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October 9, 2008
CWA and Qwest Resume Contract TalksCWA and Qwest bargainers resumed negotiations today following members' rejection of the earlier tentative agreement. The current contract, covering 20,000 workers in 13 states, has been extended through the end of the day tomorrow, Oct. 10. Bargainers on both sides are hopeful about reaching a new agreement that will be acceptable to CWA Qwest members by the midnight deadline, said District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell. Following a conference call of local presidents last week, the CWA bargaining team has been working to finalize issues, which include respect and job dignity issues as well as other non-economic and economic concerns. The District 7 website, which requires members to get a password from their locals, will provide secure and updated information about the talks. Members should contact their locals to get password information. Election Countdown: CWA Sets Oct. 13-17 as National Worksite Action WeekWith just 26 days of work left until Election Day, CWA has designated next week - Oct. 13-17 - as CWA National Worksite Action Week to bring extra focus to the election and the importance of the outcome for union members and the middle class. "People like to feel part of something bigger and having a single action that we can work on collectively is one way to foster that feeling," said Executive Vice President Annie Hill, who heads up CWA's Election 2008 efforts. CWA has developed two handouts - "Who's On Our Side" and "Are We Better Off" - that members are
encouraged to print out and distribute to their co-workers,
friends and family members. One focuses on the current economic
crisis and the other on how the middle class has suffered over
the past eight years. Additional handouts can be downloaded from
the Election 2008 Campaign section on the Source, CWA's website
for local union communicators -- www.cwa-union.org/source/campaigns/election-2008.html
With so little time remaining until the election, CWAers have been redoubling their political activity across the country with a special focus on battleground states.
Every Saturday since Sept. 20, CWA members from New York and New Jersey have bused into Pennsylvania to help CWAers in the critically important battleground state shore up support for Barack Obama and pro-worker congressional candidates, reported District 1 and 13 Vice Presidents Chris Shelton and Ed Mooney. The activists are jointly participating in neighborhood walks, talking to voters about the issues, and urging them to get out to vote. This weekend, three busloads from CWA Locals 1034, 1037 and 1182 will be traveling to eastern Pennsylvania, with at least eight more busloads scheduled for the next two weekends. Carloads of members from CWA Locals 1032 and 1084 are also making weekly trips into the state. Earlier this week, 34 members from CWA Locals 13000, 13302, 13500, and 13550 called more than 1,000 members in southwestern Pennsylvania at a Working Families Phone Bank set up at the Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh. In another battleground state, Mississippi, CWAers have been actively campaigning for Obama and for Ronnie Musgrove, candidate for the U.S. Senate. Every week, members from Locals 3511 and 3570 are participating in block walks and phone banking. Weekly phone banking is being conducted from Local 3511's union hall, which has 36 lines set up. CWA Joins Blue Green Alliance to Build Green Jobs, EconomyCWA is joining the Steelworkers, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council as part of the Blue Green Alliance that is working to create good "green" jobs that help solve the problems of global warming. The organization represents 4 million people in the partnership to build a clean energy economy and create quality jobs. CWA President Larry Cohen said by advancing the rights of workers, the U.S. can create exciting opportunities for American families in the green economy. "We share common concerns that runaway economic policies are preventing workers from organizing and bargaining collectively and fail to direct our economy to create sustainable middle-class jobs," he said. The Blue Green Alliance is working to educate the public about solutions to reduce global warming pollution that will result in the creation of millions of jobs and a clean energy economy, the critical need to restore the rights of workers to form a union and bargain collectively, the establishment of a fair trade policy and curbs on the use of toxic chemicals to enhance and protect public health. Members Join Cohen for Wide-Ranging Online DiscussionCWA President Larry Cohen met online with members across the country on Wednesday to answer a wide range of questions about the election, the economy, workers rights, outsourcing, health care, retirement security and the future of the union movement. A transcript of the chat is available online on the CWA Votes website at http://www.cwavotes.org/cwavotes/content/cwa_debate_chat_transcript. One participant asked about helping people make the connection between today's economic crisis and the need to rebuild America's union movement. "For 80 years policy makers have understood that collective bargaining means a better deal for workers and creates demand for goods and services," Cohen said. "The U.S. has been moving in the opposite direction making it nearly impossible for working Americans to gain collective bargaining coverage. More union workers means more bargaining power and better pay. This in turn raises our buying power and stimulates the economy far better than another rebate." One member, working hard for Obama, asked, "How do we keep from demobilizing after Jan. 1 and getting the disappointments we had with Clinton on things like NAFTA." Cohen responded that, "We keep organizing. We are building a political movement, not a movement for one election. We stay focused on our four core issues" and keep organizing in our workplaces and communities. An airline worker asked what Obama, if elected, will do to help especially hard-hit workers in the airline industry, which has slashed jobs and wages in recent years. Cohen said one of the many critical things a president does is appoint board members, such as those on the National Labor Relations Board and the National Mediation Board, which oversees bargaining law for airline employees. The president's authority also extends to the FAA, an agency vital to safeguarding airline workers and passengers. The chat concluded with a question about what CWA members can do between now and Election Day. "Talk to our coworkers," Cohen said. "This is most important since it makes no sense to fight at the bargaining table for our rights, our jobs, our health care and our retirement and not fight for these same issues when we elect candidates to office. Second we can get on the phones and walk our neighborhoods making sure that these issues are the key ones when union members and friends and neighbors vote." GM Refuses IUE-CWA Efforts to Keep Moraine, Ohio, Plant OpenRejecting the efforts of IUE-CWA to negotiate a way to save a General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, the company has announced it will shut down the plant and lay off the final 1,400 workers two days before Christmas. "IUE-CWA and the Local 84798 negotiating committee worked closely together to try to rescue this plant," IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said. "We had a strong basis to start from given the high quality and productivity of the workforce. Despite offers to 'do whatever it takes to save Moraine,' GM was determined to shut down the plant." GM announced this summer that it would close the SUV plant by 2010 because of the big vehicles' slumping sales. About 1,000 jobs were cut in September when GM ended the plant's second shift. The economic crisis and soaring fuel prices have hit Moraine and nearby Dayton, and its working families, especially hard. Clark described it as a "community already rocked by plant closings and layoffs." But he said the Moraine plant could have survived if GM had been willing to work with IUE-CWA. "We left no stone unturned," Clark said, describing outreach to elected officials and a range of innovative proposals. "We presented GM with proposals that would have made the Moraine, Ohio, facility - the most competitive in the GM portfolio - even more competitive than their competitors. But GM was not willing to work with us by committing to new product." The union is finalizing a settlement package for IUE-CWA members at the plant that Clark said "will allow them to transition their lives after this devastating blow." The package will include buyout, retirement and flowback opportunities. "I know that we can count on the professionalism of our membership to see that the last truck out reflects the quality they are known for," Clark said, urging members to pour their anger into electing a president who stands with workers. "I call on our members to express their outrage by voting in November for an Obama administration that will work to keep good manufacturing jobs in the United States instead of a continuation of the same trade policies and lax regulation that have destroyed our economy," he said. IN BRIEF:
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