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December 18, 2008
CWA Seizing 'Once in a Generation Chance' to Pass Employee Free Choice
After decades of a steady decline in worker bargaining rights, CWA leaders and others say the 2008 elections have finally opened a window of opportunity to restore Americans' organizing and bargaining rights and rebuild the country's tumbling economy. "This is make or break for us and for our kids and our grandkids in terms of what kind of America we are going to leave for them," said Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, speaking to a roomful of CWA local leaders and staff at an Employee Free Choice Act strategy session this week. Bill Samuels, AFL-CIO legislative director, called the first few months of 2009 "a once in a generation chance" to restore balance to a system that lets employers break what's left of labor law without the risk of any penalties. The workshop brought together local CWA leaders from states with U.S. senators who are considered only "soft" supporters or are undecided. The key message they are taking home to members, who will be asked to contact their senators, is that bargaining rights are critical to a strong economy and history proves it. CWA President Larry Cohen quoted from a letter than economist John Maynard Keynes wrote to Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression. Keynes told him that cutting wages and jobs – as employers are doing today – was exactly the wrong thing to do and that, "I regard the expansion of collective bargaining rights as essential." In the 1940s, a decade after the National Labor Relations Act, the United States had the world's largest percentage of organized workers – 35 percent -- and the economy was booming. Today, the labor laws that built America's middle class have been eroded and the economy is as bad as it's been since the Great Depression. "That's no coincidence," Cohen said. The challenge is helping Americans make that link, at a time when cable pundits and some Republican lawmakers are pointing fingers at U.S. auto workers and trying to blame unions for the industry's collapse. "In Germany, every single BMW worker – including half their board of directors – is a union member," Cohen said. "In Japan, every single Toyota worker up through supervisors is a union member. In Korea, every single Hyundai worker up through supervisors is a union member. In fact, the standard of living for Hyundai workers in Korea today is higher than for GM workers in Detroit." The workshop addressed ways to talk about the crisis in Detroit, which opponents are trying to tie to the Employee Free Choice Act. Recent ads are trying to lead Americans to believe that other industries will suffer if unions are strong and healthy. The Senate Republicans whose votes killed a bridge loan for the automakers last week are so determined to kill the Employee Free Choice Act "that they're willing to see 3 million jobs lost to do it," Samuels said, referring to an estimate of the number of jobs in auto manufacturing and dependent businesses that could be lost if Detroit doesn't get some help soon. Speakers pointed out that the $14 billion relief bill that failed -- even after industry leaders laid out detailed plans for restructuring -- is pocket change next to the $700 billion for Wall Street that was given without its CEOs having to submit any plans to Congress. While the Chamber of Commerce and its front groups attack the Employee Free Choice Act with $100 million in advertising, CWA, other unions and American Rights at Work have built a strong coalition of progressive allies that are talking to their members and members of Congress. From the Sierra Club to the NAACP to religious, health and social justice organizations, leaders and legislative staff are meeting regularly with American Rights at Work for the specific purpose of passing Employee Free Choice, Cohen said. Together the allied groups represent tens of millions of Americans, many of them having no ties to unions but who are coming to understand that they are an essential part of a strong economy. "A lot of members of Congress tend to think of the Employee Free Choice Act as a labor bill," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said. "We want to shift their thinking so they understand that this really is a way to rebuild America." Arbitrator Issues Decision on AT&T Mobility Health CareCWA's long battle to protect AT&T Mobility workers from the excessive health care cost shifting demanded by the company has reached a conclusion with the arbitration decision released this week. The Arbitrator's decision reflects agreement with CWA that AT&T Mobility's demands were out of line. The Arbitrator agreed with CWA's assessment that "the company has been thriving in this concededly competitive environment, and that it can afford to maintain, in the future, without question, a relatively generous benefit. And the union notes, with some justification, that imprudent increases in health care costs to employees may well result in their declining to sign up for coverage or to leave the workforce entirely," he said. In contract bargaining, AT&T Mobility demanded that a tremendous amount of health care costs be shifted to workers. Under the company's original proposal, workers