January 15, 2008

CWA Members at Center of Inaugural Events

CWA and the entire union movement are playing a big part in Presidential inaugural events in Washington, D.C., from answering President-elect Obama's call for the National Day of Service to spotlighting the Employee Free Choice Act around the city.   

Millions of Americans attending Barack Obama's inauguration next week will see numerous Employee Free Choice banners such as this one, high atop CWA's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Millions of people attending the inauguration will see giant banners calling for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act hanging on buildings, including CWA headquarters and other union buildings in the heart of inaugural activities. 

For the first time in inaugural parade history, an all-union float will carry union members as part of the American Workers Contingent. Some 23 CWAers will participate as part of the union group marching in the parade.  

CWA also has answered President-elect Barack Obama's call for community service on Jan. 19, the National Day of Service that honors Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. CWA locals, districts and headquarters employees are taking part in a nation-wide union food drive, with locals establishing collection sites at union meeting and worksites and delivering the goods collected to local food banks and pantries.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said the growing economic crisis has hit working families especially hard and food bank inventories nationwide are dangerously low. "We must step in to help in every way we can."

Some locals are joining with other groups in their communities to focus even more attention on the cause. Local 4025 in Upper Peninsula, Mich., is teaming up with a radio station to promote its food drive, others are hosting special events to attract donors and volunteers. 

Many locals also are accepting monetary donations for food banks in lieu of canned goods. Steve Abbott, CWA Local 7108, pointed out that "every dollar donated can be turned into almost $13 worth of food."

CWA also has agreed to work with AT&T in 30 cities to collect food. Drives will begin Jan. 12-19 in six cities with the greatest need: Sacramento, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Conn., and Dallas, and will continue Jan. 19 through Jan. 27 in the remaining cities.

Locals that want to participate in the food collection project can use the web form to send in your information.

To date, these CWAers are participating in the National Day of Service food drive:

CWA Headquarters

District 1: Locals 1031;1037; 1040; 1062; 1067; 1087; 1104; 1108; 1114; 1150; 1153; 1168; 1298.

District 2: Locals 2201; 2204; 2275; NABET-CWA Local 52031.

District 3: Locals 3108; 3180; 3204; 3212; 3250; 3403; 3511; 3517; 3907.

District 4: Locals 4025; 4100; 4217; 4250; 4310; 4319; 4401; 4621; 4622; 4998; AFA-CWA Local 24046 and District 4 staff.

District 6: Locals 6137; 6151; 6200; 6202; 6300; 6377; 6402; 6508. 

District 7: Locals 7055; 7108; 7175; 7750; 7777; 7800; 7803.

District 9: Locals 9000; 9415; 9417; 9421; 9505; 9509; 9575.

District 13: Locals 13500; 13550.  

Allies Spotlight Support for Employee Free Choice

A panel of leaders representing a range of diverse groups told the media Tuesday that America needs the Employee Free Choice Act.

Wade Henderson, director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, tells reporters at the National Press Club this week that his organization and many other human rights, religious and consumer groups support the Employee Free Choice Act.

"There is a fundamental imbalance in the power relationship between those who seek to organize and those who seek to thwart it," said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, outlining the broad coalition of human rights, religious and environmental groups joining with unions to back the workers' rights bill.

Labor's allies understand what it means to be the underdog, he said, "and so we understand the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act. And we know that only in coalition do you have the power to advance a bill that is being distorted in the press."

The Employee Free Choice Act is backed by a huge bipartisan majority in the House, a majority of U.S. senators and President-elect Barack Obama. A new poll by Hart Research shows that 78 percent of Americans favor legislation that will make it easier for workers to organize and bargain contracts. Only 17 percent of respondents were opposed.

For more on employee free choice, go to www.freechoiceact.org

"The American people get it," said American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell. "They know the current system is not working and it's time to restore some balance."

"The state of America's workers is abysmal," said ARAW Chair and former Congressman David Bonior. "While the middle class is shrinking, we've watched as over the last 20 years the top 10 percent took 90 percent of the income gains in this country. In fact, the top 1 percent took roughly 60 percent of these income gains," he said.

To bridge this gap in income equality, "we must give people a chance to bargain collectively with their employers. Following the Second World War, we saw the three most profitable decades for working people, because 35 percent of America's workers belonged to a labor union," he added.

Economist Dean Baker said the Employee Free Choice Act is a key part of rebuilding the nation's devastated economy. "We are in the worst downturn since the Great Depression," he said. "And that can be traced to the failure of workers' wages to keep pace with productivity gains over the last three decades."

Tuesday's press conference included a worker from a Price Right supermarket in Rhode Island, who joined the news conference after his night shift stocking shelves. Joe Sorrentino and coworkers have been trying to organize a union in spite of the company's threats to shut down the store if they are successful.

If we don't push this through, "we're just going to see another generation of low-paying jobs, borderline poverty, and I feel there won't be a middle class in America anymore," he said.

CWA Members Featured in New Television Ad Campaign

American Rights at Work is coordinating a major media campaign on the Employee Free Choice Act that includes television ads that will be broadcast for two weeks beginning Jan. 15 on national cable and network stations. The ads use workers – including five CWA members – who make the connection between restoring America's middle class and workers' rights to choose union representation.

