February 21, 2008

CWA Prepares Challenge of Piedmont Election Results

After falling just short – 60 votes – of winning union representation this week, gate and ramp agents at Piedmont Airlines and CWA are preparing to challenge the results of the election.

Votes tallied by the National Mediation Board (NMB) on Feb. 19 showed that 1,228, or 47.6 percent, of the 2,574 agents voted for union representation. Under Railway Labor Act rules that govern airline union elections, 1,288 agents, or 50 percent plus one of all eligible agents, needed to participate in the election in order for the union to be certified.  Agents who do not cast a vote are counted as votes against a union under these arcane rules.

 

Piedmont Airlines ramp and gate agents from Charlotte (above) and elsewhere are seeking union representation.

Union supporters are reporting that many people whom the airline had listed as "union eligible" should not have been on the voting list – as many as 40 in one location alone.  Further, there are reports of many other agents who should have received voting instructions but did not, and who failed to receive the ballot materials even after requesting them from the NMB.  CWA is also looking into complaints of heavy-handed anti-union activity by some supervisors.  The union has seven days from the ballot count to file a challenge.

More than 62 percent of the agents signed union authorization cards when they petitioned for a union election on Nov. 21. Since the increased security brought about by 9/11, union organizers have had absolutely no access to airline workers who work beyond security gates. This has made union representation elections far tougher.  Also, the union activists were handicapped – as is the case in all NMB elections – in not being provided an address list of the union eligible workers; they had to build a contact list from scratch through one-on-one organizing at the worksite.

CWA-represented flight attendants and passenger agents at US Airways and Piedmont, who have access to the gate and ramp areas, provided major support in the campaign.

AT&T Video Service Members Ratify New Contract

CWA members in District 6 unanimously ratified a new three-year agreement with AT&T Video Services that provides job upgrades, wage increases, improvements to the company's health care proposal and other gains. About 80 customer service representatives and technicians are covered by the agreement.

More than 40 percent of unit members received job upgrades and the agreement also provides for an 8 percent wage increase over the contract term along with lump sum payments and several increased pay differentials.

On health care, improvements have the potential to save workers hundreds of dollars a year, and pension bands were increased. The agreement also sets new limits on mandatory forced overtime, a critical issue for members.

CWA District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said the unity and solidarity of 65,000 CWA members in District 6 locals was the key to achieving a fair agreement.

“Constant mobilization by District 6 locals, including a rally in San Antonio, showed AT&T we had solidarity with our 80 union brothers and sister at Video Services,” he said. Milburn also thanked J.D. Williams, president of Local 6215, and local members for their strong support, including the seed money for buses to San Antonio.

IBM Tech Workers Use Technology to Fight Back

IBM tech workers are using information technology to organize and fight back against a 15 percent pay cut imposed by management recently in what amounts to retaliation against having to pay them overtime.

Over 1,300 of the affected workers so far have signed on to an online protest sponsored by Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701, demanding that IBM roll back the pay cut for some 7,600 technical support workers who it reclassified on Jan. 21 as being eligible for overtime. The cut affects about six percent of the company's workforce.

Many workers are finding that, even with overtime, the pay cut will cost them thousands of dollars a year. "After 10 years of employment with IBM this reduction places me back at my 2003 salary," said one worker on the petition. Fewer than one third of the workers are working enough on a weekly basis, estimated at 45 hours a week, to break even, according to Alliance@IBM coordinator Lee Conrad.

Ironically, the company's action stems from a $65 million settlement that IBM reached in 2006 to settle a lawsuit with the workers, who charged that they were unfairly being denied overtime and back pay.

Alliance members rely on mass e-mails and website communications to rapidly communicate and mobilize – all the more important since nearly half of the IBM employees work from home or are constantly mobile, said Conrad.

Last year, Alliance members and other IBM unions around the world staged an innovative "virtual strike" at IBM's "island" in the Internet virtual 3-D world, Second Life.  A YouTube video of the Second Life "strike" and the current online petition drive are found at the Alliance website, www.allianceibm.org.

Flight Attendants Push Bill for FMLA Leave at Minnesota Caucuses

Deeply involved in the process that will determine both major parties' nominees for president, four Northwest Airlines flight attendants went a step further, lobbying their Minnesota state caucuses on Feb. 5 to make FMLA leave more accessible to flight crews.

Northwest AFA-CWA members Camilla Wokerstorfer, Julienne Wycoff and Sandee Russell participated in separate Democratic precinct caucuses in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Their colleague Robin Wimmer attended a Republican caucus in Minneapolis. Each convinced her precinct caucus to adopt a resolution of support for H.R. 2744/S. 2059, the Airline Crew Family and Medical Leave Act.

The bill clarifies the formula under which flight attendants and pilots qualify for time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act to take into consideration the unique way their hours are tracked in the airline industry.

"Robin, Julienne, Sandee and Camilla should be applauded for their dedicated commitment and courage to make their voice heard in our fight to improve our profession," said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend.

