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April 21, 2006
More than 200 service reps,
operators and retail workers
from throughout CWA came
together in Houston this week
for CWA's 2006 Customer Service
Conference, both to build
solidarity across bargaining
units in their industry and to
stand with their brothers and
sisters of the Texas State
Employees Union-CWA Local 6186,
who staged a rally against Gov.
Rick Perry's scheme to privatize
their work.
Throughout the conference, April
20-22, members from telecom,
wireless, airlines, publishing,
public services and other
industries shared their
experiences in dealing with
workplace issues such as
scheduling, call monitoring and
sales quotas. And, they
strategized on how to compete in
a global economy where call
center outsourcing is a threat
to both quality jobs and quality
service.
"For many of our employers,
customer service is the only way
to differentiate one competitor
from another," said CWA
President Larry Cohen, urging
the participants to build a
strong network of union customer
service leaders and to make a
difference on the job. "CWA
continues to promote the high
road — customer service based on
solving problems, not reading
scripts: quality service and
quality union jobs."
Cohen urged the participants to
seize on this theme and work to
build CWA in call center
environments. He pointed to
Cingular as a prime example of
how a company's commitment to
allowing workers to choose union
representation and workers'
commitment to quality service
ultimately pay off for both the
company and the union.
Welcomed by District 6 Vice
President Andy Milburn, Houston
Local 6222 President Claude
Cummings, Mayor Bill White and
Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas),
conferees participated in
workshops on the Family and
Medical Leave Act, Ready for the
Future, Sales Quotas and Union
Representation and Union
Approaches to Attendance. They
also began preparations for
their participation in Customer
Service Week in October, when
telecom unions around the world,
coordinated by Union Network
International, will conduct
various workplace activities to
promote the strong correlation
between quality service and
quality jobs to their employers.
A high point of the conference
came on opening day, when
participants turned out for a
rally at a welfare office to
support TSEU-CWA members whose
jobs are threatened across the
state. Those workers determine
applicants' eligibility for food
stamps, children's Medicaid,
Temporary Assistance to Needy
Families and other benefits.
They urged Gov. Perry (R) to
stop the rollout of privatized
call centers for state human
services. As part of the
governor's privatization scheme,
numerous Local 6186 members
received layoff notices last
year. A bipartisan group of six
state legislators wrote to the
governor that, "Thousands of
HHSC eligibility staff are
leaving the agency to take any
job available because they have
been told that their jobs at
HHSC will be eliminated within a
few months."
The call centers, designed to
replace local offices, have
caused many delays and other
problems in the pilot region of
Central Texas, and on April 5
the state Health and Human
Service Commission announced the
problems were so severe that it
would stop the expansion of that
call center model to other parts
of the state for at least 30
days.
Local 6186 is asking the
governor to address the crisis
by stopping the rollout of
privatized call centers until at
least the end of the year and to
rescind the layoff notices.
The University Professional and
Technical Employees, CWA Local
9119, has filed a lawsuit
challenging the actions by the
University of California and
U.S. Department of Energy that
threaten the retirement security
of employees of the Los Alamos
National Laboratory in New
Mexico.
The union also warned that the
actions are provoking an exodus
by workers whose specialized
knowledge and skills are vital
to America's defense program.
As a result of the privatization
of the nuclear weapons research
facility, the lab's 10,000
employees have been told they
must agree to forfeit any
further accrual of their pension
in the UC system if they want to
keep their jobs with the new
company, owned jointly by UC and
a group of defense contractors.
This action is causing thousands
to leave the research facility,
resulting in a "brain drain"
that is a real threat to
national security, said Manny
Trujillo, president of UPTE-Los
Alamos National Laboratory.
Employees are being forced to
either transfer their pension
into a fund controlled by the
new company — which will provide
far less retirement security —
or freeze their UC pensions and
be punished by being placed in a
lesser plan of the new company.
The lawsuit, filed in state
court in California, raises
possible violations of the
Employee Retirement Income
Security Act (ERISA) and the
Older Workers Benefit Protection
Act as well as concerns about
UC's fiduciary responsibilities.
