February 3, 2006

13-Week Strike Ends with Gains at VIS

Verizon Information Services workers in New York ratified a new contract that provides big improvements in compensation, maintains affordable health care and retirement security and improves grievance and arbitration procedures, among other gains.

Members of CWA Locals 1105, 1118 and 1122 approved the agreement by a greater than 2 to 1 margin and will return to work on Feb. 6, ending a 13-week strike.

The contract is effective from Feb. 5, 2006 to Oct. 4, 2008.

Among the highlights:

  • For non-sales workers, the agreement provides for a 9.5 percent wage increase over the contract term, plus performance bonus payouts. Employees earning above the top rate will receive lump sum payments.
     
  • For sales employees, the contract establishes a greatly improved pay plan with new earnings assurances and other changes.
     
  • The current level of benefits will be continued under the company medical and dental plans, with increases in employee contributions capped.

More details are available at www.cwa-union.org/verizon.

CWA Members Gain Contract in New Mexico

The State Employee Alliance-CWA and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed a three-year contract covering 3,000 state workers in 11 agencies, including public education, environment and health, cultural affairs and the treasurer's office.

The contract provides for average annual pay increases of 6 percent, with employees at lower pay rates receiving raises of as much as 22 percent over the contract term. Other gains include more protections for workers in pre-disciplinary investigations, expanded health and safety language and whistleblower protections.

The state legislature must appropriate funds for the contract provisions, and Robin Gould, president of SEA-CWA Local 7076, said workers were "optimistic that the increases bargained at the table in good faith with the governor will be fully funded by the legislature."

CWA President Larry Cohen ad District 7 Vice President Annie Hill attended the signing. Cohen said the union is committed to working with public sector management "to bring the best possible services in every single department."

SBC Techs Help Mexican Counterparts Prepare to Bargain

Concerned about how new technology will affect their jobs when they bargain a new contract this spring, Mexico City telephone workers turned to CWA for some expert advice.

The result was five jam-packed days in Mexico in late January for two SBC technicians from Texas who rushed from job sites to union meetings to help the Telmex workers — members of the Mexican telecom union STRM — prepare to protect their jobs.

The trip was coordinated by the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center, which sets up hundreds of exchanges throughout the world every year to strengthen unions and workers' rights.

"I've never been received in such a manner. Their welcome was tremendous," said Gerry Alonzo, president of CWA Local 6110 in Laredo, Texas, who was accompanied by local Secretary-Treasurer Arely Erazo.

The Mexican workers wanted to know how their American counterparts dealt with new technology — for instance, how the introduction of laptop computers in their trucks affected the work they do and their contracts.

"We spoke to the pros and cons," Alonzo said. "We elaborated on how easy it is for us to pick up jobs and close them out, and use the tools in the laptop to get cable information and run electrical and resistance tests."

On the "con" side of technology is the loss of some jobs, particularly plant assigners as their work has become more automated and centralized, Alonzo said.

Erazo said the Mexican workers are anxious about the new technology, because it's coming to them much faster than it came to American workers. "We've been getting it in a progressive way, and they're getting it suddenly," he said. "They're going through a lot of changes."

Telmex is partially owned by SBC. The two companies and their unions held a joint meeting last year in San Antonio, and technicians from Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, on the Mexican side of the border, have also met previously. CWA and the Solidarity Center hope to have future exchanges for members in call centers and other sectors of the companies, as well as a trip to Texas for some of the Mexican technicians.

Teresa Casertano, the Solidarity Center's regional director for the Americas, said she's heard nothing but positive feedback from the center's representative in Mexico City about the trip. "They're so grateful for the information," she said. "This is really critical to them because their contract expires in April and they're gearing up for bargaining."

Bush's Latest Assault on Workers: Health Savings Accounts

Labor leaders say the health savings accounts President George W. Bush mentioned in his State of the Union speech Tuesday would be a disaster for working families and another gift to corporate America.

