March 29, 2007

In Virginia, CWA Stewards Army Takes on Verizon

CWA members and locals in Virginia are putting the Stewards Army to work in a big way to block Verizon's attempt to eliminate all state government oversight of the sale or transfer of telephone company assets.

This week, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine vetoed a bill that would have eliminated the requirement that the State Corporation Commission approve the sale or transfer of any telephone company and ensure that the transaction is in the public interest. 

CWA locals have been building support to sustain the expected Kaine veto.  The big test comes next week, with a vote in the legislature on an attempt to override the governor's veto of the anti-worker and anti-consumer measure, and CWA locals throughout Virginia are ready.

Gov. Kaine stated when he vetoed the bill: "Such a change would represent a significant deviation from established practice and remove an important layer of oversight that the SCC has long exercised to protect Virginia customers.  Access to telephone service continues to be vital for residents across the Commonwealth, and it is imperative that we act reasonably to ensure that this access is not diminished."

CWA President Larry Cohen announced Kaine's veto at CWA's Legislative-Political conference on Wednesday. He stressed that building political support for working families – and helping to elect officials like Gov. Kaine who support working people – is what CWA's political program is all about.

"District 2 and our Virginia locals have done a terrific job in mobilizing against Verizon's stealth campaign to avoid public scrutiny of telecom deals," said Cohen.  "Because of their efforts, we have a good shot to sustain the veto by our friend Tim Kaine – and we must keep the momentum going."

Verizon hoped to quietly get the measure through both houses of the legislature, said CWA Local 2201 President Chris Lane, and all the locals throughout Virginia united to stop it. After the House approved the bill, CWAers focused their attention on the Senate, spreading the word that the measure was a broad attack on consumer rights and meant that customers would have no recourse to address bad service or higher rates.

"We put a good plan together and everyone participated, from every local throughout Virginia to the district and national CWA staff. Phone calls from President Cohen and District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci to Governor Kaine helped a lot," Lane said.

"We sent people daily to the state Capitol to meet with their representatives, we sent out several flyers and we produced newspaper and radio ads to get our message across," Lane said. After the Senate voted to eliminate state oversight, we stepped up our mobilization, Lane said.

"We encouraged all members to take petitions to their neighborhoods, their community groups and their churches, calling on the governor to veto this very bad bill," Lane said. The local's executive vice president Richard Hatch organized phone banking and all the locals participated. "We also used three rounds of recorded 'robo' calls to urge Virginia residents to contact the governor," he added.

"Now, we're not taking any chances and will be working hard through next week, but our success so far in stopping this sneak attack by Verizon is all that workers here are talking about," Lane said.

Lane said the action was very good training for the Stewards Army program, which locals are building in Virginia. "This issue really brought around some members who hadn't been involved or engaged. It motivated them to take some ownership."

Legislative, Women's and Safety & Health Activists Join to Build a Political Movement for Change

Local leaders and activists came to Washington for three major conferences over the past week to help build a political movement for change focused on CWA's top strategic issues – workers' rights and protecting jobs, health care and retirement security.

For the first time, the union's Health and Safety and National Women's conferences were held back to back in conjunction with the annual Legislative-Political Conference, which drew over 800 participants this year.

At the Women's Conference, March 23-24, women activists discussed how to make political change happen, how to get the resources necessary to support worker- friendly women candidates running for public office and how to run for office themselves. District 7 Vice President Annie Hill outlined CWA's strategic campaign to gain health care for all and what it will take to win real reform.

A dramatic presentation by Doreen Griffin of CWA Local 1033 brought the determination of Rosa Parks to life in her portrayal of the civil rights activist.  CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach said the courage of Parks and other civil rights activists continued to inspire the fight to restore workers' rights.

Meanwhile, Safety and Health conferees, meeting March 24-25, participated in wide-ranging panel discussions and breakout sessions covering electrical safety, hazardous materials, indoor air quality, ergonomics, legal rights and other topics.

From Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Workforce protections, they got an overview of a new attitude in Congress regarding health and safety as she pledged her subcommittee will hold the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to a higher degree of accountability.

The Employee Free Choice Act had a starring role at CWA's 2007 Legislative-Political Conference, March 25-28, as leaders on Capitol Hill, including five candidates for president, took turns at the podium championing the urgently needed worker bargaining and organizing bill.

(Note: The Employee Free Choice Act was formally introduced March 29 in the Senate by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), with 46 co-sponsors, and designated as bill number S. 1041.)

"To the 57 million Americans who polls show would join a union if they could, to them we say, 'Help is on the way,'" said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California, the first woman to preside over the chamber.