Employees at the Los Alamos Lab
perform critical and sensitive
tasks such as keeping the U.S.
nuclear stockpile safe,
detecting nuclear threats
worldwide and computing for the
human genome project.
DOE already has begun the
privatization of another nuclear
weapons research facility run by
the University of California,
the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, which also employs
UPTE-CWA members.
Eight members of TNG-CWA at the
Washington Post, the New York
Times and the Rocky Mountain
News in Denver are among the
2006 Pulitzer Prize winners for
outstanding print journalism.
The Guild winners include
nationally syndicated columnist
Nicholas Kristof of the Times,
who has repeatedly risked his
life sneaking across African
borders to war-torn villages to
report on the savagery of the
Darfur genocide. The prize for
commentary is Kristof's second
Pulitzer.
Kristof and the Times' other
winners, reporters James Risen,
Eric Lichtblau and Joseph Kahn,
are members of TNG-CWA Local
31003.
Risen and Lichtblau won for
national reporting for what the
Pulitzer judges called
"carefully sourced stories on
secret domestic eavesdropping
that stirred a national debate
on the boundary line between
fighting terrorism and
protecting civil liberty." Kahn
won for international reporting
for stories about China's uneven
justice system.
At the Post, Dana Priest won for
"her persistent, painstaking
reports on secret 'black site'
prisons and other controversial
features of the government's
counter-terrorism campaign."
David Finkel won for explanatory
reporting for "his ambitious,
clear-eyed case study of the
United States government's
attempt to bring democracy to
Yemen." Both are members of TNG-CWA
Local 32035.
Denver's winners were a reporter
and photographer who together
told the poignant story of a
Marine major who helps families
of fallen troops cope with their
loss. Reporter Jim Sheeler and
photographer Todd Heisler,
praised for "his haunting,
behind-the-scenes look at
funerals for Marines who return
from Iraq in caskets," spent a
year with the Marine officer.
Both are members of TNG-CWA
Local 37074.
The Pulitzers, given since 1917,
come with a $10,000 cash award
for each winner. The winning
stories and pictures are
available online at
http://www.pulitzer.org/.
CWA will fight for immigration
reform that includes a road to
citizenship for workers already
in the United States, will
continue to oppose the expansion
of so-called "guest worker"
programs, will work to reduce
and eliminate the H-1B visa
program and demand the
restoration of U.S. jobs lost to
through that program, the CWA
Executive Board stated April 18.
"Workers' rights must be at the
heart of immigration reform,"
the board stated. "That's why it
is critical that Congress reject
the Bush administration efforts
to expand 'guest worker'
programs, particularly the H-1B
program and related visas that
are provided to employers for
technology workers and others
supposedly in short supply in
the U.S."
The board's resolution expresses
solidarity with unions,
religious, civil rights and
community groups that have
participated in demonstrations
across the country and endorses
a comprehensive statement and
plan put forward by the AFL-CIO
to achieve responsible reform of
immigration law (see
aflcio.org /issues/civilrights/immigration).
"Using the L and H-1B visa
programs, employers have brought
in thousands of workers to
temporarily work as computer
programmers, software engineers
and designers and in other
technical and professional
positions," the board stated.
"This exploitation of both
U.S.-born and immigrant
technical and professional
workers has had a chilling
effect on the employment, real
earnings and working conditions
of these professionals."
Labor union members from the New
York City area and busloads of
them from other states are
expected to join tens of
thousands of other activists in
a march for peace in New York on
April 29.
The March for Peace, Justice and
Democracy, endorsed by the CWA
Executive Board at its March
meeting, will begin with a rally
and speakers, including labor
leaders, at 10:30 a.m.
Participants will march south to
Foley Square beginning at noon.
A "Peace and Justice Festival"
will follow at Foley Square from
1 p.m. to 6 p.m., with speakers,
tables of information and items
for sale.
CWA Local 1180 in New York City
has been hosting meetings and
providing space for the rally's
labor organizers and is planning
a phone bank to help turn out
union members on the 29th, Local
President Bill Henning said.
