June 14, 2007

Debate on Employee Free Choice Act Begins June 18

The United States Senate will begin debate on the Employee Free Choice Act – S. 1041 – on Monday, June 18, with a vote likely to come on Wednesday, June 20.

That means time is growing short to let our senators know that this critical legislation must be passed, said CWA President Larry Cohen. In a recorded telephone message going to tens of thousands of CWA members, President Cohen is calling on CWAers to contact their senators to urge them to vote yes on the Employee Free Choice Act.

CWA activists and union members nationwide are gearing up to do just that, and plan to send thousands of telephone calls and messages to their senators, especially in the 11 target states of Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Nationally, CWA members can call 1-800-455-7104 and enter their zip codes to be connected to their Senator's office. In speaking with a staff member or leaving a message, CWAers are asked to give their name, city or town, and let the senator know they're part of CWA.

In Washington, D.C., union members will rally on Tuesday, June 19, at Upper Senate Park near the U.S. Capitol to let senators know that this bill is a priority for working families. The AFL-CIO also is coordinating rallies and events in 60 communities across the country. 

During CWA's week of action for the Employee Free Choice Act, May 14-18, CWAers generated 7,000 telephone calls.

The House passed the Employee Free Choice Act on March 1 by a 241-185 vote.

Hub & Router Installers Organize at AT&T Contractor

A unit of 25 contract employees who install hubs, routers and video equipment at AT&T central offices in Reno, Nevada, won representation last week with CWA Local 9413. The vote in the NLRB-sponsored election was 14-8. The workers are employed by NorthStar Communications Group, a contractor performing installations at AT&T central offices that are part of "Project Lightspeed" and support the rollout of U-Verse, AT&T's high-speed, fiber optic video, internet, data and communications service.

The workers, technicians and others with engineering job titles are believed to be the first to organize at NorthStar or other AT&T contractors involved in the installation of hubs, routers and video equipment.

CWA has been pressing AT&T to give CWA members training and full access to the company's "jobs of the future," of which U-verse is the leading component. "We prefer that these installations be done by our members, but we're not going to pass up the opportunity to help organize contract employees who want a union too," said CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, head of CWA's new Telecom Office.

The workers reached out to CWA Local 9413 President Chuck Benway who works at AT&T's central office in Reno. "Besides wanting a union and a fair grievance procedure, the workers wanted to get reimbursed fairly for their travel expenses," said Benway who assisted the workers in their campaign. The workers were having a hard time making ends meet on a per diem of just $70 a day that is supposed to cover not only meals but also hotel expenses if they had to stay overnight. Some workers share rooms to make the per diem go further, but the company cuts their per diem in half if it finds out, Benway said.

Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., NorthStar, the telecommunications subsidiary of BE&K, Inc., provides infrastructure, network, and outsourcing services to telecommunications companies nationwide.

CWA: Alcatel Lucent Repays Workers with Job Cuts

CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, communications and technologies, blasted Alcatel Lucent's proposed plan to close the North Andover, Mass., facility (also known as Merrimack Valley) unless union-represented workers find and agree to accept $6.6 million in cost cutting adjustments.

"This demand is typical of the new Alcatel Lucent," Maly said. "The company says if 250 union-represented workers bear the brunt of $6.6 million in cuts, it might reconsider keeping the operation open. But Alcatel Lucent seems intent on shutting down its U.S. union-represented facilities and shifting more work overseas."

Alcatel Lucent said it plans to shift work from North Andover, which employs a total of 500 employees, to Italy. Maly said that it was CWA and local unions at North Andover that made the product lines produced there a success. "Now, Alcatel Lucent is repaying union workers by threatening to take away their jobs and their livelihoods," he said.

Maly said he will continue to work to keep the facility open.

Members of CWA Local 1365 in North Andover produce network communications equipment to enable companies to transmit data over fiber optic networks. CWA and the local also were instrumental in building new demand for a long distance data transmission system, Lambda Xtreme, a product Lucent was unable to successfully market.

"This past quarter, we gave Lucent the best financials that it has received over the past four years, with costs coming in below all budget expectations," said Local 1365 President Gary Nilsson, adding, that Lucent's treatment of union workers at North Andover is a disgrace. 

Workers are mobilizing and building support throughout the North Andover community, with a public meeting scheduled for June 24.

