April 13, 2007

New Jersey State Workers Ratify Contract

CWA state workers in New Jersey overwhelmingly ratified a new four-year agreement that provides for a 13 percent wage increase over the contract term and safeguards workers' health care and retirement security.

"This settlement was negotiated against a backdrop of state lawmakers trying to impose extreme concessions and legislate pension and health care cuts, newspapers editorializing against public worker bargaining and media coverage that pretty much ignored the real issues our members care about," said Chris Shelton, CWA District 1 vice president.

The agreement was ratified by a nearly two-to-one margin in each of the four voting units, with a record voter turnout. It covers 40,000 New Jersey state workers in seven CWA locals. The mail ballots were counted by the American Arbitration Association.

"We had to fight to preserve our bargaining rights. But in the end, our bargaining committee was able to negotiate a settlement that addresses our members' critical concerns – health care, pensions and fairness." Shelton stated.

The contract improves the health care system by providing for an expanded PPO network, eliminating restrictions on use of specialists and guaranteeing no changes in benefits over the contract term. It also was the first state worker contract in 15 years that didn't call for a wage freeze, instead providing a 13 percent increase over the contract term.

Recognizing massive shortfalls in state pension funding and rising health care costs, CWA agreed to a .5 percent increase in the workers' pre-tax pension contribution and a 1.5 percent pre-tax contribution to health care costs. While the age for full retirement for new hires was raised from 55 to 60, the penalty for early retirement was reduced from 3 percent to 1 percent per year. 

The bargaining team successfully fought back against the recommendations of a joint legislative committee that wanted to impose concessions in as many as 41 different contract provisions, including hours worked, reduced leave time and others. 

Thousands of union members rallied throughout the state, calling on legislators to let the collective bargaining process work and keeping up the call for a fair contract.

“This contract represents a real victory for state workers,” said Shelton.

 

NLRB Slams CNN for Tearing Up NABET-CWA Contracts

It took more than three years, but the National Labor Relations Board has finally backed charges by NABET-CWA against CNN for using a restructure ploy to tear up union contracts for 350 field camera crews and other technical workers in its news operations in New York and Washington, D.C.

The NLRB's general counsel ordered a hearing before an administrative law judge this September and will press for an order for CNN to restore the previous contractual provisions, recognize and bargain with the union, and reinstate with back pay the many union workers who had been terminated in the two news bureaus in late 2003 and early 2004.

That's when the big cable news network dropped a long-standing contractual relationship with Team Video Services, whose union-represented workers gathered news for the cable network, and shifted the operation in-house.  CNN hired many of the TVS workers, but to get rid of the union, "CNN expanded and packed the D.C. and N.Y. units in order to avoid a successorship obligation to recognize and bargain" with NABET-CWA, the board's ruling stated.

Declaring that the workers no longer had representation, CNN immediately slashed wages, benefits and other working conditions and protections. 

"Although this ruling has been a long time coming, we're gratified and confident that the board's decision will finally put us on a path to justice for these CNN workers," said NABET-CWA President John Clark.

Ed McEwan, president of the union's Local 11 in New York, said:  "From the beginning, we told the workers it would be a long fight given the current political climate, but to have faith.  We're not going to let CNN walk over us."

In Washington, D.C., NABET-CWA Local 31 president Carl Mayers said:  "This is a very important decision for our members, and it also is a statement that no matter how long it takes, we're determined to protect our jobs and bargaining rights."

New Stewards Army Online Course: Speed & Public Policy

CWA has launched the first of a series of free online, interactive training courses as part of the effort to build a Stewards Army of activists for grassroots action on key issues and campaigns.

Developed by CWA/NETT's professional trainers, the course is a user-friendly and self-paced look at "The Changing Telecom Industry and Why Speed Matters." (It generally takes about 30 minutes to click through the course and answer short quizzes at the end of each topic.)

Log in today and check out the course at www.cwanett.org.

Slides with text and animated graphics describe the major forces  that are transforming the telecom world and changing job patterns for the future. These include the move away from wireline telecom with the emergence of wireless, the growth of Voice over Internet Protocol and competition from cable providers that currently have an edge with "triple play" services.

