January 31, 2008

Vermont Forum Spotlights Political Movement for Change

Building a political movement for change was the focus of a day-long session at the University of Vermont in Montpelier, where CWA President Larry Cohen spotlighted the "Stop the Sale" campaign to keep quality telecommunications services and jobs in northern New England and joined a panel with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and others on how to move forward on workers' rights and social justice.

Pres. Cohen addresses conferees on building a movement for workers' rights and social justice.

More than 300 workers, students, health care providers, educators and other activists participated in discussions, workshops and actions around workers' rights, livable wages, economic justice, quality health care for all and global solidarity. 

In an opening workshop, CWA President Larry Cohen discussed the campaign by labor, community and other activists to block the sale of Verizon landlines to FairPoint Communications, a small, financially risky company that will be unlikely to provide quality service, let alone build out high speed Internet networks for residents.

"CWA's three principal concerns are: how do we set good public policy that will enable customers to have access to real high speed Internet; how does the coming global credit crunch affect this deal; and what happens to workers who have invested their lives in this work and find they now work for a company with an overwhelming debt structure and financial problems," Cohen told reporters at a media briefing before the conference.

"And FairPoint is not the only alternative," Cohen added, pointing out that Verizon could spin off its northern New England operations as an independent company without the huge debt load that burdens FairPoint.

Separately, CWA and the IBEW continued to press the case against the FairPoint sale this week, testifying before the Vermont Public Service Board and a Senate Economic Development Committee hearing.

Senator Vincent Illuzzi, who chairs the committee, and other Vermont lawmakers have expressed concern that a proposed settlement by the companies will not provide affordable broadband by 2010 to all residences and businesses in the state now served by Verizon.

Expert witness Randy Barber, testifying for the unions, said it was clear that FairPoint simply will not have the financial resources to meet all the additional commitments it has made. "The proposed Vermont stipulation requires FairPoint to spend tens of millions of dollars without a penny of additional funding from Verizon. Verizon should not be permitted to abandon Vermont without making adequate provision for the future prospects of its customers, communities and employers," he said.

CWA Arizona Corrections Workers Win 'Meet and Confer'

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has signed an executive order establishing a "meet and confer" process for discussing with CWA the hours, working conditions, safety and other issues affecting 9,600 employees of the state's Department of Corrections, including 3,600 members of CWA's Arizona Coalition of Police and Sheriffs (AZCOPS), Local 7077.

"There has never been a labor group recognized in this way in the state of Arizona. We're making history here," said Tixoc Muñoz, president of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association, an AZCOPS affiliate.

The executive order caps a year of work by Muñoz and CWA, beginning with Napolitano's 2006 election campaign. Muñoz took a full month leave of absence to work on Napolitano's campaign full-time, calling and speaking to members of 85 other police officer associations that make up AZCOPS' total membership of about 8,600.

"It probably helps that we're the largest union in the state," said John Burpo, director of CWA's National Coalition of Public Safety Officers, who also worked to obtain the executive order. CWA's total membership in Arizona is around 15,000.

The order requires that the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections meet at least quarterly with the "duly elected representative of any employee organization whose members constitute at least 50 percent of all Department of Corrections employees who participate in payroll deductions for employee organizations." CWA is the only state employee organization that meets that criterion.

Subjects for discussion include hours, employee safety conditions, disciplinary policies, morale issues and budgetary strategy and requests.

Local 7077 represents corrections officers, teachers, maintenance, clerical and other workers at several state facilities.

Muñoz expects a meeting with the state to be scheduled within the next six weeks. "We're going to bring people from all over the state and let them speak. We'll identify the top issues and go from there."

Utica Workers Take on Cable Giant Time Warner

Backed by community leaders in upstate New York, a small but determined unit of CWA members are taking on media giant Time Warner, challenging one town after another to consider whether the union-busting monopoly cable company deserves their business.

Last week, the Utica-based workers represented by CWA Local 1126 showed up at a city council finance committee in Syracuse and two days later held a protest in Binghamton, where they were joined by members from other CWA locals, labor council leaders and the mayor and other city officials in decrying the company's treatment of workers.

"A company with $6.5 billion in revenue and $6 million from the recent rate hike in Utica alone isn't a company that should be complaining that it can't afford to give its workers a 401(k) and a pension plan, something every other Time Warner employee has," said Local 1126 President Michael Garry. "But because we chose to be union members, they've refused to give us any retirement benefits." Their previous 401(k) and pension plans were frozen when the former owner, Adelphia, went bankrupt.