Sen. Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won their parties' respective caucuses in Minnesota; now the flight attendants want to make sure they come out winners too.

"We're going to have to chase this a little," Wokerstorfer said. "We also became delegates for our precincts and want to follow this through to make sure it's put in the parties' platforms."

So far, AFA-CWA has generated more than 7,000 e-mails and 20,000 hand-signed letters to members of Congress in support of the legislation, securing the bipartisan support of 171 representatives and eight senators. To send an e-mail, visit www.afanet.org.

Easterling Honored with United Way Joseph Beirne Award

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling has been selected by United Way of America as this year's recipient of its prestigious Joseph A. Beirne Community Services Award for her career-long service to United Way, including more than 10 years on its board of governors.

Said Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way, "Barbara is a gracious and inspiring leader. She has been a champion of United Way, the labor movement and our longstanding partnership – always ensuring the interests of our nation's communities were considered first and foremost. She is a true advocate and both our movements will miss her leadership."

Easterling will step down from the United Way board concurrent with receiving the award on May 15 and will retire from CWA at the convention in June.

Easterling first became involved with United Way and its predecessor organizations as a steward in Local 4302 in Akron, Ohio. To this day she remembers the words of CWA founding President Joe Beirne, urging local leaders to get involved as "a way we can represent our members beyond the company gate."

As chief of the state's Labor Division under Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, in 1970 she became the first woman in the country to chair a United Way drive, in Summit County, Ohio.

Easterling was elected to the United Way's board in 1997. For much of her tenure on the board, Easterling served on United Way's executive committee. Tackling issues such as poverty, HIV-AIDS and teen pregnancy, she championed a restructure of the agency to have greater impact in individual communities and contributed to the development of its Center for Community Leadership.

Easterling often became the public face of United Way, speaking at community events around the country, serving on awards committees and presenting awards at the agency's national conferences. In addition, she corresponded with numerous select labor leaders, reinforcing her conviction that positive changes taking place in United Way's program would benefit both the agency and communities.

Easterling is the 38th recipient of the Beirne Community Services Award, created by the charity in Beirne's memory and presented to leaders throughout the labor movement who have contributed their time and talents to United Way.

IN BRIEF:
  • Failing to deal a lethal blow to Social Security, the Bush administration apparently has decided that it's easier for now to make life harder for the elderly and the tens of millions of baby boomers beginning to join the ranks of America's retired citizens.

    Bush's proposed 2009 budget would close scores of Social Security offices across the country, forcing some seniors and disabled citizens to travel hours to the nearest field office.

    Witold Skwierczynski, president of AFGE Council 220 in Washington, D.C., told reporters last week that the system is already under enormous pressure. "Over the past 10 years the Social Security administrative budget has been constricted by upwards of $1.3 billion. Further cuts, as 76 million baby boomers enter the system, could prove to be disastrous," he said.

    A bill is already pending in Congress to keep Social Security offices open, introduced by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.). Known as the Social Security Customer Service Improvement Act, H.R. 5110, it would give Congress additional oversight of SSA staff levels, office closures and budget estimates.


  • Embattled miners in Mexico who are being attacked by strike-breaking police officers and soldiers are asking Congress to withhold $1.4 billion in funds that the Bush administration wants to give their country's security forces.

    A delegation of miners came to Washington to make the request on behalf of workers who have been on strike for nearly seven months over unsafe conditions at the Cananea copper mine in Sonora, 70 miles from the U.S. border.

    The mine is owned by Grupo Mexico, which has ties to ASARCO Inc., a metals company that employs U.S. Steelworkers in Arizona and Texas. "Mexico cannot be allowed to violate workers' human rights with impunity under the pretense of securing borders and combating narco-trafficking," USW President Leo Gerard said. "The attack on the Cananea miners is just the most recent in a series of repressive actions by the Mexican government."

    In spite of a court ruling that the strike is legal, nearly 1,000 federal police are occupying the copper mine and surrounding area and have used tear gas and pellet guns against workers.


  • Check out what's surely one of the Internet's most perfectly named websites – www.ShameOnElaine.org – and you'll get a good picture of the dismal 7-year record of Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao.

    Created by American Rights at Work, the website tracks Chao's many anti-worker actions and the death and injury toll of workers who have suffered because of her department's lax enforcement of safety rules.

    This week the site reported on the tragedy of the eighth worker to die after the recent sugar refinery explosion in Georgia. Authorities say the likely cause was combustible dust. Experts urged Chao in 2006 to issue safety rules on combustible dust but she failed to do so – just one of the safety issues she's ignored.

    Among an exhaustive list of other worker insults, Chao put a pal from the ultra conservative Heritage Foundation on the DOL payroll – a man who wrote a report titled "How to close down the Department of Labor." 

    In announcing the site, ARAW Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell said Chao has so far escaped the public's scrutiny. "Please join us in shaming Elaine and restoring the Department of Labor as an agency run on behalf of America's workers," she said.