Real high-speed Internet networks are the key to the survival and growth of CWA's employers and the source of job opportunity for our telecom members. But there are many political and policy roadblocks to overcome in transforming essentially a 20th Century phone network into a communications system for the 21st Century.

Learn how CWA is mounting an ambitious Speed Matters campaign for job and economic growth and how CWA Stewards Army activists can play a key role in this fight for our job future.

As President Larry Cohen says in the introduction to the course, "CWA has long recognized that stewards are the heartbeat and the strength of our union." Join us as a Stewards Army activist as we ignite a new movement to change America's priorities.

AFL-CIO Targets Verizon for Excessive CEO Pay

CWA has launched a website in support of a campaign by the AFL-CIO to oust Verizon board members who voted what it said is excessive pay for company CEO Ivan Seidenberg.  The federation says the board paid Seidenberg $110 million over a five-year period while share prices have sagged.

"I defy anyone to say this guy's earned the money," AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told reporters on April 5, outlining the federation's plan to vote against Verizon's compensation committee at the company's May 3 annual meeting. He called Verizon "the poster child for pay for pulse."

The federation has already had discussions with the office of the New York State Comptroller and California State Teachers' Retirement system and planned meetings to win support for its proposals from mutual funds that hold shares of Verizon.

On the CWA investor website, visitors are urged vote "for" Verizon shareholder proposals 4, 5 and 6 to improve transparency and accountability of executive compensation and to vote "no" for directors who sit on the board's compensation committee: Walter Shipley, chair, Richard Carrion, Robert Lane, Joseph Neubauer, Clarence Otis Jr. and John Stafford.

Complete information, including news coverage by the Chicago Tribune and New York Times, is available at http://investor.cwa-union.org/verizon.

'Meet and Consult' Process for West VA State Workers

With support from CWA and other unions, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced a new experimental process for state employees to gain input on improving working conditions and delivering state services more efficiently.  The "meet and consult" reforms will apply to 200 CWA-represented employees in the Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority and three other state government divisions where workers are represented by AFSCME and the Mine Workers.

Meet and consult is part of a two-year pilot program to address staff shortages and promote government efficiency.  State employees, who do not have collective bargaining rights, endorsed the plan as a way to improve working conditions and improve public safety, said CWA Rep. Elaine Harris. CWA also represents the West Virginia state troopers, state corrections and juvenile service employees.   

The state's ten regional jails currently are overcrowded and the facilities often face difficulty in recruiting and retaining experienced personnel. "It's no secret that our overcrowded jails pose a big public safety risk," said CWA Local 2055 member David Ice, a regional jail employee.  "That's why we need open communication with the state to identify risks and make them right.  Gov. Manchin's reforms help us do just that," he said at an April 11 news conference to announce the program.

Other agencies covered by "meet and consult" include the Division of Highways, General Services Division and Purchasing Division.

IN BRIEF:

  • A multinational poll shows that strong majorities around the world – including nine out of 10 people in the United States – want trade agreements to meet minimum labor and environmental standards.

    "The American public is clearly concerned that trade agreements fail to protect either workers or the environment," said Christopher Whitney of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, which helped conducted the poll.

    Large majorities in Argentina, Eastern Europe, China and India, among other countries and regions also support mandatory minimum protections. World Public Opinion, which also helped conduct the poll, has the questionnaire and results on its website at www.worldpublicopinion.org.

     
  • Maryland has become the first state to require its contractors to pay employees a living wage, a victory for working families pushed by a coalition of union members, religious leaders and civil rights advocates.

    "It's going to lift tens of thousands of Marylanders out of poverty," state Delegate Tom Hucker told the Washington Post. "It makes Maryland a leader in ensuring that our tax dollars are helping build the middle class rather than perpetuating poverty."

    Despite huffing-and-puffing from the Chamber of Commerce and fits from Republicans, the Maryland Senate voted 31-16 on its last day in session to approve the measure, which the House passed last week. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), who campaigned for the legislation, has promised to sign the bill.

    The new law will require service contractors doing business with the state to pay employees $11.30 an hour in urban areas and $8.50 an hour in rural areas. The state's minimum wage is $6.15 an hour.