CWAers Rally to Support Striking DT Workers

Lead by CWA President Larry Cohen, more than a hundred union activists in Washington, D.C., demonstrated outside the German Embassy to show solidarity with 16,000 striking workers at Deutsche Telekom in Germany. The workers are fighting management demands to shift 50,000 jobs to subsidiary T-Services, where workers would face big cuts in pay but increased working hours. The workers, members of ver.di, the German telecommunications union, went on strike beginning May 11.

Cohen blasted the German government for its failure to condemn the company's actions on the basis that it was neutral and it could not take sides. "The German government is part owner of Deutsche Telekom and could have a powerful influence on this company's management. It's inexcusable that Chancellor Angela Merkel has chosen to remain silent as this company seeks to crush its workers and their standard of living," he said.

Union Network International also has called on the German government to safeguard the workers' benefits and working conditions. The company has been pressing for huge cuts in compensation and other changes since Blackstone Group, a private equity company, obtained a minority stake in the company. Go to www.unionvoice.org/campaign/dt and urge DT's chief executive officer to bargain fairly with workers.

Canadian Unions Hail Court Ruling on Bargaining Rights

In a landmark victory for Canadian workers, the country's Supreme Court ruled 6-1 last week that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Charter of Rights, similar to the Bill of Rights in the United States.

"The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin and Justice Louis LeBel.

The ruling – from a court with a generally conservative reputation -- came in a case involving a 2003 British Columbia law that allows health-care employers to break union contracts and eliminate job security provisions by replacing union workers with non-union contractors. Thousands of workers lost their jobs.

CWA and TNG-CWA represent more than 7,000 workers in Canada. TNG-Canada Director Arnold Amber said that while the ruling "doesn't affect many of our members, every Supreme Court judgment that moves the cause of labor forward is really, really important. This is a tremendous victory, a reaffirmation of the legitimacy and the importance of the labor movement in Canada."

CWA President Larry Cohen said the justices "took a legal and moral stand for workers that is a sharp contrast to countries like the United States where many corporations would like nothing more than for workers to have no rights at all."

The court suspended the effect of its decision for one year to give British Columbia time to pass acceptable legislation. Lawyers and union leaders said they don't know yet whether the court's decision will offer any recourse for the thousands of union members whose jobs were contracted as a result of the B.C. law.

CWA a Vital Partner for South African Workers at Vodacom

A victory for workers struggling to bargain collectively at South Africa's Vodacom could have ripple effects for workers throughout the African continent and around the world – including Verizon Wireless employees in the United States, union leaders say.

Vodacom's parent company, Vodafone, operates in much of the African continent and countries that include Spain, France, Germany and England. It also owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless.

"These workers will prevail," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Their struggle serves as a reminder of what we can achieve despite history and the odds. A little more than a dozen years ago, these workers would have been jailed under South Africa's brutal anti-worker apartheid regime. Yet today, apartheid is gone and South Africa's labor laws are more progressive than our own in the United States." 

For two years, CWA has been working with the Solidarity Center and the Communications Workers Union of South Africa to help the country's roughly 3,000 Vodacom workers – mostly young, black women – organize a union and bargain a contract.

Since apartheid ended in South Africa, labor and government have generally had a good relationship, seeing themselves as partners in the struggle to end segregation and rebuild a vibrant country based on social justice.

Because of that, "it used to be blasphemy to oppose unions in the workplace," Solidarity Center Organizing Director Hanad Mohamed said during a presentation June 14 at CWA headquarters.

But attitudes are changing for the worse. And Vodacom made things even more contentious by hiring what may be the first union-busting attorney in South Africa – an American. Under her direction, Vodacom employees have been the targets of anti-union fear and intimidation tactics familiar to many American workers. Mohamed said the South Africans were so shocked by the behavior they were often heard to say, "This kind of thing only happens in America."

The workers went on strike in March – an especially courageous act, Mohamed said, in a country with 40 percent unemployment -- but a court injunction ended the walkout several days later. The injunction was overturned last month. To push the company to bargain, the workers have threatened to go on strike again and this time take the country's landline workers with them.

The company agreed to talks but so far has done little but throw up roadblocks by demanding bargaining sessions in places far away, forcing union leaders and the workers who will join them to deplete their resources by paying for airfare. But the union is standing strong.