CWA President Larry Cohen praised Pelosi has the "best speaker of the House ever," because she kept her promise to workers and pushed the Employee Free Choice Act to a bipartisan victory in the House in the first 100 hours of the 110th Congress.

Pelosi and other members of Congress spoke passionately about the financial squeeze on the middle class and the impossible choices working families with low wages, no health care or other benefits have to face daily.

CWA President Larry Cohen spoke of CWA's own battles at Verizon, Comcast and other companies where corporate greed has bulldozed workers' rights, all of the fights illustrating how badly American labor has been eroded over the past three decades.

 "We are building a political movement, we are fighting back and we are winning," Cohen said, describing CWA's dynamic new Stewards' Army as one of the key tools to educate, inspire and mobilize members.

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara J. Easterling and EVP Rechenbach contrasted the policies of the Republican-controlled Congress with the changes that working families can expect from a House of Representatives headed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a Democratic Senate, starting with full support for workers' rights. 

The Employee Free Choice Act was a primary topic as groups of CWA leaders and activists from across the country met with U.S. senators and representatives from their home states.

CWA's Speed Matters campaign was another priority in the meetings, with members urging lawmakers to take legislative steps to ensure that all Americans, from rural areas to inner cities, have high-speed Internet access. They explained that the United States, the country that created the Internet, has fallen to 16th in the world in high-speed Internet penetration, and that U.S. standards for "high" speed are far lower than other nations.

The nation's health care crisis was a third major topic in meetings on Capitol Hill and conference speeches, with each presidential candidate pledging to fight for universal health care coverage. 

Also on the agenda were trade policies such as NAFTA and CAFTA that have cost millions of American jobs while insisting that no labor or environmental standards be included for companies that move jobs to other countries.  Other key topics included pension reform and retirement security.

Five of the seven Democrats who have announced that they are running for president spoke and pledged support for the Employee Free Choice Act: Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware; Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio; Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois; former Sen. John Edwards, North Carolina; and Sen. Hillary Clinton, New York. A sixth candidate, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, sent a taped message. Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut was unable to attend.

Cohen emphasized that CWA isn't making any endorsements at this point but is proud to have so many good candidates who have been strong supporters of CWA and workers' rights.

Other speakers included CWA President Emeritus Morton Bahr, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio). 

EVP Jeff Rechenbach to Head National Telecom Office

The CWA Executive Board voted to designate Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach to head the new National Telecom Office as the Board continues to review CWA's structure in telecom and other sectors in keeping with the mandate in Ready for the Future.

Rechenbach has played a major role in coordinating the work of the Telecom Industry Committee, set up in September 2005, as well as the various campaigns and issues affecting nearly 300,000 CWA telecom members, noted President Larry Cohen.

Rechenbach said the new office is an outgrowth of the committee's activities, aimed at mapping strategies and coordinating staff activities at the major telecom employers.  The committee is composed of the eight district vice presidents along with the vice presidents for Telecom and Communications & Technologies.

"The National Telecom Office is the next step in that process of better coordinating the staff resources that we have in each of our districts and at headquarters and sharpening our focus," Rechenbach said. 

He noted that the telecom committee recently has launched major Strategic Industry Fund campaigns at Verizon and Alcatel Lucent and also to promote the rollout of high-speed Internet services to spur job and economic growth under the banner of Speed Matters.

"From mergers and spinoffs to new technologies to attacks on our jobs and our contracts, we face constant threats as well as opportunities in telecom.  We need to address these issues in the most clear-sighted and efficient way possible, and that's what we're trying to do," Rechenbach stated.

Board Approves Diversity Committee Recommendations

The CWA Executive Board this week approved recommendations by its special Diversity Committee, which will be submitted to the 2007 CWA convention as called for by convention delegates last year in adopting the Ready for the Future program.

Among the proposals are adding four at-large diversity members to the Executive Board and establishing a permanent Diversity Committee of the Board.

In reviewing the recommendations at this week's Legislative-Political Conference in Washington, Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who chairs the committee, said:  "The broader the perspectives we bring to the Executive Board room, the smarter the decisions that emerge from it will be. The more our leaders reflect our members, the more responsive to their needs we will be."

President Larry Cohen said:  "We made a commitment to increase diversity on our Board and that's what we've done.  I'm proud of the work of this committee."

The Diversity Committee held sessions with local leaders around the country to solicit input, posted meeting notes on the Ready for the Future website, and e-mailed a survey last year to all locals seeking ideas and suggestions, Easterling noted.  "We reviewed all – and I mean all – survey responses," she said.

The recommendations call for adding four new at-large diversity Board seats to be filled by women and persons of color.  The four at-large seats will come from four geographic regions, the Northeast, Southeast, Central and Western areas of the country.

