October 23, 2008

Election Victory Depends on Having the Best 'Ground Game'

With the Nov. 4 election just 12 days away, activism by CWAers continues to build across the country, as members – despite encouraging polls for Barack Obama and labor-backed congressional candidates – are leaving nothing to chance.

"Our activists are not letting up or getting overconfident," stated CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill. "Past elections have taught us some bitter lessons. We realize that our work doesn't stop until the polls close on Nov. 4," she said.

Reports that continue to pour in from CWA locals show that local activists are working hard to make voter turnout in 2008 the highest in history. Whether distributing flyers at worksites, manning phone banks, walking union members' neighborhoods, or helping fellow members get registered, CWAers realize that the candidates with the best "ground game" – number of activists working in key battleground states – will prevail in the election.

At right, Kathy Antoniewicz, CWA Local 4603, prepares a local union mailing while phone banking. At left, CWAers sign in at District 7 HQ before participating in a labor walk in Denver.

Here is a rundown of just some of the many reports we are getting from across the country.

In Michigan, CWA members are playing a major role in phone banking efforts. "Our members are excited about the Bush presidency coming to an end," said CWA 4050 President Dave Skotarczyk. "The last thing we want is to let McCain get elected and subject working men and women to four more years...This is why so many of us are actively involved in everything from labor walks, to phone banks, and to leafleting worksites. That's why we'll be continuing to push the labor 2008 program all the way through Election Day," he added.

In Kentucky, CWAers are talking to members in the workplace about Obama's strong support for health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act. "We keep working as hard as we can to make sure members can't say that they don't know enough about the candidates to make a decision," said Jan Garkovich from CWA Local 3372. "Union members make up 30 percent of the vote in Kentucky. We have to make sure they get out to vote," he said. The local could make a big difference in Lexington, where it represents nearly 900 members in the area.

Mobilizing for the election, members of IUE-CWA Local 84755, at left, hand bill co-workers at the DEMAX plant in Dayton, Ohio. At right, Mike Rossi from Local 13000 works a phone bank in Philadelphia.

In Ohio, IUE-CWA members are blanketing worksites. In Dayton, Local 84755 members hand billed co-workers outside DEMAX, a diesel engine manufacturing plant employing 800. In Youngstown, Local 84722 members hand billed co-workers at Ohio Lamp plant where 300 union members work. "Hand billing is important because people trust what comes from their union and the people they work with," said Local 84755 President Bob Hewitt. This week, IUE-CWA launched a union-wide phone banking center at the sector's Dayton headquarters. "There's nothing more effective than IUE members talking to IUE members," said Lauren Asplen, assistant to IUE-CWA President James Clark.

In Pennsylvania, a critical state where John McCain has recently concentrated major resources, CWAers from neighboring New York and New Jersey are continuing to bus in every weekend to help CWA members in that state. Last week, members from Locals 1034, 1103, and 1180 visited registered union members' homes in Philadelphia and its suburbs. CWAers in Pennsylvania work in tandem with the activists, driving the volunteers to neighborhoods throughout the city. Members of Local 13000 are now organizing volunteers for an across-the-state GOTV effort beginning Nov. 1.

In John McCain's home state of Arizona, CWA Local 7019 President Chris Rossie held a forum for members to discuss how the election's outcome will impact the middle class at a "Working Families for Change" event in Arizona. The local posted a video of the link here.

Dozens of photos and video links from activists are flooding into CWA each week and we are posting them on The Source, our website for union communicators. View them by navigating to our photo gallery in our Election 2008 campaign section.

Hundreds more photos and videos of CWA activists are being posted online. To post or view pictures, go to the Labor 2008 section of Flikr. To post or view videos visit this section of YouTube. Search "CWA" to locate the galleries at both sites.

Election handouts can be downloaded from the Election 2008 Campaign section on the Source, CWA's website for local union communicators, and from the AFL-CIO's Working Families Toolkit website.

CNN "Fact Checker" Gets It Wrong on Employee Free Choice

The Employee Free Choice Act would not take away workers' right to continue to organize by way of a traditional secret-ballot election, but you wouldn't know it from most of what is being said by networks or pundits covering the election campaign.

Last week, on "Fact Check from CNN's Truth Squad," CNN reporter Alina Cho stated that John McCain was correct when he charged that Obama wants to "take away" workers' right to a traditional secret-ballot election. Go here for the report.

Yet when CNN was contacted about the error by the workers' rights organization, American Rights at Work, a network spokesperson said they stood by the report and refused to issue a correction.

CNN did see fit to correct another error that it made in its report – that a "majority" of workers currently have to sign authorization cards to petition for a union election. In fact, it takes only a 30 percent showing of interest under provisions of the National Labor Relations Act.  And that option would remain in the law after passage of Employee Free Choice.   The new legislation would give workers an option to seek immediate recognition based on union authorization by a majority of workers, and also would provide for first-contract arbitration and tougher penalties on employers for labor law violations.