The ads "Hope and Change" and "We Don't Ask" feature CWAers from several locals, in addition to other workers, who talk about why the Employee Free Choice Act must be passed now.

More AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA Through Majority Sign Up

Proving once again that workers will join a union if they have a free choice – and don't have to face the management intimidation that takes place in the overwhelming majority of NLRB campaigns – nearly 180 workers at AT&T Mobility joined CWA last week through majority sign up.

The workers – 27 network technicians in Arizona and New Mexico and 150 workers at the former Dobson Communications call center in Duluth, Minn. – won union representation after the American Arbitration Association certified majority support for CWA, said  District 7 Vice President Louise Caddell.

District 7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler credits the workers' strong inside organizing teams and support from CWA organizers; CWA Local 7050 President David Blackburn also assisted the AT&T Mobility workers in Arizona and New Mexico. In Duluth, workers were assisted by CWA Local 7214 Executive Vice President Casey Cusick and President Terri Newman, and CWA District staff.

Overall, 40,000 CWA members work at the company and all joined CWA through majority sign up.

CWA Media Sectors Discuss Industry's Economic Crisis, Job Strategies

In the face of media layoffs and bankruptcies, 150 members of CWA's newspaper, printing and broadcast sectors met for three days in Baltimore last weekend to talk about strategies for saving not just jobs but the industry.

"Our goal is to build hope among the members at a very difficult time, said TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer. "I think we put together some very solid ideas that people can take back to their members so that there isn't a sense of despair but a real constructive agenda." The three sectors plan to work together on organizing and other projects.

CWA President Larry Cohen talked about the critical need for the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to turn around the economy and enable workers to bargain with employers.

Seminars at CWA's first-ever joint media conference tackled such issues as organizing and bargaining in the deepening recession, the training that media workers need to compete in the ever-changing industry and innovative ways that employees and employers in other industries are working together.

CWA Printing Sector President Bill Boarman said newspapers' declining advertising and circulation revenues have created a crisis, threatening the survival of even the nation's most successful papers. The forum "presented us with the opportunity to share our ideas and solutions on how best to cope with this mess," he said.

Currently two papers with TNG-CWA and Printing Sector contracts, the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, are up for sale, with no likely buyers. Without new owners, the financially strapped newspapers are expected to be shut down by their parent companies.

Meanwhile, newspapers across the country are cutting staffs, trimming the size of their publications, publishing less frequently, forcing non-union staff to take unpaid leave and even – in the case of the Chicago Sun-Times – floating the idea of sending 25 to 30 copy-editing and layout jobs to India.

The broadcast industry also has been hit hard, with consolidated ownership, shared newsrooms and rapidly changing technology slashing broadcast jobs across the country.

"In broadcasting, we've seen our industry change almost beyond recognition in the last couple of decades," said NABET-CWA Vice President Jim, Joyce, who spoke on behalf of NABET-CWA President John Clark, who was unable to attend.

"We've seen it evolve from an industry that provided secure, long-term staff jobs to one dominated – especially at the networks – by casual, daily-hire employment," Joyce said. "That, coupled with the never-ending influx of new technologies, has destabilized the work place and undermined the security of the workforce we represent by combining work assignments and reducing the number of people needed to do the job."

Podcasts of some of the forum's presentations are available online at www.newsguild.org. Click on "Media Unions Chart New Course for Recovery" for the podcast links.

Lynx Aviation Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA

A majority of flight attendants at Lynx Aviation voted by a 2-1 margin this week for representation by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The election vote, conducted by the National Mediation Board (NMB), showed that 55 of the 87 eligible Lynx flight attendants voted for AFA-CWA despite an aggressive anti-union campaign by management.

This is the second organizing victory for flight attendants within the week. Just last week, 150 flight attendants at Ryan International won representation with AFA.

"Lynx flight attendants stood together and made their voices heard despite outdated NMB rules and management's anti-union tactics," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "We applaud their determination to shape the future of their careers."

Lynx has been operating for less than a year and hired many flight attendants from former carriers who understand the union difference. Management hired the union-busting firm of Ford and Harrison, and pulled out all the stops, up to and including an attempt to fire the lead organizer for her union activities.

Lynx Aviation is a regional carrier for Frontier Airlines and is often referred to as Frontier Express.

On The Source: Download Articles for Your Local Newsletter

Starting this week, we have added another resource for local union communicators on The Source, CWA's website for local union communicators.

What's new? It's the "Articles for Your Newsletter" section under the "Newsletter & Media Tools" area where editors can download individual articles for their newsletters on key issues affecting workers and CWA. These articles are formatted in Microsoft Word to make it easier for local union editors to download and use in their local newsletters and publications. Click here for articles to download. (Currently, editors can already access articles from the CWA News on CWA's main website or from the weekly CWA Newsletter on The Source website and snag the articles by copying and pasting the text into a separate file.

Upcoming in The Source's "Websites and Newsletter" section: a special "Extreme Makeover" and "Copy Desk" feature to help local editors improve their newsletters. Every week the Source is updated with the weekly CWA Newsletter, photos, and other useful resources, artwork, cartoons, and materials to improve communications with our members.

Help us get the word out to Local Union editors! Please e-mail their names and e-mail addresses to Janelle Hartman in the CWA Communications Department. Be sure to put "Local Union Editors" in the subject line of your e-mail message. The e-mail address is jhartman@cwa-union.org.