September
28, 2006
Saying that majority card check organizing has ensured
civility and respect for employers, unions and workers,
Cingular Wireless is urging the National Labor Relations Board
to uphold the rights of labor and management to agree to a
card check process.
The agreements have minimized disruption and allowed "for
the orderly conduct of the company's day-to-day business in a
fair and efficient manner," the company said in a friend of
the court brief in a pending case. "Simply stated, these
agreements have worked well."
The NLRB is expected to issue a decision soon in a case
brought by the so-called National "Right to Work" Committee
against both the UAW and Dana Corporation, an auto parts
company that agreed to allow the UAW to pursue card check
organizing.
The case will decide whether and to what extent an employer
and a union can negotiate an agreement that sets forth
conditions for union organizing, potentially stripping away
the right to organize by card check.
"Whatever the NLRB decides, the fact that this case is even
on the docket illustrates why we so badly need the Employee
Free Choice Act," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Once we
have a federal law protecting the rights of workers to
organize without employer interference, I believe many
companies will come to see things the way Cingular has — that
card check is a fair and non-confrontational way for workers
to choose a union, or not, and that both employees and
employers benefit."
CWA's agreements with Cingular, which has brought
nearly 40,000 new members into the union in recent years, are
considered one of the labor movement's top success
stories.
Workers at Dana auto part plants in Virginia, Ohio,
Kentucky and Michigan have chosen union representation by card
check. Anti-union Right to Work lawyers tried to get the
union's neutrality agreement with Dana tossed out but in 2005
an NLRB administrative law judge upheld it, leading to the
appeal now before the full five-member board. The same
union-busting group was behind a decertification election at
Dana's Buena Vista, Va., plant earlier this year. Workers
voted 3-1 to stick with the union. The Right to Work group
has tried to argue that card check is unfair to workers who
oppose unions. Cingular responded that card check addresses
those workers' interests just as well as a standard union
election would. "In both processes, employees are afforded an
individual choice to participate or not," the company said.
"Cingular has always believed that representation by a union
is a matter of individual choice for our employees and we have
respected their decision."
Local 3372 in Lexington, Ky., demonstrated the strength of
the CWA Triangle — political action, organizing and collective
bargaining — by helping more than 360 corrections officers win
CWA representation. On Sept. 23, Lexington Mayor Teresa
Ann Isaac granted recognition to more than 360 officers
employed by the Division of Community Corrections under a new
bargaining law.
Said local President Mike Garkovich, "Local 3372's 75/25
organizer has shepherded a bill through a Republican state
senate allowing our detention centers to organize, (persuaded)
a Republican Governor to sign it and now garnered recognition
for CWA from our mayor. Next step, bargaining."
Local Executive Vice President Bryce McGowan, whose salary
as an organizer is paid in part through CWA's 75/25 program,
both worked with the corrections officers' internal organizing
committee and lobbied at the state and local level to bring
about recognition.
In April, Gov. Ernie Fletcher signed a bill to grant the
corrections officers the right to bargain collectively.
Since then, "Basically, we just kept getting people to sign
up until we got over 50 percent. We had a very strong internal
organizing committee that made it happen," McGowan said.
The officers work at the Lexington Fayette Urban County
Detention Center. They will elect bargaining representatives
this month and prepare for negotiations with assistance from
John Burpo, director of CWA's National Coalition of Public
Safety Officers.
Political outreach also worked to win recognition in Nevada
for 80 deputy sheriffs. Local 9111 Organizer Don Ruiz reported
on Sept. 14 that deputies who serve as District Court bailiffs
in Clark County voted to join CWA but hit a snag when their
petition for recognition was denied by the state labor board,
which determined they were not Clark County employees.
However, after meeting with CWA Representative John Doran
on Sept. 19, District Court Chief Justice Cathy Hardcastle
acknowledged the bailiffs as employees of the court and agreed
to grant them union recognition.
"They want their bailiffs," Doran said. "The court is
willing to work out an agreement to give the bailiffs what
they want and to give the judges what they want for the
courtroom."
In leafleting and actions throughout Verizon territory, CWA
locals and Verizon workers stepped up pressure on the company
to "tear down the wall" Verizon is building to block
union-represented workers from the jobs of the future.
Verizon wants to wall off tens of thousands of jobs at
Verizon Business (the former MCI), keeping union members out
and keeping wages and benefits down for non-union workers at
the company.
In informational picketing outside garages, central offices
and other facilities on Sept. 28, CWAers called on communities
and residents to support the creation of quality jobs in their
communities, not Verizon's tactics.
From New York City, where members of Local 1101 leafleted
outside Verizon's West Street office, to Downey, Calif., just
outside Los Angeles, where members of Local 9586 set up
information picket lines outside the Verizon Provisioning
Center, CWA members sent a message to Verizon to stop
unionbusting and tear down the wall.
More information on the Verizon campaign is available at
www.cwa-union.org/verizon.
CWAers taking part in Customer Service Professionals week
October 1-7 will join in workplace actions and get-togethers
as part of an international campaign that recognizes the work
of customer service representatives.
