|
|
April 16, 2009
Can We Make It 100,000?
So far, in just about ten days, more than 60,000 people have signed on to the statement of support blasting a financially successful AT&T for looking to cut workers' benefits and jobs. Good, so far. AT&T is hearing us. But we need to get that number up. Click here and check out CWA's latest video on corporate greed and AT&T. Click the "Act Now" box and sign the statement of support. Then pass the word and send the link to family, friends and co-workers so they can sign on too. AT&T Mobilization is 'Turning Up the Heat'Mobilizations are spreading across CWA locals, with members expanding inside activities that are getting management's attention and building public support at rallies, leafleting and through CWA's online campaign. Locals are definitely getting the message out there: AT&T needs to get serious about bargaining fair contracts.
Members of CWA Local 6450 in Missouri have produced a six-minute video that cuts to the heart of what a fair agreement at AT&T means. "We wanted to get out the message that our fight is about preserving good middle-class jobs so we can continue to contribute to our community," said local president Colleen Downing. Watch it at http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/attlocal6450 and tell family and friends about it. Health care is a big issue for many members. "The health care we receive is the health care we need," said Local steward Clinton Taylor, an AT&T account representative who is concerned about the medical needs of his four children. Rebecca, a single mother of three, worries about the hardship of paying much higher prescription drug costs for her three children. Sean Leonard, an AT&T worker from Local 6360 and a Marine who served in Iraq, says he and his coworkers are only seeking a fair share of the company's success. "I'm not asking for a large amount of money," says Leonard, "I'm just asking for a fair share." Leonard is Downing's son. "CWA members at AT&T have always been there for our community because we have good jobs," Downing says, citing CWAers' community work during natural disasters, like Katrina, and in supporting local United Way efforts and Pediatric AIDS. "Through our video, we are now asking for the public to be there for us," says Downing.
In District 3, while contract negotiations won't resume until this summer -- the former BellSouth agreement expires Aug. 8 -- CWA locals are holding lots of informational pickets to show their support for the fair contract fight underway. District 3 CWAers with Vice President Beverly Hicks marched outside AT&T offices in Birmingham, Ala., this week and are planning more actions for Atlanta next week. Members of Local 6450 who work at the Lee’s Summit call center turned up the clapping and tapping this week and were prepared for the visit of a company executive with lots of bandages and pill bottles to protest AT&T's demands to double and triple some workers' health care costs. In District 9, members of Local 9421 turn out for informational picketing several times a week in Sacramento locations. Members are "turning up the heat as high and as hot as we can," said Local 9421 Vice President Robert Longer. And here's an update on "Get Ready to Strike," written by Ray and Rachel Rodriguez from Local 6222. Check out this report in the online Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/04/10/att-workers-create-ringtone/ For a full report and lots of photos of mobilization actions, go to www.cwa-union.org/att. CWA Members Use Congressional Break to Fight for Employee Free ChoiceSpring recess for members of Congress was no break at all for CWAers and other union members, as activists rallied in cities across the country, met with lawmakers at home and brought them boxes of letters and Million Member Mobilization cards, postcards collected from workers over the past year to show the widespread support for Employee Free Choice. CWA had a major role in at least 12 states, including Pennsylvania, where workers held rallies in five cities, all near offices of Sen. Arlen Specter (R). Specter had been a sponsor and supporter of Employee Free Choice but announced recently that he'd changed his mind about the legislation.
CWA District 13 Vice President Ed Mooney and other union leaders led a rally at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center; the crowd then marched to deliver 6,000 handwritten letters to Specter's office calling on him to support Employee Free Choice. In Pittsburgh, more than 500 people rallied and delivered the message to Specter that he needed to stand with working families. Other events were held in Harrisburg, Allentown and Wilkes-Barre. Moving billboards displaying giant photos of workers who are fighting for Employee Free Choice are rolling through Pennsylvania and other target states on trucks. Pennsylvania's features Comcast technician John Pezzana, who struggled for years to get a CWA contract in Pittsburgh. The recess rallies also targeted other states where senators have so far failed to stand up for working families behind the Employee Free Choice Act.
In Arkansas, CWA members met with Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) and delivered MMM cards. In Louisiana, CWA members organized a letter-writing luncheon to generate more handwritten notes to Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who co-sponsored the bill in the last session of Congress but hasn't declared her position yet this year. In California, workers marched in Los Angeles to get the attention of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D). In other states, activists worked hard to make sure that Employee Free Choice stays on the front burner, and made sure to thank those who are supporting it. In Colorado, CWA joined with unions and other Employee Free Choice allies to hold more than 20 events, from editorial board meetings at newspapers to workplace leafleting.
