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March
10, 2006
CWA
President Larry Cohen said the proposed merger of
AT&T and Bell South could provide a real
opportunity for job growth and opportunity if
carried out properly. "The merger has enormous
implications for workers, as well as
for millions of customers. We need to ensure
that the change is beneficial to our members and
the communities they serve," he said.
AT&T
announced on March 5 that it would acquire Bell
South in a $67 billion dollar deal. CWA is
continuing to evaluate the merger and is
discussing the company's plans and the
impact AT&T and Bell South workers.
The
United States has slipped from leading the world's
economies in telecom services to 16th, and likely
will fall to 18th in the weeks ahead because of a
patchwork approach to the rollout of high-speed
communications for all citizens, Cohen said.
Unlike much of the world, U.S. policy has not even
clarified basic standards for broadband speed.
This has resulted in lagging development for U.S.
users, he said.
Government,
policy makers and citizens must understand the
true promise of high-speed communications, Cohen
said. "Equally important is that our potential to
regain the global lead in communications services
as the backbone of our economy not simply be an
adjunct to entertainment for the rich and upper
middle class," he said.
This
means acknowledging, as do many industrial
nations, that universal service should be defined
on the basis of universal broadband deployment,
not the U.S. voice dial tone standard, he
said.
CWA
represents about 200,000 workers at AT&T, Bell
South and Cingular, the joint venture of the two
companies.
About
100 CWA members, other unionists and political
candidates turned out for a rally and march in
Lorain, Ohio, on March 3 to protest the layoff of
several hundred workers by Century Tel there and
at other locations in Districts 4, 6, 7 and
3.
The
cuts affect mostly women and in at least one case,
a worker with more than 40 years' service with the
company, said Telecommunications Vice President
Jimmy Gurganus. As the Newsletter went to press,
he was still trying to learn the exact number of
CWA-represented workers and titles to be
eliminated at Century Tel locations spanning the
four CWA districts.
Noting
that Century has been shifting union jobs to
non-union locations, Gurganus said, "It is truly
disappointing that Century Tel believes the way to
deal with competition is to lay off its workers.
Its customers not only want a high quality
network, they also want to deal with local
employees when they have problems with their
service or their bill."
The
company cited an 8 percent drop in its customer
base and claimed a need to cut jobs to remain
competitive.
Gurganus
said CWA is filing unfair labor practice charges
for untimely notification and was looking at the
possibility of other labor board charges.
Local
4370 President Harry Williamson organized the
Lorain rally. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a
candidate the U.S. Senate, sent a top staffer and
the two candidates vying for the Democratic
nomination for his House seat — Capri Caffaro and
Gary Kucinich — showed up to support the
workers.
Sal
LaCause, assistant to District 4 Vice President
Seth Rosen, said, "It's a disgrace that Century
Tel continually outsources good union jobs to
non-represented areas. The company tells us they
are not anti-union, but their actions make that
questionable."
House
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, DNC Chairman
Howard Dean, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and
an architect of the Maryland Fair Share Health
Care law are among the speakers lined up for the
2006 CWA Legislative-Political Conference
beginning Sunday in Washington, D.C.
More
than 500 CWA members from across the country are
signed up to attend the four-day conference, which
will mix speakers, workshops and panels with time
for participants to meet with lawmakers and their
staff on Capitol Hill about issues important to
CWA and all working families.
"Once
again we are at a critical point in history," CWA
Executive Vice President Jeff
Rechenbach said. "Our legislative conference
will set the stage for the hard work we have ahead
in the months leading to the 2006 midterm
elections, another election day that can fairly be
called one of the most important in our
lifetimes."
Health
care, pensions, the vast U.S. trade imbalance and
its effect on working families, and passage of the
Employee Free Choice Act to restore the
fundamental rights of workers to organize and
bargain collectively are among issues members will
discuss in their Capitol Hill meetings. Other
issues include:
- Passage
of the Call Center Consumers Right to Know Act
of 2006, a bill to give customers the right
to know where call-takers are based, as
companies continue to move jobs to India,
Vietnam, the Philippines and other off-shore
locations.
- The
gross inequities in the latest federal budget
submitted by the Bush administration, which
would protect tax breaks for the wealthy while
slashing 42 education programs, food stamps,
food and housing subsidies for seniors in
poverty and many other programs that protect the
most vulnerable citizens.
- Telecommunications
reform that protects American jobs and demands a
national broadband policy like the ambitious
initiatives in Japan and Korea that are
connecting every business and household to
high-speed networks.