Add to that, he said, the fact that the 35 Utica workers haven't had any raises in four years -- the last year and a half under Time Warner ownership. Though the cable company has changed hands a number of times, the workers have had a union contract for 35 years and were in talks with Adelphia when Time Warner took over.

The workers, the only unionized Time Warner workers in upstate New York, overwhelmingly voted to keep their union after a decertification attempt last fall. A federal mediator is now involved after the company's 18-month's long refusal to budge at the bargaining table.

The local is using a creative approach to get its message across to the media.  It tried to place a paid TV ad on Time Warner's network, and when the ad was turned down, workers used the censorship issue to attract coverage by local broadcast stations in Binghamton, which aired the spot for free as part of their news reports.  In one broadcast report, Mayor Matt Ryan said of Time Warner, "They're dead wrong in trying to bust this union."

CWA Student Video Contest Focuses on Workers' Rights

CWA and Jobs with Justice (JwJ) have announced a contest for progressive student activists with a flair for video production.  Individuals and campus groups are invited to submit a 1 to 3 minute "YouTube style" video highlighting the failure of U.S. labor laws to protect workers' rights and why America needs the Employee Free Choice Act.

Up to 10 contest finalists will be selected, with each receiving a $500 cash prize.  Later, top winners will be determined through online voting with those winners receiving additional prizes of $1,000, $750 and $500 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The winning videos will be widely circulated through an electronic outreach campaign and posted on a special CWA website promoting the Employee Free Choice Act.

CWA and JwJ will judge the initial 10 finalists based on creativity and effectiveness in telling the story of what's happening to workers who try to exercise their rights to organize and bargain collectively in the face of anti-union employers and a broken labor law system.

The video submissions can be serious or funny, they can be in documentary style, or use actors, street theater, or even animation in making the point about how the bosses try to control and intimidate their workers.

The contest is open now and runs through the end of March, 2008. Students of all ages -- high school through college grad school -- are invited to participate. 

Go to www.efcavideo.com for more information and instructions on entering and posting video submissions online.  Links to online sources for background information on workers rights' and the Free Choice Act are provided.

IN BRIEF:

  • Responding to objections by IUE-CWA and the Auto Workers to Delphi's proposed management compensation plan, bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain drastically slashed Delphi's proposed $87 million in cash bonuses for executives to $16.5 million.

    "After so much sacrifice by Delphi's frontline workers, it is gratifying that the judge recognized the overwhelming greed in throwing huge cash payments to Delphi's executives," said IUE-CWA President Jim Clark.  "It is a very symbolic victory for our members.  Fairness prevails with this decision."

    Recognizing that Delphi's workers have suffered greatly in the company's restructuring, Judge Drain established the amount for the award to executives to require some "equivalence of sacrifice."  It was the largest reduction in proposed executive compensation ever imposed by a bankruptcy court, said IUE-CWA's attorney Tom Kennedy.


  • President Bush has nominated anti-worker NLRB Chairman Robert Battista to another term on the board, just a month after Battista told a joint Senate-House hearing that he doesn't believe the primary purpose of the National Labor Relations Act is to promote collective bargaining.

    Battista's five-year term expired in December on the heels of a string of rulings by the board's Republican majority favoring employers and rolling back worker and union rights. Bush has also nominated a management attorney who has never represented workers, Gerald Morales, for a vacant seat on the board. Both nominations will require Senate approval and face strong opposition.

    Among those blasting Bush for once again turning his back on workers was Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who said:  "It's unbelievable that President Bush would renominate Mr. Battista to the board, after he led the most anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-union board in its history," Kennedy said.


  • A staffing crisis among air traffic controllers is dangerous and getting worse, the union representing them warned this week as it added Oakland, Calif., to a list of five other areas with major airports and staffing emergencies.

    "An already dangerous situation is about to get worse," NATCA President Patrick Forrey said. "An additional 2,200 experienced controllers will be able to retire by the end of this year, thinning the already-depleted ranks of the workforce at a time when the skies have never been more congested. The GAO has already stated that the risk of a catastrophic accident on our runways around the nation is high. Without an adequate amount of rested, well-trained controllers in towers and radar facilities, the risk of an aviation accident now includes the airspace as well as the ground." 

    The FAA has refused to bargain in good faith with the controllers since unilaterally imposing new work rules in 2006. The agency repeatedly has cut control tower staffing in recent years and shortened the amount of time between work shifts, forcing fatigued air traffic controllers to keep working.

    In addition to Oakland, the union says Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Southern California all pose serious safety concerns, and Miami may soon be added to the list.