April 19, 2007

FCC Filing: Don't Let Cable Block Out Telco Competition

CWA joined with leading consumer groups this week in a joint filing urging the Federal Communications Commission to maintain rules that prohibit the big cable TV companies from denying "must-have" programming to competitors such as satellite broadcasters and AT&T and Verizon.

The cable giants still control 70 percent of the multi-channel video market, and they are in a position to choke off competition by keeping other companies from offering programming from channels like CNN, Discovery, HBO and popular regional sports networks, the joint filing stated.  The cable companies own, at least in part, four-fifths of the 90 most-watched channels.

FCC program access rules, due to "sunset" this year, should be extended for another five years, stated CWA along with the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press and the Media Access Project.

The lack of true competition is evidenced by a 70 percent increase in cable prices – two and half times the inflation rate – since Congress deregulated cable pricing in 1996, the filing noted.

Cable mergers and license deals in recent years have further concentrated Big Cable's dominance in regional clusters, with emphasis on the big urban markets, while the growth of satellite services has mainly come in smaller rural markets.  And so far, competition from AT&T and Verizon has been limited, the groups stated.  Verizon right now can only market its FiOS service to 3 million homes and AT&T's U-Verse only claims 10,000 subscribers to date.

The filing urged the FCC to reject the cable industry's contention that anti-trust laws are sufficient to protect competitors, noting:  "Anti-trust actions are time consuming, taking years to resolve, during which competition will have been stifled."

Tell GE:  We Shouldn't Have to Choose Between Jobs and the Environment

General Electric is exploiting environmental concerns to sell its energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), but what it isn't telling consumers is that the bulbs are all coming from China while the company slashes investment – and jobs – in the United States.

IUE-CWA has launched a public information and petition campaign to urge GE to invest in U.S. plants and allow American workers to make the next generation of lighting products.  Go to www.ScrewThatBulb.org to sign the petition.

GE has been asking both consumers and its own workers to sign a pledge to "go green" and buy the CFLs, but in so doing, "GE is actually asking workers in its lighting plants to pledge to put themselves out of a job," IUE-CWA points out on the website.  It notes that GE has cut jobs in its lighting division by nearly 70 percent since 1980.

"Workers and consumers shouldn't have to choose between saving jobs and saving the environment," said IUE-CWA President Jim Clark.  "GE should do the right thing and invest in advanced technology that will stimulate our economy here at home."

An ironic twist to GE's "go green" marketing effort aimed at socially conscious citizens is the fact that China is one of the world's worst industrial polluters and also is known for suppression of workers' rights.

Pulitzer Winners To Shareholders: 
Maintain Quality Journalism at Dow Jones

Two of this year's Pulitzer Prize winners at the Wall Street Journal joined other leading reporters in telling Dow Jones shareholders on Wednesday that quality journalism at the paper could be threatened by current bargaining demands to slash salaries and health benefits for the editorial staff.

James Bandler and Charles Forelle, both members of IAPE Local 1096, a TNG-CWA affiliate, urged directors and shareholders to continue the commitment to editorial quality that allowed them to write their prize-winning series of articles on stock option abuses.

Washington correspondent Michael Phillips "spoke powerfully on behalf of war correspondents about the anger they feel when they risk their lives in the Middle East and then return to discover that senior managers are trying to cut their pay and benefits," said Local 1096 President Steve Yount, who also addressed the annual meeting in New York.

Local bargaining chair Jim Browning also told shareholders of "the growing anger in the newsroom at the threat the cutbacks pose to our journalistic quality," Yount said.  Three dozen reporters stood in solidarity the whole time that the union spokespeople addressed the meeting.

Dow Jones' harsh concession demands recently prompted 220 Dow Jones Newswires employees in New Jersey to join Local 1096.  The largest remaining non-union unit at Dow Jones, the workers organized under card-check procedures in the contract and they received recognition last week after the majority was certified by the American Arbitration Assn.

The local represents 1,800 Dow Jones editorial workers in the United States and Canada.

Taking on Executive Pay at Shareholder Meetings

CWA members and other union activists are ready for this year's round of corporate annual meetings, with news conferences, demonstrations and other actions planned for major CWA employers.

At the IBM meeting in Knoxville, Tenn., on April 24, members of Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701 will speak to three proposals and urge shareholders to adopt the measures on executive compensation, offshoring and pension and retirement medical benefits.

That same day in Greenville, S.C., IUE-CWA and CBC – Coordinated Bargaining Committee of GE Unions -- activists also will urge shareholders to support proposals tied to executive pay and other good governance issues.

