guild representative to build support for labor law reform.

Perlik was a native of Pittsburgh who served as an Army Air Corps communications officer in Guam and the Philippines during World War II. He began his newspaper career as an $18-a-week copy carrier for what was called the Int'l News Service in 1941. After the war he worked for United Press in Pittsburgh and later Chicago

Perlik earned a bachelor's and master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University while working for United Press. At school, he served as chairman of the Chicago Guild's associate member chapter for journalism students.

After joining the Buffalo Evening News in 1950, he soon became chairman of the Buffalo Guild's organizing committee, and quickly organized two smaller newspapers. He was elected the local president in 1951. Just a year later, TNG appointed him as an international staff representative, working primarily in Canada.

He won his first national elective office in 1955, becoming the Guild's secretary-treasurer. He held the post until becoming president in 1969 and was re-elected six times.

Throughout his Guild presidency, Perlik was North American vice president of the International Federation of Journalists. He played a leading role in the IFJ's efforts to strengthen journalists' unions in developing countries.

He was also a human rights activist at home, attending the 1963 March on Washington and marching with the Rev. Martin Luther King in Birmingham and Selma, Ala. Years later, he and then-AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Thomas  Donahue spent a night in the Washington, D.C., jail for picketing the South African embassy to protest apartheid.

Said TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer:  "Chuck Perlik in many ways formalized the modern Newspaper Guild, both in its international scope and the quality of contracts.  He'd be the first to tell you about all the help he got, but during his 30-plus years as an officer, it was his vision that kept the union strong."

IN BRIEF:

  • Turns out John McCain is for health care reform. It's just that he'd like to model his program after America's crisis-ridden banks.

    "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation," McCain's campaign said in an article submitted under his name to the latest issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries.

    "That's right," the AFL-CIO said on its blog after finding the article. "McCain is so impressed by the performance of the deregulated, consumer-last banking industry that he proposes we let them do to our health care what they've done to our homes, credit card bills and investments."  McCain's plan would impose income taxes on workers for the value of their employer-paid health plans, amounting to thousands of dollars out of pocket for many families.