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December 11, 2008
740 Research Assistants Pick CWA at SUNY Stony BrookResearch assistants at the State University of New York Research Foundation at Stony Brook, N.Y., held firm against a strong anti-union effort to gain representation with CWA Local 1104 on Dec. 5, reported District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton. The vote in the NLRB-sponsored election was 214-135 with 35 challenged ballots. Nearly 740 RAs are employed at SUNY's Stony Brook University campus. Considered one of the largest union election wins of the year, the vote came on the heels of last week's organizing victory for 450 Reno, Nev., hospital workers, who chose CWA by a 4-to-1 margin.
The SUNY workers, all doctoral students, are seeking better pay and benefits and fairer treatment from a university administration that has continually claimed that it could not afford to pay them a more livable wage. The RAs are particularly aggrieved over a $500 transportation and technology fee that the institution charges them each semester – a fee that has been waived for graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook, who were already represented by Local 1104. "It doesn't sound like a big deal, but for a lot of RAs making $20,000 a year, $1,000 is a lot," RA Matt Engel, a member of the organizing committee, told Newsday following the victory. "Basically, there has never been a negotiated raise for RAs ever," he said. Local 1104 represents more than 4,000 graduate and teaching assistants at Stony Brook and in the SUNY system. Though affiliated with the State University of New York, the privately-managed Research Foundation resorted to captive audience meetings, one-on-ones, and other tactics to squash the RAs' campaign. Management also sought to delay or even block the election by challenging earlier NLRB decisions that allow research assistants the right to organize. The RAs prevailed thanks to a committed 50-person organizing committee, according to District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau, who credited "a tremendous GOTV operation by activists on the organizing committee, by CWA locals and allied groups." Assisting the RAs' from Local 1104 were Organizing Director Jim McAsey, rank-and-file project organizers Li Ming, Kevin Young, Xu Xiao and Kira Schuman, Local Chief Steward and Political Organizer Anthony Eramo, who helped build community support for the RAs, and over a dozen stewards from Verizon. Help in the campaign also came from Local 1037 Organizing Director Anne Luck, Local 1180 Organizer Erin Mahoney, TNG-CWA Local 31003 Organizer Alanna Stone, project organizer Ari Gold from District 7, District 1 CWA Rep Pete Sikora, and volunteers from the Long Island Progressive Coalition and Working Families Party. Human Rights Day Spotlights Fight for Employee Free ChoiceRemembering International Human Rights Day by fighting to restore the rights of American workers to organize unions, CWA locals across the country distributed nearly 300,000 flyers to members Wednesday to promote the critically needed Employee Free Choice Act.
Local officers and Stewards Army activists greeted people at their worksites with the colorful flyers showing the flags of more than 70 countries that provide a fair way for workers to form and join unions. Conspicuously absent from the flag display is the United States' stars and stripes. "We're not just talking about major western European nations," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Countries such as Barbados, Ecuador, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia ensure the right of their workers to organize, yet the United States does not. These flyers are helping our members and other workers understand how far we lag behind much of the rest of the world when it comes to workers' rights, and I want to thank all the locals who worked hard to distribute them this week." Cohen urged members to respond to the appeal on the flyers to call their U.S. senators and ask them to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which will be reintroduced in early 2009. In Virginia, Local 2201 handed out about 1,000 flyers at call centers and technicians' garages Wednesday. "Our Stewards Army people were at major locations handing them out at the door," local organizer Chris Flock said. IUE-CWA locals in Virginia also handed them out, and one local is preparing a phone bank with 20 volunteers to make phone calls to Senator-elect Mark Warner's transition office. Louisiana locals are already making calls to Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat re-elected in November, to ask for her continued support of the bill. Valerie Downing, the Employee Free Choice Act and health care coordinator for Local 3403 in Baton Rouge, asked each of the state's nine CWA locals to have about 20 members make personal calls to Landrieu's office. Despite torrential rain that made it tough to stand outside worksites and hand out flyers on Wednesday, Downing said her local managed to get many of them to members and will continue to distribute them at meetings. In Buffalo, N.Y., Local 1168 set up mobilization tables at five worksites where they represent nurses and other health care workers. Bob Andruszko, the local's area vice president for Millard Fillmore Hospital, worked one of the tables and talked to members about the bill. "We need to join together to promote fair organizing rights for all workers," he said. "This bill will level the playing field for workers who want to unionize. As Barack Obama stated, 'If a majority of workers want a union they should get a union.' This is not a complicated idea." Similar leafleting took place at CWA worksites in every region. Locals also are continuing to collect postcards of support for the Employee Free Choice Act from members as part of the union movement's Million Member Mobilization. To date, CWA has collected 113,000 cards. The goal is to display a million postcards in the U.S. Capitol once the new Congress takes office in January. Customer Service Members Take on Industry ChallengesCWA customer service professionals met this week in New Orleans to