The CBC is pressing for shareholders to approve proposals to separate the position of chairman and chief executive officer to provide for more independent oversight of management; to require a report on the pay differential between GE's senior executives and the lowest paid 10 percent of current employees, both in and outside the U.S., and to provide for representation of GE's retired workers with a non-executive retiree as a candidate to sit on the board of directors. 

Hundreds of CWA, IBEW and other union activists are making plans for the Verizon annual meeting May 3 in Pittsburgh. They will rally at the United Steelworkers headquarters and march to the convention center, the meeting site. Inside, a sea of union supporters wearing red shirts and union shirts will be visible in support for shareholder resolutions on executive compensation, compensation consultants who may not be making independent recommendations on executive pay and shareholder approval of executive severance payments. 

The AFL-CIO is leading a campaign aimed at investors at Verizon and other companies that spotlights how the pay of many executives has little connection to how well a company performs. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg earned more than $109 million over the past five years, while shareholders experienced a negative 5 percent return in the same period. "Working people are fed up with a system that showers CEOs with lavish rewards with little or no accountability," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka.

Trumka, IBEW President Edwin Hill and CWA District 13 Vice President Jim Short will be among those attending the Verizon annual meeting.

CWA's Police Union Builds International Solidarity

Nearly 100 activists from locals that comprise CWA's National Coalition of Public Safety Officers celebrated organizing gains and shared ideas for addressing health care, pension and staffing issues when they gathered in Reno, Nev., April 12 and 13 for their annual training and leadership conference. Welcomed by District 7 Vice President Annie Hill, they also used their two-day meeting to build solidarity with other police organizations within the United States and abroad.

A highpoint of the conference was a presentation by Pretty Singozo, 2nd deputy president of POPCRU, the police and corrections officers union of South Africa.

"Pretty's participation further cemented the ties between CWA and POPCRU," said NCPSO President Chris McGill. "We are continuing to build a mutually beneficial relationship."

"We have pledged solidarity with American police officers because they have helped us achieve dignity for our members," Singozo said.

POPCRU, a public sector member of Union Network International, was established in 1999, five years after the end of apartheid and the establishment of a new South African democracy. Also affiliated with the Congress of South African Trade Unions, POPCRU represents about 120,000 police officers and corrections officers.

"We are part of a strategic partnership, participating in the formation of the government and influencing legislation on behalf of workers and the poor," Singozo said. While they have collective bargaining, they have gained health and safety protections and better training through legislation.

CWA ties with POPCRU began four years ago when NCPSO Executive Director John Burpo addressed an international symposium on organizing sponsored by POPCRU and attended by police from other African countries including Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Kenya.  Then Burpo returned to South Africa in 2005 to help POPCRU fight against prison privatization.

"We say the campaign against privatization has been a success because now the government is building more prisons and improving the prisons and there is more employment for our members," Singozo said.

Singozo pointed out that, like in the United States, "Our responsibility is to police the rights of other people. Now – with a union – our police are also able to fight for their rights."

IN BRIEF:

  • While Verizon president and chief operating officer Dennis Strigl addressed telecom industry execs at Bank of America's Media, Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference in New York City on March 29, some 200 CWA members at Verizon core picketed on the outside, chanting "Tear Down the Wall." CWAers are planning to keep the pressure on Strigl and other company officials until they respect Verizon Business employees' right to organize.

    "We need to keep reminding Verizon that our union – and workers who want a union at Verizon Business – are not going away," William Gallagher, vice president Local 1109.

  •  Our opponents are pulling out all the stops and sparing no expense to bully lawmakers, misinform the public, and oppose free choice for workers. We all should expect more of the same as the debate on the Employee Free Choice Act continues in the Senate (bill S. 1041). 

    To help supporters stay on message and not get distracted when ads surface and attacks escalate, American Rights at Work has created a new fact sheet and series of talking points to help spread the message about who some of the most prominent opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act are and why not to trust their facts.

    Go to www.americanrightsatwork.org to get the fact sheet and other information.

  •  The AFL-CIO has urged Congress to block a free trade pact with Colombia until that country shows progress in prosecuting paramilitary death squads responsible for the murders of some 4,000 trade union officers since the 1980s. The paramilitaries, founded by landowners to "control crime" in rural parts of the country, are funded primarily by drug-traffickers. Only one person has been convicted in the 2004-2006 murders of 236 trade unionists. Since the killings began in the 1980s – involving over 20,000 union members, political leaders, educators, and others – there have been just 31 convictions.

    Recent news tying U.S. corporations and allies of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to the death squads has raised concern in Congress. In March, the U.S-owned Chiquita Brands plead guilty to making payoffs to the paramilitaries, and Coca Cola is being sued for being complicit in the 1996 murder of a union leader. More recently, 8 Colombian congressmen with close ties to Uribe were arrested and charged with working with the squads and smuggling cocaine.