U.S. Labor Against the War is
coordinating the effort and
officers from unions including
the UAW, AFSCME, SEIU and the
Teamsters have attended planning
meetings.
District 1 Vice President Chris
Shelton has signed a letter with
other labor leaders to the
city's Central Labor Council,
asking it to lend its support to
the event.
"Our labor movement is at a
crucial juncture," the letter
says. "Attacks on our members,
on immigrant workers, on our
basic freedoms — on our very
ability to organize — keep
growing in tempo with a war in
Iraq which seems to have no end
in sight. The broad gains we
fight for as working people
aren't possible while this
administration spends well over
a billion dollars a week on an
unjust war."
Said CWA Public, Health Care and
Education Sector Vice President
Brooks Sunkett, who will speak
at the New York protest: "If you
wonder why New Orleans is such a
mess, or why things aren't
getting done in your community,
consider that this unjust war
has already drained $275 billion
in U.S. tax dollars and is
likely to cost between 1 and 2
trillion dollars."
Details are available on the
march website,
http://www.april29.org/
and at
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/.
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Through CWA's efforts, and
with the stroke of a pen by
Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R-Ky.)
on April 17, 380 corrections
officers at the Lexington
Fayette Urban County
Detention Center and 12
dispatchers at the city's
fire department gained
collective bargaining
rights, Local 3357 President
Mike Garkovich announced.
Two years ago, the state
passed a law granting
collective bargaining rights
to police and firefighters,
but corrections officers and
fire dispatchers were
inadvertently left out of
the law, Local 3357
Organizer Bryce McGowan
said.
Both groups
formed organizing committees
and, with the help of
District 3 and the local,
lobbied their state senators
and representatives to pass
special legislation to cover
their situation.
On
April 18 the local formally
requested recognition and
contract bargaining with the
city on the workers' behalf.
The law requires the city to
bargain with any
representative that can show
that 30 percent of workers
requested it. McGowan said
about two-thirds of the
workers signed petitions
requesting recognition.
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A
lively radio show focusing
on workers' rights and the
concerns of working families
will debut Saturday, April
22, on Air America radio.
The program, "Workin' It
with Jackie Guerra," is
being produced in
partnership with American
Rights at Work. Producers
say the magazine format show
"will mix hard facts with
humor to create a fun and
thought-provoking platform
to highlight issues of work
and workers' rights."
The show, airing from 2
p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern
Time on Air America
stations, will feature
workers and their stories.
The program will also
interview worker-friendly
celebrities and politicians.
Former Sen. John Edwards and
actor Danny Glover are among
the first guests. A future
show will include interviews
with CWA members attending
this week's Customer Service
Conference.
Guerra is
a TV personality and
stand-up comic who presently
hosts the DIY network's
Jewelry Making show. She
started her career as a
union organizer for HERE in
Los Angeles and marched with
Cesar Chavez.
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A
growing number of
communities and leaders are
endorsing the "worker
friendly" bid by The Yucaipa
Companies for 12 newspapers
being sold by McClatchy Co.
as part of its purchase of
Knight Ridder properties.
The Yucaipa Companies has
partnered with TNG-CWA.
The Akron and the Twinsburg,
Ohio city councils passed
resolutions that were sent
on to Knight Ridder,
stressing the value to their
communities of the Akron
Beacon Journal. The
resolution was declared "an
emergency measure," needed
to maintain jobs and
preserve the newspaper's
place in the community.
In St. Paul, hundreds of
citizens, community leaders,
newspaper employees and
others rallied as city and
state elected leaders
pledged to do everything
they can to keep quality and
local journalism in St.
Paul. The St. Paul City
Council has called on
McClatchy to sell the
newspaper to a buyer that
will continue the traditions
of the 157-year-old
newspaper in meeting the
community's needs.
The latest information on
the campaign is available at
http://www.knightridderwatch.org/,
and at these local sites:
http://www.wearethebeacon.com/
(Akron),
http://www.savethenewstribune.com/
(Duluth),
http://www.savethemerc.com/
(San Jose),
http://www.savethepioneerpress.com/
(St. Paul) and
http://www.savetheherald.com/
(Monterey, Calif.).
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