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January 29, 2009
Next Months Critical for Employee Free Choice
CWA is making a big difference in the fight to win Employee Free Choice. "We're just inches away from making this happen," CWA President Larry Cohen said. As corporations announced another 90,000 job cuts, devastating tens of thousands of working families, only the Employee Free Choice Act can restore the bargaining rights and worker purchasing power that are essential to economic recovery. In a conference call with CWA field staff, held with CWA's Executive Board, Cohen reviewed the campaign and talked strategy. "We have a strong bipartisan majority in the House. In the Senate, we have majority support for passage of the bill but we need 60 votes to end debate and move to a vote on the bill. The Senate is our battleground and our focus must be on those senators from key states who need to hear from us everyday," he said. That means letters, telephone calls and e-mails to Senators' offices, setting up meetings with members of Congress and their staffs, having members and locals write letters to the editors and op-eds to local newspapers to counter the Chamber of Commerce and other opponents, and building more support among our allies – small businesses that have signed on with us, the Sierra Club, the NAACP and others, he said. Bill Evitt, District 2; Linda Hinton, D4, and Kevin Mulligan, D7, outlined action already underway in the districts to ensure that every possible member of Congress is on board and sponsoring or supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. In Virginia, for example, every local in the state is participating in a letter writing and telephone campaign to Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner, to make sure "both go in the right direction," Evitt said. Local members and leaders also have had some good success in getting letters to the editor published in several newspapers; that campaign will continue. In District 7, CWA, working with the State AFL-CIO, already has reached out to the state's new Senators, Democrats Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, as well as three new House members, on Employee Free Choice, Mulligan said. "This campaign is not just about lobbying and media, but is very focused on member education and mobilization," he said. Activists have identified the 10 largest worksites in Colorado – where more than 80 percent of members work – and have education plans underway so that everyone knows why Employee Free Choice is important and what to do to help get it passed, Mulligan said. CWA and other unions will be bringing cell phones and lap top computers to worksites and union meetings so members can call, email and write their representatives. In District 4, CWAers are focusing on key senators, including Ohio Republican George Voinovich and Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl, as well as on some House members who have yet to sign on as cosponsors, Hinton said. Throughout the district, "we're getting folks educated, working with them to call their members of Congress." In North Carolina, newly elected Senator Kay Hagan has been hearing from members of Locals 3601 and 3505, and a group of local presidents will meet with Hagan during the February recess. Hagan won election because of the hard work of union members and supporters throughout North Carolina. In every district, CWA and other unions are arranging congressional meetings with members over the President's Day recess in mid-February and are building a program of member education and mobilization. For more information, go to http://www.freechoiceact.org/cwaresources. For the Employee Free Choice you have the choice of a
powerpoint or PDF version. Southern California Locals Condemn Verizon's Use of ContractorsOn January 10, 2009, Verizon started the New Year on the wrong note with its most experienced and loyal employees in the Long Beach, California area when it decided to use contractors to avoid having to pay CWA members premium pay rates. "Prior to the action, we notified the company that we had a long list of workers who were volunteering to work in the safe and professional manner our customers deserve," said Gregg W. Gibson, President of CWA Local 9586. Instead, he said the company chose to avoid using its most qualified workers "just to save a couple bucks," clearly showing its disregard for workers, our union and customers, he said.
Dozens of CWA members from Locals 9586, 9588, 9575, 9510, 9400, joined by members of the Southern California Council demonstrated their displeasure with the company on Jan 16th. "This is just the beginning if Verizon doesn't change its decision and refuses to provide the best possible service to customers," Gibson said. Senate GOP Puts Hold on Solis Over Support for Employee Free ChoiceSenate Republicans are vowing to hold up the vote on Labor Secretary nominee Hilda Solis because she supports the Employee Free Choice Act. "If there was ever a time the nation needed a strong secretary of labor, this is it," the New York Times said in an editorial. "And yet, for the past several days, at least one Republican senator has been using a parliamentary procedure to hold up the confirmation of Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), President Obama's choice for labor secretary." The editorial said that Employee Free Choice and a labor secretary who backs it "would be a good thing, because strong labor unions help to push wages up by bargaining for more of the pie to go for workers' wages, rather than for bonuses and profits for executives and shareholders. "The delay in confirming Ms. Solis isn't because the Senate needs to know more," it concluded. "It's a way for Republican senators to score tough-guy points with business constituents who are driven to distraction by the thought of unions." Solis, the daughter of a Teamsters shop steward, has been a champion of workers for more than 15 years, starting in the California legislature and continuing in Congress, where she strongly supported the Employee Free Choice Act in 2007. Solis is a longtime advocate of workers' rights, supporting the fight of CWA translators and interpreters for fair treatment and workers at the Chinese Daily News who wanted union representation. She co-authored the Green Jobs Act that became part of the 2007 energy bill. The bill authorized $125 million for workforce training programs targeted to veterans, displaced workers, at-risk youth and the poor. Solis backers have created two Facebook groups in support of her nomination: They are "Americans for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor" and "1,000,000 Strong for Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor." Sign-up for both groups is available to any Facebook member. Execs Use Taxpayer Bailout to Fight Employee Free ChoiceJust days after getting a $25 billion taxpayer bailout, Bank of America hosted a conference call to round up business opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. Among those on the call was another recipient of a taxpayer bailout, AIG, which got more than $40 billion from working families and other taxpayers. But the loudest voice belonged to Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, who launched into a rant calling Employee Free Choice "the demise of a civilization." "This bill may be one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life," he said, explaining that he could have been on "a 350-foot boat out in the Mediterranean," but felt it was more important to engage in this fight. Marcus said corporations should be donating millions of dollars to prevent America from turning "into France." "As a shareholder, if I knew the CEO of the company wasn't doing anything on [EFCA]... I would sue the son of a bitch... I'm so angry at some of these CEOs. I can't even believe the stupidity that is involved here," he carried on. Read the story and hear some of the audio at the Huffington Post, which reported the story in late January. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/bank-of-america-hosted-an_n_161248.html Of course, the Employee Free Choice Act will help restore an economy that every economist, analyst and government official admits is in free fall. Employee Free Choice is all about restoring workers' bargaining power and expanding the middle class, so that workers can bargain for good wages that will in turn increase purchasing power and create more jobs. Even Bank of America grudgingly admitted that there's something to that idea. In a research document about the call, Bank of America officials noted that Employee Free Choice "increases the likelihood that retailers would be unionized, which could drive higher labor costs at retail, but would increase the spending power of lower income consumers as this would be a de facto wage and benefit increase." CWA Leads Fight in Florida to Preserve Telephone Service Quality & JobsWith the support of a coalition of retiree and consumer advocacy groups, CWA beat back an effort by seven telephone providers, including AT&T, Verizon and Embarq, to persuade the Florida Public Service Commission to allow the companies to lower quality standards and service to six million customers in the state. The companies wanted to deregulate service by changing the definition of "basic" telephone service and by lengthening the amount of time customers must wait before the company responds to service and installation calls. Following CWA's intervention, the commission reversed an earlier recommendation that would have allowed companies to double response time for repairs, installation and service calls. During the hearings, Gail Marie Perry, Chair of the CWA Council of Florida, heard a Verizon representative state the company would be able to "get rid of eight people" if the service installation interval was lengthened. Supporting CWA was the Public Service Commission Public Council, which represents consumers' interest, the Florida's Attorney General's office, the AARP, and the Florida Consumer Action Network. |