In Florida, Local 3108 activists delivered more than 100 letters to Sen. Bill Nelson (D), thanking him for co-sponsoring Employee Free Choice. Later a coalition of unions delivered more letters and thousands of MMM cards. In North Carolina, CWA members brought letters and cards to freshman Sen. Kay Hagan (D) to thank her for supporting the bill. Curtis Shew, now president of Local 3601, told Hagan how several cable TV workers were fired after approaching CWA to help them organize. In Virginia, CWA members held demonstrations to counter events that the Chamber of Commerce and its front groups put on in Richmond and Roanoke. A major TV advertising campaign in support of Employee Free Choice continued during the congressional recess. The advertisements and pictures of billboards featuring workers are online at www.americanrightsatwork.org. CWA Wins Round in Fight for Quality Verizon Service in MarylandCWA achieved a major victory this week for Verizon's more than 4 million customers in Maryland and workers who provide that service when legislation that would have permitted the company to raise rates and avoid responsibility for service complaints and missed repair appointments was not voted out of a state Senate committee. The legislation would have adopted a proposed settlement with Verizon that the Maryland Public Service Commission rejected only a week earlier, charging that the agreement did not serve the public's best interest. This deal, first proposed in February, would have allowed Verizon to increase customers' monthly basic phone rates, keep service failures secret and avoid service standards altogether. "These victories will help ensure that Verizon's customers will get the quality service they deserve," said District 2 Vice President Ron Collins, who characterized the company's service deficiencies as "a direct result of management decisions. . .that hurt our members' jobs as well as the public we serve." CWA was a key player in the legislation's defeat and the PSC's decision to reject the earlier settlement. As part of the union's mobilization for quality service in the state, CWA launched a website for customers to sign an online petition to the state PSC and spread the quality service message through a media campaign. The Maryland PSC has recommended that Verizon take concrete steps to address service issues, including providing a refund of up to $1 million in credits to customers who complained about poor service quality and lengthy waits for repairs. The PSC has directed Verizon to appear before the commission next month. 2009 Executive PayWatch Report: Learn How CEO Salary Compares to YoursSome fat salaries got a little slimmer for America's CEOs in 2008, but the perks for many big bosses grew – as much as $336,000, or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker. That's just one of the revelations in the 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch report, now online at http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/. The annual report compiles salary information for executives at thousands of U.S. companies. Among its many tools, users can compare their own salaries to any CEO and see how executive salaries compare to others' paychecks. The information-packed PayWatch site includes reports on runaway pay for executives whose companies have since gotten taxpayer bailouts. It finds that the 10 corporations receiving the most government funds paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total compensation in 2007. Ten case studies on the site look at CEOs who profited while workers and retirees struggle. At Deere & Co., for instance, where the company's shrinking pension fund is putting workers' security at risk, the CEO's retirement package increased in 2008 by more than $5 million, to 22.5 million. The site encourages user to take action by e-mailing Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who head the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, respectively. "Let them know we're counting on them to draft legislation that truly strengthens our financial regulations and begins curing the disease that has infected our economic system," the AFL-CIO says. New Reports Show How OSHA, EEOC Failed Workers Under BushNew revelations continue to surface about how Bush-era federal agencies violated workers' rights and safety, with reports over the last two weeks on the Labor Department's deadly failure to properly enforce safety and health laws and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's refusal to pay overtime. In the DOL case, an internal investigation shows that OSHA didn't follow its own procedures in 97 percent of cases sampled in a performance audit, meaning employers with a history of safety violations were allowed to continue unchecked. "The audit analyzed 325 inspections conducted under a special OSHA program established in 2003 to target the work sites of high-risk employers for increased enforcement," the Associated Press reported. "In nearly every case, it found OSHA did not properly follow procedures? Of 29 employers identified for enforcement OSHA did not begin enforcement actions even though 16 of those employers later experienced 20 worker fatalities." The report said that if OSHA had done its job, it may have deterred or reduced risks at the worksites of 45 employers where 58 fatalities later occurred. In the case of the EEOC – the agency responsible for ensuring that workers are treated fairly – an arbitrator has found that managers "willfully violated" the Fair Labor Standards Act with its own employees. Rather than pay workers overtime as required by law, they were offered compensatory time off, a violation that the arbitrator said amounted to "forced volunteering. "The case before me, in my view, demonstrates action that went beyond mere negligence," arbitrator Steven M. Wolf wrote. "With rare exception in this record, the concept of 'requesting' compensatory time was a fiction." The violations date back to 2003. It hasn't been determined yet whether workers will receive back pay. TNG-CWA Applauds House Passage of Federal Shield LawTNG-CWA is commending the U.S. House of Representatives for passing the Free Flow of Information Act, also known as the federal shield law. The bill, passed on a voice vote, protects the public's right to know by setting reasonable standards for when journalists can be compelled to disclose the identities of their confidential sources in federal court. Every state except Texas and Wyoming has a shield law, but there is no federal protection for journalists. The bipartisan Free Flow of Information Act, sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va) "promotes democracy by allowing confidential sources to speak up without fear that courts could force journalists to reveal their identities," TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said. Many important stories in recent years have been broken because of anonymous whistleblowers, including details of the abuse at Walter Reed Medical Center, safety problems at nuclear power plants and massive fraud at Enron. |