"These accounts would actually increase the burden on workers, while giving employers incentive to cut back or eliminate their plans altogether," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Business likely will reap billions from health savings accounts, but 45 million Americans will remain uninsured and millions more underinsured."

Presently, about two-thirds of America workers are covered by employer-sponsored plans, though premiums are skyrocketing and services are being slashed. Replacing traditional insurance with health savings accounts would only make matters worse, Cohen said.

The AFL-CIO reminded union families that "HSAs are brought to you by the same people who brought you the Medicare prescription drug disaster, and it will have the same consequences. It's a boon to the profit-driven drug companies and insurance industry. It's complicated, fragmented and costly."

Cohen said the only meaningful option for health care reform is universal system with access to medical care for every American. "In every other industrialized country, without exception, universal health care is in place. Most countries cover all citizens for about half of what we spend here on health care, which last year was a staggering 14 percent of our Gross Domestic Product.

"It's no coincidence that these countries have much greater union representation than in the United States, where the right to join a union and bargain a fair contract is under assault," he said. "Industrialized nations that respect workers' rights also see the public good of guaranteeing health care for all."

Cohen and the AFL-CIO are urging working families to contact their members of Congress and let them know they won't stand for the Bush administration's latest scheme.

"Like his proposal to privatize Social Security, giving more tax breaks for HSAs will go nowhere if Congress sees massive public opposition to Bush's bad ideas," the AFL-CIO said. "That's why we need you to take action immediately."

For many more details about health savings accounts, go to http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/hsa.cfm or simply go to http://www.aflcio.org/ and click on "Health Savings Accounts."

CWA Pays Tribute to Coretta Scott King

CWA President Larry Cohen remembered Coretta Scott King, who died on Jan. 31 at age 78, as a strong champion in the fight for economic and social justice. "The best way we can mourn her passing and celebrate her life is to carry on the fight for equality, peace and human rights for all," he said.

Just four days after her husband, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, Coretta Scott King led a march of 50,000 people through the city to support the sanitation workers' strike. She spent the rest of her life as a tireless advocate for social change and activism.

IN BRIEF:

  • Following up on the book, "Honoring Sergeant Carter" by CWA Local 9400 member Allene Carter, the History Channel is airing a documentary next week honoring the late sergeant and six other heroic African American soldiers who were denied the Medal of Honor in World War II because of their race.

    The medals were finally awarded decades later, but didn't satisfy Allene Carter. She spent years on research and letter-writing, demanding answers about her father-in-law's treatment. Her book on the subject, now in paperback, includes the eyewitness accounts of Sgt. Carter's life-saving heroics in Germany under heavy enemy fire.

    The documentary, which features Allene Carter and is narrated by Bernie Mack and Samuel L. Jackson, first airs Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. For more information about Sgt. Edward Carter, visit http://www.honoringsergeantcarter.com/.

     
  • Health care is such a mess in the United States that Congress is prepared to do something extreme: listen to average Americans.

    A Congressional project called Citizens Health Care has been launched with a website and a series of meetings around the country to develop a "roadmap" for fixing America's worsening health care system.

    Meetings are being held in cities around the country, with the next one coming up Feb. 11 in Memphis. For details, the full list of sites and to share your suggestions, go to http://www.citizenshealthcare.gov/.

     
  • As members of Congress and lobbyists rush to clean up their act — at least in public statements — leave it to the anti-union National Association of Manufacturers to shamefully urge lawmakers not to take the whole Jack Abramoff scandal too seriously.

    Speaking to a Senate committee last week, NAM head John Engler said congressional staff tours are "highly educational" and allow "unfettered access to leaders and workers at manufacturing facilities," the Washington Post's In the Loop column reported.

    But the column didn't stop there. It noted the latest "educational" trip NAM is encouraging lawmakers and their staff to take: an Arizona outing in March promising lots of golf and a spring training baseball game. If that doesn't suit you, NAM says the casino and an "exciting four-hour Hummer Tour" through the Sonoran desert are also available.

    "It's time to gear up for another congressional season!" the NAM website says.