discuss the successes and challenges for customer service workers across CWA sectors. About 250 participants from across CWA participated: operators, retail store employees, media advertising sales and yellow pages employees, and FiOS, U-Verse and customer call center employees. At least half were new participants to the conference. Executive Vice President Annie Hill led the discussions as participants talked about the union approach to critical issues like monitoring, scripting and performances objectives. Hill also announced the creation of a CWA standing committee to deal with customer service issues on an ongoing basis. CWA President Larry Cohen talked about CWA's vision of the "high road" for customer service work, where customer service professionals can solve problems and meet customers' needs, as opposed to a management short-sighted focus on sales alone. Rose Batt, a Cornell Unversity professor, talked about the customer service industry from a global perspective. Her recent research found offshoring in customer service "to be less than many people think," with 75 percent of U.S. generated call center work now being done in the United States. She pointed to growth in telecom customer service work in wireless, video and broadband as those technologies expand. She said about 10 percent of the 4 million customer service workers in the United States are union-represented, and that CWA is by far the nation's largest customer service union. Workshops were held on monitoring, sales commissions and incentives, how to mobilize in the call center environment and family and medical leave. Participants also heard bargaining reports from several CWA sectors. CWA Representative Mike Farenholt gave participants a look at what has happened in New Orleans in the three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina. No customer service operations remain in the city; all were moved out, he said. "Some neighborhoods are coming back and some are really struggling," he said. CWA Stands with Workers' Fight for Justice at Chicago FactoryCWA is standing up for 200 Chicago workers who sat down in their shuttered factory this week to fight for money owed them and call attention to the way workers are being ignored as banks and corporations get billions from the government. Despite the fact that Bank of America got $25 billion in bailout funds, the bank had refused to extend an extra line of credit to the Republic Windows and Doors plant, leading the company to shut down last week. For six days, about 200 of the plant's 240 workers, members of the United Electrical Workers, peacefully occupied the building in protest. Last night they voted to end the sit-in after reaching a settlement for their legally mandated severance and vacation pay. The CWA Executive Board yesterday made a $5,000 donation to the UE Solidarity Fund. "The courage and commitment of the union members at Republic Window is an inspiration to all of us," District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said. "We will survive the current economic crisis only if workers stick together in fights for justice like this one. I am proud that our locals and staff in Chicago have strongly supported these workers in every way possible." The workers drew support from many political leaders, all the way up to President-elect Barack Obama. "When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right," Obama said at a news conference Sunday. Bryon Capper, a CWA staffer based in Chicago, was among dozens of union activists who rallied on behalf of the workers in icy cold rain Monday, and marched again in front of the Bank of America building on Wednesday. He took the workers doughnuts and coffee and signed a large poster board of solidarity. "I signed 'CWA supports your struggle' and it was displayed very prominently on CNN last night, just over the reporter's right shoulder," Capper said. By late Tuesday, Bank of America had agreed to a limited line of credit for the company and on Wednesday JP Morgan Chase offered additional funds. Blue Green Alliance to Hold Green Jobs ForumCWA President Larry Cohen will be a major speaker at the Blue Green Alliance's "Good Jobs, Green Jobs" conference in Washington, D.C., in February. CWA, along with the Steelworkers, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other organizations, is working on several levels to create good "green" jobs – in the United States and other nations – that help lift the economy and solve the problems of global warming. Blue Green Alliance representatives also attended the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Poland Dec. 1-12, focusing on the need for green jobs strategies around the world. The Blue Green Alliance also is working to educate the public about 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. Call Your Senators, Urge Emergency Relief for Auto IndustryCWA leaders are urging members to immediately call their U.S. senators, and ask them to pass a rescue package for the crippled U.S. auto industry. "The auto industry's collapse would have a devastating impact on our entire economy and the long-term future of our nation's manufacturing base," warned President Larry Cohen. "As many as 3 million jobs are either directly or indirectly tied to the auto industry, including CWA members involved in parts manufacturing and in the news media, which depends on auto advertising revenues. We simply can't afford to allow this industry to go bust," he said. Passage of the legislation – which was approved by the House this week -- is in serious jeopardy despite support from a majority of Senate Democrats, some Republicans, president-elect Barack Obama and the White House. Passage will depend on wavering senators hearing from their constituents. Members are urged to call both of their U.S. senators' offices and voice support for the auto industry rescue legislation. Call the U.S. Senate switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask the operator to connect you to the senate offices for your state. For more information on the issue, go to the United Auto Workers website at www.uaw.org. IN BRIEF:
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