| November
22, 2006
International Human Rights Day this year, Dec. 10, will be
the start of labor's campaign to build a "stewards army" of
activists who will take up the fight for workers' rights —
restoring organizing and collective bargaining
rights for all workers.
A two-day summit on building the stewards army across every
state and sector is being sponsored by the AFL-CIO on Dec. 8
and 9 in Washington, D.C., with participants and other
activists breaking for a noon demonstration on Dec. 8 on
Capitol Hill to press Congress for action on the Employee Free
Choice Act.
Labor also will use Dec. 10 to kick off a week of actions
to support 15,000 USW members who have been on strike against
Goodyear since Oct. 5, and to mobilize newspaper workers and
supporters in the fight to keep quality jobs and quality
journalism.
USW members are fighting back against the company's demands
to eliminate retiree health care and shut three more U.S.
plants, along with its plans to import more tires from China.
The AFL-CIO has called for a nationwide Day of Action by all
unions and labor organizations to protest Goodyear's assault
on economic security and the basic rights of working families.
Labor also will mount a campaign at stores that sell
Goodyear products. CWA President Larry Cohen and IUE-CWA
Industrial Division President Jim Clark named Steve Lykins,
skilled trades director for the IUE-CWA Conference
Board, to coordinate CWA's efforts. CWA District 4 Vice
President Seth Rosen will coordinate actions around Goodyear's
Akron, Ohio headquarters and throughout the state.
TNG-CWA members are organizing actions at newspapers
nationwide on Dec. 11, as newspaper industry workers stand
together against a continuing wave of job cuts that hurt
quality journalism. More than 44,000 news industry employees
have lost their jobs between 2001 and June 2006, said TNG-CWA
President Linda Foley, with more job cuts announced every day.
"This means fewer journalists, fewer diverse media voices,
less news and a public that is under-informed," she said.
Dec. 10, 1948 was designated as International Human Rights
Day to mark the efforts by the United Nations and Eleanor
Roosevelt, herself a TNG member, to include workers' rights as
human rights.
A Comcast employee fired during a CWA organizing
campaign at an Oakland, Calif., call center told his story to
religious leaders and other activists last week in
Philadelphia — Comcast's hometown — to encourage them to put
pressure on the company to restore his own job and treat other
workers fairly.
Philadelphia Interfaith Worker Justice, Jobs with Justice
and the AFL-CIO helped make Will Goodo's trip possible. Since
then, AFL-CIO Senior Organizer Frank Synder said, church
leaders and other activists have begun sending letters to
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
Goodo spoke with individuals and groups, with some of his
audience accustomed to Comcast's anti-union tactics and others
"legitimately surprised that this is their neighbor and this
is how their neighbor conducts its corporate business," Synder
said.
Goodo, who was working with CWA to try to organize fellow
Comcast dispatchers, was fired in January, shortly after
testifying against the company at an Oakland City Council
hearing on Comcast's cable franchise. Comcast claims he was
fired because of a customer complaint — a problem both Goodo
and the customer say never happened.
The faith community and the AFL-CIO reached out to Comcast
leaders in Philadelphia, asking for a meeting with Goodo while
he was in town. He was refused. Instead, Charisse Lillie, the
company's senior vice president for human resources, sent a
low-level employee to the lobby to accept papers Goodo brought
with him. Those included a letter from the customer involved
saying he never complained about Goodo.
Snyder said the Philadelphia activists reached out to Goodo
because Comcast's behavior can't be tolerated or all workers
will suffer. "Anytime a worker is discharged for what we
allege is union activity, it's the most heinous of crimes in
our world," he said. "These are the people we really have to
go to bat for. Otherwise, people will look at organizing and
the risks involved and probably think twice."
Synder said the activists in Philadelphia want "to hold
Comcast accountable to a moral and ethical standard." An
adverse ruling in Goodo's case at the regional level of the
National Labor Relations Board is being appealed by CWA to the
full NLRB.
Goodo said he's read online accounts of many employees'
battles with Comcast and other union-busting companies and
hopes "I can be a voice for all the people that can't speak
up."
He noted the personal irony of being fired after speaking
his own mind. "I served my country for 17 and a half years in
the Navy and I never thought I would come back to my own
country and not have the freedom to say what I want to say,"
he said.
- At the 33rd AFA-CWA board meeting in Portland,
Ore., last week, Patricia Friend was reelected president of
the flight attendants' union, a position she has held since
1995.
Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Creighan was
also reelected. The former president of United Local
Executive Council 7, he assumed the national job in
October 2005.
The newest officer is Veda Shook,
president of the Alaska Airlines Master Executive Council,
who was elected AFA-CWA vice president. Shook, who had four
opponents, campaigned on her accomplishments at Alaska
Airlines, including negotiating industry-leading deals
on wages and hours.
- CWA locals representing 40,000 New Jersey public
workers will send a message to state officials at a news
conference at the Statehouse on Nov. 27: Respect workers'
rights and don't undermine the collective bargaining process
in New Jersey.
CWA President Larry Cohen and District 1 Vice President
Chris Shelton will join the event, along with other labor
leaders and some state legislators who are standing with
public workers in their fight to bargain a fair contract.
Some 75,000 workers — including members of CWA, AFT,
AFSCME, the Professional and Technical Engineers and other
unions — are bargaining new contracts and face an attack on
health care, pensions and "everything we have fought for 30
years to build," Cohen said.
- Bypass store-bought holiday greeting cards this
year and support unions instead with cards that inspire
peace, freedom and justice available from the AFL-CIO's
union shop online.
A pack of a dozen
union-printed cards is $10. They include general holiday
cards and greetings for Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
Some have greetings in English and Spanish. Check them out
at http://unionshop.aflcio.org/shop/index.cfm or simply use
the Union Shop link at
http://www.aflcio.org/.
- If you're thinking about buying a new car, truck
or van soon, be sure to consult the UAW's 2007 "Drive Union
Buying Guide," available online.
The guide
lists all vehicles made by members of the UAW and the
Canadian Auto Workers, as well as IUE-CWA. The UAW reminds
buyers that just because an automobile is made here or in
Canada, that doesn't mean it's made by union workers. The
Toyota Corolla, for example, is made in the United States by
UAW members, but the Canadian Model is made in a nonunion
plant and other models are imported from a third
country.
You can find the buying guide link on the
UAW's home page,
http://www.uaw.org/.
|
