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November 4, 2010
Management Interference Critical Factor in Extremely Close Delta VoteFighting against fierce management intimidation, Delta Air Lines flight attendants came within 328 votes of winning an AFA-CWA voice and bargaining rights. The vote was 9,216 for union representation and 9,544 for no union. The turnout was huge, about 94 percent of the more than 20,000 eligible flight attendants voted in the National Mediation Board election. AFA-CWA will file interference charges with the National Mediation Board over the atmosphere of harassment and intimidation that Delta management created with its “Decision 2010” campaign. “The amount of intimidation these flight attendants experienced is unprecedented,” said AFA-CWA President Pat Friend. Management “stopped at nothing to keep Delta flight attendants from gaining a voice and advancing their profession.” A major part of AFA-CWA’s complaint will focus on management’s pressure that flight attendants cast their vote on the company’s computers. AFA-CWA General Counsel Ed Gilmartin explained how it worked: Flight attendants would log in for their flight assignments, as required, and the first screen that popped up was one asking if they had voted and directing them immediately to the NMB site. “It’s clear to us that Delta was tracking the voting. This kind of surveillance is a violation of the confidentiality and secret guarantee of the voting process under NMB rules,” he told reporters. At the news teleconference, local AFA-CWA flight attendant leaders from Northwest, which merged with Delta, and Delta flight attendants outlined other ways that management harassed and coerced flight attendants about their vote. Delta flight attendants Mary Ellen Moore and Toni Weinfurtner said flight attendants were “inundated” with literature, banners, email and phone calls from Delta management about the vote. Some anti-AFA-CWA materials were even displayed on board aircraft, they said. Flight attendants were called by supervisors several times, not to talk about work schedules or other issues, but for supervisors to deliver Delta’s message about voting. AFA-CWA Northwest President Janette Rook and Vice President Daniel Grey also talked about the intimidation of flight attendants and pointed out that Northwest flight attendants have had bargaining rights for more than 60 years. AFA-CWA will continue to work on behalf of all Delta flight attendants – those from pre-merger Northwest and pre-merger Delta. Piedmont Agents Vote ‘CWA Yes’
The 3,000 fleet and passenger service agents at Piedmont Airlines now have a union voice. Agents voted “CWA yes” by a two–to–one margin in the National Mediation Board election. The agents were the only major group at Piedmont without union representation. Now agents will vote on bargaining goals, elect their bargaining team and negotiate with management over wages, working conditions and other benefits. Key issues in the campaign were job security, unfair and arbitrary treatment and the lack of a grievance process. CWA President Larry Cohen said the campaign was a big victory for workers’ bargaining and organizing rights. “Piedmont and parent company US Airways used every anti-union trick in the book to keep workers from voting ‘CWA Yes.’ Management held forced captive audience meetings, had supervisors tear up union materials and harass union supporters, and even hired a notorious union-busting company that promised management results ‘or your money back.’ “It’s outrageous that most union elections are conducted this way in the United States. Piedmont agents stood up to this intimidation and won their union. But it shouldn’t be this way in our democracy,” he said. Voting took place under new election rules set by the NMB that ensured that airline elections would be conducted following the same democratic rules that govern elections in the United States. Testimony and other action by AFA-CWA, CWA and airline workers convinced the NMB to implement the fair election rule in June. CWA represents more than 60,000 employees in the airline industry. Some Excerpts from CWA’s Election Night StatementCWA: Congress Needs to Get to Work Now on Jobs, Help for Hurting Americans The results of the midterm elections don’t change the tough times facing millions of middle class and working Americans who are struggling with joblessness and how to take care of their families. CWA challenges Congress to get to work now to help build an economy that works for everyone. We don’t need a government that believes ‘we’re all on our own.’ We do need real efforts to help create quality, sustainable jobs in the U.S. and to build a government that supports its citizens. CWA activists will continue to organize at work and mobilize in our communities, building alliances of the millions of Americans who agree that together we can build a country that supports middle class and working families. And CWA will continue to work with elected officials who support working families. This election cycle, thanks to the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision, saw unprecedented spending by corporations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Corporations have spent more than $1 billion in this election cycle, with the Chamber of Commerce alone spending more than $300 million. That's 74.2 percent of all money spent in this election, the Center for Responsive Politics reports. “We’re back to the way elections were run in the United States one hundred years ago, when the Big Trusts and robber barons made sure theirs were the only voices heard,” said CWA President Larry Cohen. “We’ve seen the same game plan used to hijack democracy in the U.S. Senate especially in the last session, where a single senator, doing the bidding of some corporate special interest, blocked even the discussion of critical legislation. So issues like ending the tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas or public disclosure of corporate spending on elections, couldn’t even be debated on the Senate floor this year,” Cohen said. “Our goal remains the same: to help build an economy that works for everyone and to keep working for the change that millions of Americans voted for in 2008.