"We can't stand by and allow fear tactics and misinformation about Employee Free Choice to determine the outcome of this critical legislation," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "In this age of sound bites, a false charge can eventually become true if it remains unchallenged."

We need to flood CNN with the facts about Employee Free Choice and get the network to issue a correction. E-mail your complaint to CNN here.

CWA Joins 87 Groups, Individuals in Blasting ACORN Attacks

CWA joined with 87 unions, civil rights and community leaders, and lawmakers in supporting ACORN's work in registering traditionally disenfranchised voters in the face of efforts by the GOP and the McCain campaign to discredit these efforts and distract from the real campaign issues.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has helped over 1.3 million low-income people, minorities and young voters register, the joint statement noted. The group came under partisan attack because ACORN itself was victimized by a few people it hired at $8 an hour to register voters who filled out phony registration forms for such fictitious characters as "Mickey Mouse." ACORN flagged these obviously sham registrations when it turned over all forms collected to state officials.

Rather than commend ACORN for trying to police the problem, Republicans have seized the opportunity to invent a "scandal." The GOP has long attacked community-based voter registration drives because of its fears that registering the urban poor to vote works against its interests.

The joint statement notes: "We recognize ACORN's commitment to make the election process clean and fair for all Americans and to make its own program the best it can be. This is emblematic of ACORN's long tradition of working to empower working families, people of color, and low-income communities. ACORN's success in bringing new populations into the electorate should be recognized and supported for what it is: a deeply patriotic act dedicated to strengthening democracy in America."

"This attack, based on exaggerated charges and overheated rhetoric, is outrageous in view of the fact that almost 30 percent of eligible voters, 71 million, didn't register or vote in the last election," said CWA President Larry Cohen.

The support letter is being sent to lawmakers and the news media.

CWA Suit Seeks to Halt AT&T 'Shell Game' Over Contracts

CWA has filed a lawsuit against AT&T Inc. and 29 of its major subsidiaries "in an attempt to halt the company's use of corporate shell games to avoid contractual obligations to CWA and its members," the union stated.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in San Antonio, Texas, charges that company is using consolidations and reorganizations to reassign workers throughout its various entities in ways that threaten members' contractual wages, benefits, seniority and working conditions, said Executive Vice President Annie Hill, who heads CWA's Telecom Office.

As the "New AT&T" has reassembled much of the old Bell System – Southwestern Bell (SBC), Ameritech, Pacific Telesis, and Bell South, along with AT&T Mobility, Southern New England Telephone, AT&T Internet Services and "Legacy AT&T" – it uses a "corporate fiction of 'separate companies' to avoid accountability for contractual obligations," Hill stated.

CWA's lawsuit argues that AT&T Inc. is the real decision-maker and that every major subsidiary is an "alter ego of AT&T." The company "should not be permitted to hide behind the corporate veil to avoid accountability for collective bargaining obligations," CWA contends.

The lawsuit asks the court for injunctions to halt contract violations and that AT&T be ordered to recognize that it is a party to every subsidiary's collective bargaining agreement and that it be required to negotiate with CWA on all issues that fall under these agreements.

IN BRIEF:

  • As you head out for the last week and a half of canvassing, phone banking and other election activities, don't forget your camera.

The post-election issue of the CWA News needs photos of our members knocking on doors, making phone calls, cheering at rallies and anything else they're doing as volunteers to elect Senator Barack Obama and a pro-worker Congress.

We need high-resolution digital photographs or high-resolution scans of prints. You can also send us prints by regular mail. One way to get a variety of pictures is to hand out disposable cameras to members and urge them to shoot the entire roll. Rather than pose people, try to get candid shots of our members engaged in activities.

Photos can be e-mailed to: jmiller@cwa-union.org. For regular mail, send to: CWA News, 501 3rd Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

 

  • Cards from CWAers signing on to the Million Member Mobilization for Employee Free Choice reached 104,769 as of Oct. 21, as pledge cards and online sign ups continue to pour in. The amount surpasses by 22,000 the initial 82,000 goal CWA set when the campaign began last summer.

Locals are urged to continue to get as many members, retirees, and their families signed on to the campaign as possible. Cards collected by CWA and other unions – the overall goal is 1 million – will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol building after the new Congress is sworn in. Sign up online at www.FreeChoiceCWA.org.

 

  • Putting cost-savings above his newspapers' quality and accuracy, MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton says his company is exploring more ways to outsource and offshore work – including copy-editing and design jobs.

Singleton, whose holdings include many TNG-CWA papers, said, "In today's world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn't matter," the Associated Press reported.

Singleton's comments, coming during and after a speech to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Associations, angered Guild leaders. They said it was the first they'd heard of his plans, and that they will fight to save local jobs – for readers' sake, as well as workers.

"We understand the need for newsrooms to operate more efficiently in tough economic times," said Sara Steffens, chair of the bargaining unit for newspapers recently organized by TNG-CWA in the San Francisco Bay area. "But outsourcing copy-editors is a terrible idea. The move would damage beyond repair the things readers and advertisers value most about newspapers: Our wealth of local knowledge, and our commitment to accuracy and fact-checking."