would have been forced to pay up to 35 percent of health care costs. When CWA forced the company into arbitration, AT&T Mobility lowered its proposal, demanding that workers pay 29 percent of health care costs. CWA fought against this cost shifting, pointing out that the Company's demands for increased cost sharing were unreasonable and would make health care unaffordable for many Mobility workers. The Company in its final offer lowered its proposal once more to a 26% cost share. Under the Arbitrator's decision, cost sharing for current workers will gradually increase from 14 percent of total health care costs (in the form of premium contributions and out-of-pocket expenses) in 2010 to 20 percent in 2012. By comparison, under the current plan, employees now pay 11 percent of costs. When the National Bargained Plan was first negotiated, employees paid 15 percent of costs. The arbitrator's ruling calls for the cost share to remain at 11 percent in 2009 for incumbent employees. Under the ruling, workers hired after January 1, 2009 will pay 20 percent of health care costs. It is important to note that CWA was able to prevent the company from cost shifting in dental, vision and other benefit plans. CWA and the Company are in discussions about how the arbitration award will be implemented. Further details will be supplied as they become available. CWA Broadband Policy Called Key Element to Economic StimulusTwo key telecom industry groups have recommended that CWA's proposal for expanding high-speed broadband coverage to all Americans be a major part of any economic plan being crafted by the incoming Obama administration to stimulate the economy and rebuild the nation's infrastructure. The groups, the Fiber-to-Home Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association, have urged Congress to make CWA's proposal a "baseline for the economic recovery package." The groups represent the interests of more than two dozen companies and non-profit organizations. President-elect Obama has long endorsed CWA's call to bring high-speed Internet to every American. A key element of CWA's proposal, the adoption of tax breaks to encourage operators to spur the national deployment of high-speed networks, won prominent coverage this week in a Washington Post article focusing on growing calls by telecoms, industry and public interest groups to build out high-speed networks to underserved rural and urban areas. CWA has called the build-out of the nation's high-speed networks "the global economic engine for the 21st century." Other components of CWA's proposal would fund national broadband mapping called for in legislation recently enacted, provide grants for investment in high-cost, currently underserved rural areas, and subsidies to provide computers for low-income households and community-based digital literacy programs. "We need to aim high with this and public policy needs to catch up with the realities of the global economy," CWA President Larry Cohen told the Post. CWA has estimated that every $5 billion invested in broadband development would create 97,500 new jobs and indirectly result in another 2.5 million jobs throughout the economy. The Post article noted that the United States has fallen to 15th place worldwide in terms of broadband access, a figure cited by CWA in its two groundbreaking, Speed Matters reports on the state of U.S. broadband. The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, which educates the public on the opportunities and benefits of fiber-to-the-home solutions, represent all areas of broadband industries, including telecommunications, computing, networking, system integration, engineering, and content-provider companies, as well as traditional telecommunications service providers. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is the trade organization serving the communications and IT industry. AFA-CWA Reiterates Support for 'Date of Hire' Seniority IntegrationFollowing an arbitrator's announcement of a plan that will dictate seniority integration for pilots at the merged Delta-Northwest, AFA-CWA-represented flight attendants at Northwest Airlines have reiterated that "date of hire" seniority is the only fair way to integrate the Northwest and Delta Air Line flight attendant groups. "Northwest flight attendants have a clear cut position regarding seniority integration which is fair and simple; date of hire," said Kevin Griffin, AFA-CWA Northwest President. "An honest integration process that respects our years of service enables the combined flight attendant group to come together even quicker and unite as we become the largest flight attendant group in the world." The union filed a federal lawsuit against Delta in late November to prevent the airline from unilaterally using a management seniority integration process as a wedge issue to divide Delta and Northwest flight attendants and undermine the union before employees of the newly combined airline can vote on union representation. AFA-CWA said the airline's seniority integration plan "constitutes unlawful interference with and influence over the choice of its employees' bargaining representative." A representation election among all flight attendants at the merged airline is expected in 2009. IN BRIEF:
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