CWA's support and advice have been invaluable, Mohamed said, helping the union do unprecedented research on the company and map out a coordinated campaign and message. "People feel and believe that CWA is in this fight with them," he said.

Connecticut CWA Activist Handcuffed for Health Care

Determined to make universal health care a reality in Connecticut and frustrated by broken promises from lawmakers, CWA member Rich Benham and 21 other labor activists decided they needed to show the legislature how serious they are.

June 1, following a rally that drew more than 400 union members to the capitol in Hartford, the group now known as the "Health 4 You 22" peacefully blocked entrances to the Senate, House and governor's office.

After several warnings from police, they were each handcuffed, arrested, cited for breach of peace and let go.

Benham, vice president for customer information services in CWA Local 1298, was the only CWA member among the 22. Others included Autoworkers, Machinists, Teamsters, Teachers and members of the New England Health Care Employees Union.

Benham has been leading a Local 1298 project funded with a $25,000 grant from the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut. The money is being used to educate members about the broken health system and how to fix it.

The foundation, whose board includes labor representatives, describes itself on its website as an "independent, nonprofit charity dedicated to making the health care system work for all Connecticut residents. The Foundation believes that health care is a fundamental right. It sees its work as part of a larger movement for social and economic justice."

Before last year's elections, Benham said politicians made promises to labor and to the foundation to take up universal health care. Though some lawmakers in the Democratic-led House and Senate have tried, the legislation has stalled. Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Jodi Rell has refused to respond to the foundation's proposals.

"We submitted a plan, we sent letters – we delivered over 2,000 Christmas cards saying "All I want for Christmas is universal health care. But there's been no response," Benham said.

Led by the UAW, hundreds of union members turned out for the June 1 rally, which followed a candlelight vigil by the faith-based community the night before. Feeling that more action was needed to get lawmakers' and the media's attention, Benham and the 21 others volunteered for civil disobedience.

Two of the 22 pleaded guilty to the charges, primarily because summer vacations were going to get in the way of later court dates. But 20 others, including Benham, plan to fight the charges and keep the issue in the news. They are headed back to court June 21.

A video of the protests and arrests is on You Tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5G8Re49EOw

Staffer Ed Disch Taught Wisconsin Stewards

Edward Disch, 78, a retired CWA representative in District 4, died on June 12. He was best known for his commitment and effectiveness in training CWA leaders.

"Ed was a terrific teacher. He ran some of the best steward schools we had," said CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, who was District 4 vice president at the time of Disch's retirement.

"Education was what he loved most," said his wife, Elaine. "He enjoyed the camaraderie with the members and staff."

Employed by Wisconsin Telephone as a fieldman for engineering, Disch formed a deep commitment to unionism during the national telephone strike of 1947. He served as president of CWA Local 5522 in Oshkosh, Wis., then joined the staff as a CWA representative in November 1953. He soon took on statewide responsibility for stewards' training and headed Wisconsin CWA-COPE.

In 1968, he moved to the union's Chicago office and, in August 1977, was named administrative assistant to the then District 5 vice president. He served as Illinois director from April 1980, then became a CWA representative in November 1985, following the merger of District 5 and District 4. He worked from the Itasca, Ill., office from February 1989 until his retirement in March 1994.

IN BRIEF:

  • A U.S. House bill supported by AFA-CWA and introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) seeks to clarify the Family and Medical Leave Act to ensure that its benefits are available to flight attendants.

    Currently, flight attendants face more hurdles than other workers in order to qualify for FMLA benefits. AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend said that's due to language in the law that has been narrowly interpreted and fails to take into account the unique way the airline industry counts employee hours. Hours worked is one of the standards in the FMLA law for determining who's eligible for benefits.

    Speaking at a Thursday news conference with Friend, Bishop said his bill "will clarify the intent of the law in order to provide a fair and well-deserved benefit to the hard-working airline crewmembers."

  • Oregon is about to become the latest state to give public workers the freedom to form unions through card check.

    "The right to organize played a critical role in building our middle class. If a majority of employees want to form a union, Oregon will respect that choice. It's just common sense," Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney said.

    The measure passed 17-13 in the state Senate and 34-24 in the House, which will vote on it again after reconciling several differences between its version and the Senate bill. Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski has promised to sign it.

    Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain said that in addition to e-mails, letters and phone calls from workers around the state, more than 300 people actively lobbied the legislature "often telling their stories of abuse at the hands of employers."