September 6, 2007

Utica Time Warner Techs Stand Strong for Their Union

Dealing a big blow to their anti-union employer, Time Warner Cable, CWA-represented cable technicians in Utica, N.Y., this week overwhelmingly rejected a decertification attempt.

The 33 members of CWA Local 1126 voted 24-9 to stick with the union, which has represented them through a parade of owners for 35 years.

High morale and unbreakable solidarity got the unit through the past 45 days of the decertification campaign, Local 1126 President Mike Garry said. “They won by standing up for themselves, showing strength and unity, wearing stickers, asking questions at captive audience meetings – really putting the company in a lose-lose situation.”

And they involved the community with lawn signs, print ads and radio spots encouraging them to call Time Warner in support of the workers – a campaign that will continue as contract negotiations get underway Sept. 25. Their support was so strong that their local New York assemblywoman came to their victory party Wednesday night, Garry said.

The struggle began about two years ago when Time Warner Cable bought Adelphia, which had a contract, now expired, with the Utica workers. Time Warner quickly showed its lack of respect for the union by stripping members of the pension and 401(k) plan it offered its non-union workers.

Although they couldn’t legally come right out and say they’d give the benefits back to workers if they decertified, CWA District 1 Organizing Coordinator Tim Dubnau said Time Warner “hinted very strongly” that it would happen. “They ran a vicious campaign,” he said.

But he and Garry said the company grossly underestimated its workers. “They thought they could buy them off,” Garry said. “They thought the whole thing was going to hinge on the fact that they were withholding the 401(k) and pensions.”

CWA countered with a highly effective campaign that included testimonials from former CWA members in Texas who deeply regret decertifying their own union at Time Warner cable.

“They spoke anonymously because they still work for the company,” Dubnau said. “But they told us it was a huge mistake. They talked about how much forced overtime they have to work now and how they never see their families. And they told us that the person who spearheaded the decertification got two promotions and a trip to Hawaii.”

Another big coup was contact with a former Time Warner manager who’s now a member of CWA at Verizon in Syracuse. “He called into one of our meetings and told them what to expect and said, ‘They can’t wait to crush you guys,’” Garry said. “I think that was the final straw.”

In addition, Dubnau said a strong inside committee did an excellent job of helping workers understand the difference between being an at-will employee and one with union rights. He said the company had to know it was in trouble when 22 of the workers wore union stickers to a captive-audience meeting.

Calif. Court Interpreters Strike to End Double Standard

California court interpreters, forced to strike over the court’s refusal to bargain a fair contract, have strong and growing support from state and local elected officials and the communities they serve in their fight to be treated equitably with other court employees.

Some 400 members of the California Federation of Interpreters (CFI), part of TNG-CWA Local 39521, set up picket lines on Sept. 5 at courthouses in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties. Despite months of negotiations on a wage-reopener, the court continues to reject proposals for a fair wage increase for interpreters.  The group has had only one cost of living increase in eight years and they are denied salary step increases that all other court employees enjoy, according to CFI. 

The union is pointing out that below-standard pay treatment has caused a shortage of court interpreters in Southern California, which causes delays and postponements that handicap non-English-speaking citizens.  "The population we serve includes the most victimized people in society when it comes to crime, consumer fraud and employment issues, and our services open the doors of justice to them," said CFI head Silvia Barden.

Separate letters supporting the interpreters have been introduced by lawmakers in the State Senate by Senator Gil Cedillo and in the State Assembly by Representative Mike Eng, who are urging their colleagues to sign on. 

Senator Cedillo said court interpreters are “indispensable in the administration of justice and to California diversity” and should be “treated with dignity, respect and rewarded appropriately for the critical service they play in our Justice system.”

Interpreters also have received overwhelming support from California’s legal community, including judges and other court personnel.

More information is available at www.cfinews.org.

Death of Verizon Tech Prompts Electrical Safety Agreement

Under a settlement pushed by CWA after the electrocution death of a technician last year, Verizon in Maryland will train its 2,700 technicians – inside and outside workers – on a full array of electrical safety and health issues.

The agreement between Verizon and Maryland’s Occupational Safety and Health division requires the company to conduct training between now and Feb. 1, 2008, with future training for new hires. Topics include power line contact with vehicles and aerial lifts, identifying electrical hazards, health effects from exposure to electrical power and how to resolve hazards.

CWA Safety and Health Director Dave LeGrande said the settlement doesn’t spell out the union’s role in the training, but District 2 and local leaders, working through the joint union-management committee at Verizon, will insist on being involved.

"No settlement agreement can begin to make up for the loss of our member, Marvin Benson, but by requiring training for all technicians, it honors his memory and will save other lives," District 2 President Pete Catucci said. "Our job now is to make sure that CWA has input into the training and that it's as effective as it can possibly be."

Benson, who was 36 and a member of CWA Local 2100, was electrocuted last October while working in an aerial bucket placing fiber optic cable near Baltimore-Washington Airport. The accident sent electricity through the bucket and to the truck.  Another technician inside the truck managed to escape injury.

District 2 Administrative Director Ron Collins and leaders of Benson’s local – Executive Vice President Mark Balsamo, also the safety and health chair, and President Steve Holland – were instrumental in getting the training into the settlement and will be working to ensure that the union has a voice in the training itself.

CWA leaders will also urge Verizon to expand the training throughout District 2 and ultimately throughout the country. Between CWA and the IBEW, four Verizon technicians have been killed in electrocution accidents over the last year and a half and others have been injured, and there have been several near-miss incidents.

LeGrande said CWA District 4 is working with OSHA in Indiana on a similar settlement in the death of technician and Local 4773 member Brent Cheney. Cheney, 35, was electrocuted in May 2006 while working on a mainframe to fix a customer’s cable problem.

CWA Counters Alcatel Lucent on Plant Closing

CWA has countered Alcatel Lucent’s demand that 250 workers represented by CWA Locals 1365 and 1366 bear the brunt of $6.6 million in cost cutting at the North Andover, Mass., plant.

The CWA proposal will save the company millions of dollars while continuing to keep North Andover open, said CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, Communications and Technologies.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also is working with CWA to find additional savings to help keep the plant in operation.

Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, with Representative John Tierney, wrote to Alcatel Lucent CEO Pat Russo to express their support for CWA’s plan to significantly reduce costs over the next several years and to “urge you to give it full consideration.” 

“Closing the plant, which is among the last of Lucent’s manufacturing facilities in the United States, would send a deleterious signal about the company’s commitment to its workers who helped build it,” they wrote.

IN BRIEF:

  • In a letter to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama urges him “in the strongest terms” to reconsider his decision “not to honor the clear decision of Verizon Business technicians” to join CWA or the IBEW.

Telling Seidenberg that the “hard work and dedicated service” of unionized employees have made his company large and profitable, the Illinois Senator reminded him it’s been nearly six months since a majority of Verizon Business technicians indicated their strong desire to join the company’s 80,000 other union members.

“The next president will sign the Employee Free Choice Act into law, so I encourage you to show leadership by recognizing the unions and entering into negotiations without further delay,” Obama wrote.

  • AT&T announced this week that it will be bringing 367 new jobs to Birmingham, Ala., as part of its agreement with CWA to return thousands of contracting DSL/Internet tech support jobs to the United States. Hiring will begin later this month for a new customer care center, according to the company. The announcement brings to close to 3,000 the number of new tech support jobs that AT&T has created or announced this year.