The four at-large members will have the same policy-making and voting authority as other Board members.  They will not be full-time officers.  Their expenses and lost-time wages will be paid for attending Board meetings and performing other responsibilities as assigned by the president. Elections for at-large Board members will be held at the 2008 convention using the same procedure as that used for electing national officers.

Serving with Easterling on the Diversity Committee are Vice Presidents Annie Hill, Noah Savant and Brooks Sunkett, Women's Committee members Susan McCallister, Local 7704 secretary-treasurer, and Mary Lou Schaffer, Local 13550 president; and Committee on Equity members Keith Robinson, Local 6310 steward, and Jetty Wells, Local 4009 executive vice president.

Pension Freeze, Other Demands Lead to Suspension of ABC Talks

NABET-CWA negotiators have suspended talks with ABC Television after a careful assessment of contract demands from the network that would do irreparable harm to workers' job security, pensions and other rights and benefits, according to union leaders.

The union and ABC management had been meeting for three weeks to bargain a new contract covering 2,500 technicians, camera operators, news writers and other employees throughout the United States. The current four-year contract expires March 31, 2007. Talks stopped March 22 when ABC announced that it wants to freeze the NABET-CWA members' pension plan.  Doing so would reduce the average participant's retirement benefit by 25 percent, negotiators said.

"The union bargaining committee's review of ABC's proposals found nothing but company attacks on the seniority system, attacks on the pension plan – despite the plan being financially healthy – attacks on jurisdiction of work and attacks on a multitude of other work rules and conditions," NABET-CWA President John Clark said. "These attacks come on top of ABC's apparent refusal to consider new training and job opportunities for workers as the industry's technology rapidly evolves."

He said the pension proposal "will pull the rug out from underneath people who are depending on it for their retirement security after a lifetime of service to ABC.  It is deplorable."     

The union has informed ABC that it will be ready to resume talks by mid-May after completing meetings around the country to discuss the situation with members. 

CWA Backs FCC Action Requiring New Investment In Puerto Rico by America Movil

CWA President Larry Cohen commended the Federal Communications Commission for requiring critical investment commitments by America Movil to finalize its purchase of Puerto Rico Telephone Company from Verizon Communications.

To win transfer approval, America Movil committed to invest $1 billion in information services in Puerto Rico over the next five years. "CWA views this as a promise to the people of Puerto Rico, and will be watching that America Movil meets this commitment. We expect that the FCC and the Puerto Rico Regulatory Authority will be vigilant in monitoring compliance," Cohen said.

CWA installers for Puerto Rico Telephone Company are represented by CWA affiliates Union De Trabajadores de las Comunicaciones de Puerto Rico/CWA Local 3010.

This Puerto Rico Telephone sale is the first time that a foreign company will own wireline telecommunications facilities on U.S. soil, and the FCC indicated that it needed to set a high bar to ensure that the transfer serves the public interest. America Movil is a Mexican company owned by Carlos Slim Helu, providing telecommunications services to 14 countries.

Verizon bought Puerto Rico Telephone Company in 2000 but made negligible investment in the network, and under its ownership, telephone penetration declined from 74 to 61 percent. The infrastructure is in such poor condition that most lines are not DSL capable, denying customers access to changing technologies.

IN BRIEF:

Rutgers University has installed a plaque at its Labor Studies Center honoring the late Clara Allen, a longtime District 1 staff official and pioneering women's rights leader who served in the mid-1970s as New Jersey's first director of its Division of Women in the Department of Community Affairs.

At a ceremony on March 23rd to mark the occasion, CWA President Emeritus Morton Bahr and Local 1150 President Laura Unger spoke about Allen's devotion to both CWA and women's issues during her 47-year career.  She was a founder of Local 1150, and served as administrative assistant to Bahr and later Vice President Larry Mancino.  She died in 1997.

For years, Princeton economist Alan Blinder – a longtime supporter of free trade and a NAFTA booster – was convinced that free trade was the key to economic growth and that it eventually benefited everyone. Today, he's had a change of heart and is just catching on to what workers have known for years – that the "downside" to free trade is deeper than most economists ever realized.

Now Blinder says that the job insecurity workers face today is "only the tip of a very big iceberg" and that changes in technology and global communications are making it possible to send even more jobs overseas.

Perhaps as many as 40 million American jobs will be at risk of being shipped out of the country over the next two decades because of these advances that allow services to be delivered from anywhere, he says.

Blinder now says that the harm done when some workers lose their jobs will be more painful and disruptive than free traders want to acknowledge. He is calling on the U.S. government to do far more for workers than the few months of retraining that some get and is studying changes in tax law to reward companies that produce jobs that stay in the U.S.