In conjunction with CWA, UNI — Union Network International
— is coordinating a month of action for customer service
workers in October, especially aimed at developing organizing
actions in call centers around the world and spotlighting the
high levels of stress that customer service workers face on
the job.
Many locals will hold barbecues or have food available,
with local union officers meeting with members to discuss
customer service issues. Some locals plan to make voter
registration information and COPE sign-up materials available
too.
Throughout customer service locations, CWA locals will
distribute pins along with flyers that focus on the skills and
professionalism that customer service workers bring to their
jobs and how CWA continues to work to limit job stress and
improve conditions. The flyer features interviews from two CWA
members, a non-union call center worker in the United States
and a worker at a call center in India.
In October, a joint report by CWA, Jobs with Justice and
Indian unions and workplace organizations will be released,
with recommendations to improve call center conditions and
workers' rights, both in India and the U.S.
One of the few cases the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to
hear in its new term beginning next week involves the
constitutionality of anti-union "paycheck deception" measures
aimed at silencing working America's voice in politics.
The case is an appeal by anti-union forces against a
decision by the Washington State Supreme Court in March that
addressed the right of unions to use non-members' "agency
fees" in political battles for workers' rights.
Workers who are covered by and benefit from union contracts
but choose not to be members are still required to pay fees
for the union's representation and bargaining under agency
shop agreements in states without "right to work" laws. Courts
have ruled that non-members have a right to a refund for the
portion of their fees spent on political activity, and CWA and
other unions have rebate policies covering such requests.
In 1992, Washington state passed a law requiring unions to
get permission in advance from each non-member before using
the funds for political work. The state supreme court declared
the measure unconstitutional, saying it imposed an "extremely
costly" and "significant" burden on a labor union's political
activities, and violated First Amendment rights of free speech
and association.
Anti-union groups disingenuously call such measures
"paycheck protection." Unions, which have beaten back
referenda and proposed laws in California and other states,
have dubbed them "paycheck deception," as corporate America's
interests are all that's protected when labor's political
action efforts are weakened.
These "paycheck deception" proposals only single out
unions. There is no mention of applying them to corporations
or other membership organizations that engage in political and
legislative activity, the AFL-CIO said. In the 2004 elections,
spending by Big Business exceeded $1.22 billion — more than 23
times that of unions.
Both the state and the anti-union National "Right to Work"
Legal Defense Foundation appealed the state supreme court
ruling and the U.S. Supreme Court has consolidated the two
appeals. The case was one of nine out of 2,000 submitted for
review that the court has agreed to hear.
- Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)
has become the 44th U.S. senator to sign on as a co-sponsor
of the Employee Free Choice Act.
CWA
legislative staff helped persuade Conrad to join 41 fellow
Democrats, Independent Jim Jeffords, and Republican, Sen.
Arlen Specter as Senate co-signers.
The bill, which
calls for card check organizing and first contract
arbitration if necessary, is three representatives away from
having majority support in the U.S. House. To date, 200
Democratic representatives and 15 Republicans have
cosponsored the legislation, along with sponsor Rep. George
Miller.
- While drug companies reap $50 billion in profits
in the first year alone of Medicare's drug coverage, seniors
are confronting one of biggest deficiencies in the
problem-plagued plan: the "doughnut
hole."
Millions of seniors will hit the gap
in coverage this week, known as the "doughnut hole," forcing
them to pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for their
medication or go without.
"I pay a little bit at a
time," a woman whose prescription costs soared from $58 to
$1,294 told the Washington Post. "What am I going to do? I
need it. Sometimes just to think about it, I
cry."
The controversial drug plan covers a percentage
of costs up to the point that beneficiaries and the
government together have spent about $2,225 in one year. At
that point seniors are on their own until they've spent
$3,600 of their own money. Meanwhile they must continue to
pay premiums, which average $24 a month. The process starts
anew each year.
Angry seniors organized by the
Alliance for Retired Americans have held town hall meetings
and protests this week, including delivering doughnuts and
doughnut holes to Republican members of Congress who voted
for the badly executed plan and have done nothing to fix
it.
"The Bush administration pushed through this sham
of a benefit saying that it would help seniors and people
with disabilities," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said. But
what we got was a plan that shifts costs to seniors and
people with disabilities while padding the profit margins of
drug and insurance companies."
- A one-stop shopping site for election
information and tools — including a link people can use to
register to vote in their states — is available from the
AFL-CIO at
www.voteNov7.org.
In
addition to quick and easy voter registration, the site's
user-friendly features include information about
congressional races and candidates' voting records that can
be accessed simply by clicking on your state. Ample details
about the economy, jobs, health care and other critical
working family issues are also available, as well as a link
to the Open Secrets website that tracks political
fundraising.
The site is also seeking members'
stories about their work on labor and political campaigns
and has a link for people to post photos and videos. The
AFL-CIO is urging unions and locals across the country to
include a link to
http://www.votenov7.org/
on their own websites.
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