| May
26, 2006
Negotiations between CWA and Avaya were continuing as the
CWA Newsletter was published, with CWA reaffirming its goal of
reaching a fair and equitable settlement at the bargaining
table but pointing out that the company was not living up to
that same commitment.
Members kept up their mobilization in the week leading up
to the May 27 midnight contract expiration, with actions and
hand billing in New York, Ohio, Atlanta, Oklahoma City,
Denver, Orange County, Calif., and other locations.
CWA Vice President Ralph Maly said that "with just days
remaining until contract expiration, it is critical that
company negotiators make a renewed and serious effort to
resolve all bargaining issues."
CWA represents about 2,900 workers at Avaya. Larger
locations include customer service centers in Atlanta,
Oklahoma City and the Denver area. Other Avaya workers are in
Anaheim, Calif., Dallas and Houston, Tex., Cleveland and
Columbus, Ohio, and the New York City metro area.
CWA announced opposition to House legislation to regulate
high-speed Internet networks supposedly to insure "net
neutrality," but which "will result in the unintended
consequence of delayed deployment of high-speed networks, with
particularly negative impact on underserved communities."
In a letter to House Judiciary Committee members opposing
H.R. 5417, the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act,"
President Larry Cohen said the bill's requirement that
networks offer services for free to big content providers like
Google and Microsoft will stifle deployment and shift the
costs of broadband rollout to consumers.
"Under such an arrangement, broadband network providers
would not be able to recover the billions of dollars they
invest in the construction of high-speed networks," Cohen
stated. "As a result, investment in the physical
infrastructure necessary to provide high-speed Internet will
slow down, the U.S. will fall even further behind the rest of
the world, and our rural and low-income populations will wait
even longer to enter the digital age."
The committee approved the controversial bill by a 20-13
vote on May 25, but whether it will move to the House floor is
uncertain.
Cohen declared that CWA favors an "open Internet" with full
access for everyone, and stated that "there are ways to
protect an open Internet that do not neutralize network
investment." He suggested building on the approach in
another House bill, H.R. 5252 — the "Barton bill" — which
gives the Federal Communications Commission authority to
handle complaints about service issues.
In this way, "The FCC would have the authority to ensure
consumers can access the lawful content of their choice, run
applications and services of their choice, connect their
choice of legal devices that do not harm the network, and
ensure competition among network providers, application and
service providers, and content providers," his letter
stated.
CWA is urging members of the House of Representatives to
support a bill that improves the current H1-B visa program and
restores its original purpose.
CWA President Larry Cohen wrote that H.R. 4378, the "Defend
the American Dream Act," was necessary to remedy the abuses of
the current visa program.
The H1-B program now victimizes large numbers of
high-skilled American workers by permitting employers to
displace them and hire instead lower-wage high-tech workers
from other nations, Cohen wrote. Currently, 237,500 H1-B visas
can be issued annually due to special exceptions; the bill
would reduce that to 65,000.
The bill also would expand no-layoff protection from 90
days to six months to prevent high-tech employers from firing
American workers and replacing them with H1-B visa holders. In
many situations, companies have forced "high-tech American
workers to train their less qualified H1-B foreign
replacements as a condition for American workers to receive
severance pay from the jobs they are about to lose," Cohen
wrote.
Separately, the immigration plan passed by the Senate would
nearly double the number of technical and science workers that
could be brought into the United States under the H1-B visa
program. The bill would raise the current level from 65,000 to
115,000.
- Whether you're a veteran activist or are just
getting your feet wet in labor and social justice work, the
Coalition of Labor Union Women is hosting a one-day
conference in June for you to network and share
strategies.
The "New Generation of
Activists" conference will be held Friday, June 16, as part
of CLUW's three-day executive board meeting at the Omni
Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Congresswoman Rosa
DeLauro (D-Conn.) will give a keynote speech during the
morning session, which will also feature panelists from Jobs
With Justice, Students Against Sweatshops, the Steelworkers'
Rapid Response Network and the AFL-CIO's Working for America
Institute.
Afternoon workshops will look at the
future of feminist activism, organizing and mentoring young
activists and the "Take Back Your Time" campaign that is
focusing on overwork and over-scheduling in the United
States.
The conference runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and costs $20 per person. More information is available at
CLUW, online at
http://www.cluw.org/ or by
phone at (202) 508-6969. Registration forms can be
downloaded online and faxed to CLUW.
- CWA members at two OFS-Fitel facilities
overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike if negotiations
fail to produce a fair contract.
Bargaining
is ongoing for a new contract covering about 200 workers in
Norcross, Ga., members of CWA Local 3263 and Sturbridge,
Mass., members of Local 1365. The current agreement expires
May 31.
The CWA bargaining team reminded the company
that members made extreme sacrifices three years ago to save
OFS and were looking for improvements in wages and benefits
in exchange for that sacrifice. OFS — Optical Fiber
Solutions — is the Japanese-owned company that bought some
of Lucent Technologies operations.
- Union leaders at FEMA are questioning whether
the agency is ready for hurricane season, saying that many
experienced employees quit in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina as the Department of Homeland Security began
stripping the agency's budget and
authority.
"Whether or not FEMA is ready for
the hurricane season is a three-part question: are the staff
ready; are there adequate supplies such as emergency food,
water, and medicine; and are the top leaders at FEMA and DHS
up to the job?" said Leo Bosner, president of the AFGE unit
at FEMA. "The experienced staff who have worked through many
disasters are ready, however there are fewer and fewer of
them."
Bosner said staff members worked seven days a
week, 12 to 18 hours a day for two months after last year's
disaster. "We sent strong warnings to FEMA and DHS leaders
48 hours before landfall," he said. "The lack of adequate
supplies and the lack of decisive, capable leaders at FEMA
and DHS undermined our ability to assist the Americans whose
lives were upended by the storm. FEMA employees have been
assured there will be more supplies on hand this year. We
hope that is true," he said. |