- A
national shield law protecting journalists and
their confidential sources, which is fundamental
to the public's right to know in a free and open
society.
- A
federal peace officer's bill of rights to ensure
that police officers have a fair system of due
process in disciplinary matters, as their jobs
grow increasingly complex and dangerous.
In
addition to Pelosi, other speakers from Capitol
Hill include Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii),
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), Rep. Peter DeFazio
(D-Ore.), Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Rep. John
Spratt (D-S.C.), Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones
(D-Ohio) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
Also
speaking is Maryland Speaker of the House Michael
Busch who pushed for the nation's first "Fair
Share" legislation forcing large companies — i.e.,
Wal-Mart — to spend a percentage of their payroll
to provide health benefits for employees or pay
into a state Fair Share Health Care Fund. Launched
by the AFL-CIO, Fair Share campaigns are underway
in 33 states.
CWA
will file suit in the Eastern District Court of
Pennsylvania, protesting Verizon's unauthorized
use of the CWA logo — a registered trademark — on
apparel made by non-union and offshore
manufacturers and distributed to CWA members by
the company, District 13 Vice President Jim Short
announced.
"The
company fails to realize how strongly our members
feel and how important the CWA logo is to us,"
Short said. "Members have died on the picket lines
fighting for justice while wearing the CWA logo.
To place our logo on non-union apparel and apparel
manufactured outside the United States is
unacceptable and cannot be tolerated. Verizon's
actions have tarnished CWA's reputation and
image."
Before
filing suit, CWA requested that Verizon retrieve
and destroy all of the apparel distributed
throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware and provide
lists of members who received it. Also, the union
requested that a directive be sent to all company
management instructing them that use of the logo
must be approved by the District 13 vice
president.
For
more than two months, the company ignored
certified letters sent by CWA to the apparel firm
it hired and to the Verizon managers responsible
for distribution of some of the items, Short
said.
- Determined
to silence union voices, Virginia's
Republican-controlled House of Delegates has
refused to approve Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine's
nomination of a former state AFL-CIO president
to a cabinet
post.
It is the first time in the state's history that
legislators have rejected a governor's cabinet
nominee.
"I view it as not just an
affront to me and the Senate and to Danny, but I
view it as basically spitting in the face of
regular people, regular working people, who had
Danny as their champion," Kaine told the
Virginia Pilot, referring to secretary of the
commonwealth nominee Daniel
LeBlanc.
Virginia's current AFL-CIO
president, James Leaman, warned that working
families will hold the Republican leaders
accountable when they come up for
election.
"Working families put Gov.
Kaine into office because they wanted a leader
who will fight for their best interests, and the
House is clearly fighting back on behalf of
corporate and anti-worker interests," Leaman
said. "Their rationale is simply that Daniel
LeBlanc may appoint union members to boards and
commissions. Their decision is tantamount to
saying that there's no real place at the table
for the working men and women of Virginia."
- A
huge labor movement campaign — including workers
who proudly identified themselves as both
Republicans and union members — has led Kentucky
lawmakers to kill so-called "right-to-work"
legislation and an attempt to repeal the state's
prevailing wage
law.
By
an 11-2 vote, a bipartisan majority of the state
House Labor and Industry Committee defeated the
pet projects of Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
It was the second such success in less than two
weeks: On Feb. 28, Indiana working families
killed a right-to-work bill in their
state.
At a victory rally of 5,000
workers at the Kentucky state capitol on
Tuesday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka
said, "I wish old Ernie was looking out the
window. I'd tell him to look at this crowd and
see what he's done by trying to destroy our
prevailing wage law and jam through a
'right-to-work-for-less' law: 'Your selfish
strategy has boomeranged and you have united the
labor movement like we've never been united
before.'"
- As
President Bush marked Women's History Month this
week with a White House reception, no doubt the
irony was lost on him: Five years of his
policies favoring corporate America and the rich
have made life harder for millions of
women.
The
government's own statistics show that Bush has
set back women's progress in many ways. The U.S.
Census Bureau says the poverty rate among women
increased from 12.6 percent in 2000 to 13.9
percent in 2004. And in 2004, 2.3 million more
women were uninsured than in 2000, a 12 percent
increase.
And Bush has done nothing to
improve the wage gap. Women are paid 76 cents
for every dollar men earn on average and earn
less than men in every major industry sector.
The Census Bureau says women make 54 cents for
every dollar men earn in management of companies
and enterprises, 57 cents on the dollar in
finance and insurance and 60 cents on the dollar
in professional, scientific and technical
services.
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