CWA Activists Work Hard for Candidates Who Support Working FamiliesCWA’s political program for Election 2010 was focused on member education and one-on-one contacts. In 29 states, more than 500 CWA local union coordinators were on the ground, mobilizing thousands of volunteers from locals for events like leafleting, phone banks and neighborhood walks. Here’s a look at what CWA activists did:
CWA’s political program is funded mainly by the thousands of CWA members who voluntarily contribute to CWA-COPE. This year saw a huge increase in contributors, because CWA members get it: working people have to have a voice in the political process. And unlike the Chamber of Commerce’s anonymous donors or the issue advocacy groups with names like Americans for Job Security which is working for anything but quality jobs for U.S. workers, our members and the public know exactly where we stand: for quality jobs, organizing and bargaining rights, for retirement security and for an economy that works for everyone, not just corporations and the wealthy. CWA-COPE Contest a Tremendous SuccessCWA members were the biggest winners in this year’s CWA-COPE contest, because the big jump in new CWA-COPE contributors means that CWAers will have an even stronger voice in the political process. CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said CWAers should be very proud that “in the face of great challenges, a record number of members volunteered to either contribute to COPE for the first time or increase their contributions.” Districts 1 and 6 won the contest, with District 1 collecting the most cards, 1,107, and District 6 raising the most dollars, $129,591, Hill said. During the six month contest, 4,457 CWAers signed up for COPE for the first time or increased their contributions. That represents a 12.5 percent increase in contributions over 2009. The hard work of CWA’s legislative/political coordinators, state coordinators and activists in every district and sector made the campaign a tremendous success. And the added incentive of the chance to win a trip to Las Vegas didn’t hurt. On Nov. 2, eight separate drawings were held at CWA headquarters, with Hill and CWA Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Rechenbach picking the lucky winners of the trip for two to Las Vegas, including two nights’ accommodation and airfare. Watch the drawing at www.cwa-union.org/drawing, or check out the list of winners below:
Combined drawing for District 13/IUE-CWA/AFA-CWA, and media sectors
Dallas CWAers Rally at DISH Sites to Support Workers’ Fight for Union
Rainy weather didn’t stop CWA members from rallying outside two DISH Network locations near Dallas, Texas, this week, to support DISH employees in their fight for the CWA voice and bargaining rights they voted for in February. Members of Locals 6171 and 6215 gathered at 6 a.m. outside the Farmers Branch and North Richland Hills worksites, drawing some media attention as they greeted arriving workers. Flyers explained how CWA is battling the company’s vicious union-busting campaign and announced a National Labor Relations Board hearing set for Jan. 18 on the many unfair labor practice charges filed by CWA. Since the workers voted for a CWA voice, DISH has pulled out every union-busting trick in the book, cutting workers’ hours while shifting work to contractors and refusing to fill jobs when workers have been fired or quit. The NLRB certified the CWA election at Farmers Branch in May, but DISH is stalling at the bargaining table. In North Richland Hills, workers are still waiting for their vote to be certified. AFL-CIO, Mexican Independent Unions Move Forward on Plan for Jobs, Workers RightsThe AFL-CIO and Mexico’s independent labor federation UNT, Unión Nacional de Trabajadores, have signed a joint action plan to help rebuild the industrial base in the United States and Mexico, ensure workers’ rights and coordinate bargaining across borders. The agreement builds on years of joint work between U.S. and Mexican unions, in particular, CWA’s long working relationship with STRM, the independent union of telephone workers. CWA President Larry Cohen said the new initiative will help bring economic justice to workers in both nations. “The working people of Mexico need an independent trade union movement to be able to bargain fairly and make economic gains for themselves and their families,” he said. “The UNT is a dynamic organization with members like STRM that are committed to ending the Mexican government’s assault on workers’ rights.” The plan calls for joint efforts to strengthen labor laws through the International Labor Organization and other global groups. In Mexico, a huge problem for workers are the so-called “protection contracts” that mainly exist to protect employers from having to deal with independent unions. These often are negotiated without the knowledge or consent of Mexican workers. Other goals of the new plan are protecting and respecting immigrant rights; pushing for changes in NAFTA and its labor side agreements; using trade agreements to push for enforcement of workers’ rights in each country and conducting joint corporate campaigns to give workers real union representation. David Letterman, Media Have Fun with CWA’s Own Justin Bieber
Did you know that Justin Bieber, the teen idol, is a CWA member? Well, not exactly. But CWA’s own Justin Bieber is becoming nearly as famous. This week, the Local 3106 member from Jacksonville, Fla., appeared on David Letterman’s show to deliver the “Top 10 Reasons I’m Glad to Be Named Justin Bieber.” Check this out: No. 10: “I really enjoy the look of disappointment when people first meet me.” No. 8: “YouTube video of me mowing the lawn got 10 million hits.” No. 3: “Due to a mix-up at the Post Office, I’m the proud owner of a Teen Choice Award.” And No. 1: “I just thank God I’m not named Charlie Sheen.” Bieber has been a CWA member since 2009 and is a customer service representative for AT&T Internet Services. His first round of publicity: a news story about him being kicked off Facebook for having a “fake” name. Then CNN, “Inside Edition” and other national and even international TV and radio shows began calling, leading up to Letterman bringing Bieber and his wife to New York. Bieber says that even after changing his phone number he gets dozens of calls at all hours from the teen star’s fans and receives about 10 pieces of fan mail a day. He told a Jacksonville TV station that he’s getting a taste of what it’s like to be the other Justin Bieber. “It's been a blast the past few days, but not something I would want to deal with regularly. I’m glad I am not a full-on celebrity.” Check out Bieber’s Letterman appearance HERE. http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=L7K9eCEV7ewL_Ca_UmiGZkfcbseNzqiU&nrd=1 |
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