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May 6, 2010
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CWA District 13 Vice President Ed Mooney
leaflets outside the Deutsche Telekom annual meeting in Cologne,
Germany. |
The Deutsche Telekom shareholders meeting was a marathon, but
the T-Mobile USA workers and CWAers who attended the meeting are
still pumped by the support they got from members of ver.di, the
union representing German workers at T-Mobile. CWA District 13
Vice President Ed Mooney headed the U.S. group; see tweets,
postings, photos and videos at
www.loweringthebarforus.org.
Even before the meeting, ver.di was standing up for the
rights of T-Mobile USA workers to have a union, without the
company intimidation and interference they now face. Lothar
Schröder, a leader and executive board member of ver.di,
told a huge May Day crowd that Deutsche
Telekom uses "vicious methods" to keep out CWA.
"Ver.di and CWA have created a global union that will fight
for the rights of T-Mobile workers. Together we will go to the
annual meeting of Deutsche Telekom to turn on some heat!"
Schröder said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QNffh7muhs
More than 50 ver.di members distributed leaflets outside
every entrance to the meeting that described T-Mobile USA's
"wild west" tactics.
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| Kornelia
Dubbel |
At the meeting, Kornelia Dubbel, a ver.di member and member
of the T-Mobile supervisory board, said that in the U.S., DT is
known as an employer who spreads fear among its workers. "There
is fear of arbitrary dismissal for being 'caught' by management
for simply taking and reading a leaflet from the union. Why do
you act this way?"
As to T-Mobile USA management's claim that the CWA campaign
is 'all lies,' "I have been to the United States with some of my
colleagues from ver.di and I could not talk to T-Mobile workers.
I have seen this treatment first hand," she said.
Also at the meeting, Greg Kinczewski, vice president of the
Marco Consulting Group, stressed that companies should not
exploit the inadequacies of American labor law. "Decency
requires more than compliance with the law!" And Markus Dufner,
Association of Critical Shareholders, questioned why DT allows a
double standard of respect for rights in Germany and a constant
campaign of union avoidance in the United States.
The German media continues to report about the double
standard that DT allows in the United States. And members
of Congress also have stepped in, signing a letter to DT CEO
René Obermann urging him to protect and respect workers'
rights in the United States (see next story.)
Hard work by CWA activists was key to getting 26 Democratic
members of the House Education and Labor Committee to sign on to
a letter calling on Deutsche Telekom, the parent
company of T-Mobile USA, to protect and respect workers' rights
in the U.S.
Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rep. Rob
Andrews (D-N.J.), who chairs the Health, Employment, Labor and
Pensions subcommittee, circulated the letter to the 30
Democratic members. The letter now is being circulated among
Republican members.
The Democratic House members told Deutsche Telekom CEO
René Obermann that he needs to treat American workers
with the same respect as its German workers, who are able to
join unions without interference.
T-Mobile has used many tactics to try to stop workers from
organizing, even hiring private security guards to interfere
with organizing drives, the letter noted. "These reports paint a
troubling picture of a company that appears far out of sync with
Deutsche Telekom's stated commitment to respect workers'
rights."
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More than 150 CWA active and retired
members demonstrate against Windstream's move to eliminate
retiree health care. |
Angry about Windstream's decision to eliminate retiree health
care, more than 150 active and retired CWAers jammed the
company's shareholder meeting in Little Rock, Ark.
Windstream notified retirees they would lose their
long-promised health benefits effective July 2010. CWA
represents about 3,000 retirees and workers at the company.
Even worse, Windstream is suing dozens of retirees who
responded to a survey that the company mailed to them about
health care. Workers who answered the question as to whether
Windstream had the right to change or terminate benefits with
"no," have been sued.
"Windstream is building an empire on the backs of retirees
who helped build the company," said District 6 Vice President
Andy Milburn, noting that Windstream has spent $2 billion to
acquire four companies over the last year.
"The cost to replace health care will be unaffordable,
especially for pre-Medicare retirees," said CWA
Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus. Windstream
will provide a tiny subsidy toward retirees' new benefits, $17 a
month for post-65 retirees and $80 a month for pre-65 retirees,
but only if retirees use Windstream's choice for health
insurance. And family policies cost about $1,800 a month.
Two Windstream retirees from CWA Local 6171 joined Gurganus
in questioning CEO Jeff Gardner. "I asked how they could break
an agreement we had with the company," said Debra Elijah, 53,
who retired in 2006. "He gave us the same old answer –
that most companies don't provide retiree health care."
Royce Perry, 60, who retired in 2007, wondered how Windstream
could justify suing retirees for filling out a questionnaire.
"Gardner said that Windstream did not intend the lawsuit to 'be
adversarial,'" Perry said.
More than 60 active Windstream members and retirees bused in
from Dallas, joining CWAers from Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Texarkana
and Arkansas communities. Members from all five of CWA's
Arkansas locals joined the demonstration, along with a
contingent of CWAers in Little Rock for the next day's Verizon
annual meeting, including CWA District 2 Vice President Ron
Collins.
E-Z Pass call center workers in Staten Island, N.Y., are
getting growing support from New York State elected and public
officials in their fight for a fair contact.
A New York State Senate committee that oversees the
Metropolitan Transit Authority, the New York State Thruway
Authority and other agencies held a hearing April 30 to
investigate the company's refusal to bargain fairly and the
hostile work environment that E-Z pass workers face because of
their support for CWA representation.
CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton testified at the
hearing, as did President Ed Luster, CWA Local 1102, which
represents the 300 call center workers since they voted for a
union last August.
Ten current and former workers testified before the
committee, telling senators about harsh working conditions and
the company's refusal to begin contract negotiations.
Also testifying were representatives from the New York State
Thruway Authority, the MTA, the Port Authority and other
agencies.
Michael Fleischer, head of the Thruway Authority, told the
Senate hearing that Xerox was contractually obligated to tell
the government agencies about the labor dispute, but it hadn't
done so. Fleischer said the labor dispute had reached the point
where it could affect the service that E-Z Pass customers
receive.
No Xerox executives or representatives attended the hearing.
Earlier this year, ACS/Xerox illegally fired 14 union
activists. A big public backlash that targeted the company and
Xerox CEO Ursula Burns for the company's illegal actions got
workers their jobs back.
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CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins
and CWA members protest Verizon-Frontier deal outside Verizon
annual meeting. |
CWA and IBEW members leafleted shareholders outside the
Verizon annual meeting in Little Rock, stressing that Verizon
risks damaging its corporate reputation by looking to use a tax
loophole to sell off landlines and backing away from the
build-out of high speed broadband.
CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins took that message
to shareholders and executives inside the meeting too.
"Verizon's been down this road a few times already, and the
results haven't been good, not for workers, communities or
quality service. Hawaiian Telecom, which bought Verizon lines
– bankrupt. FairPoint, which bought lines in Maine, New
Hampshire and Vermont – bankrupt. In both those cases,
workers lost jobs and customers and communities lost service and
high speed broadband access."
Collins said Verizon should continue to build out high speed
broadband networks as the FCC's national broadband plan
outlined, with a focus on service to anchor institutions like
schools, hospitals and libraries.
Without high-speed broadband, citizens have no access to
critical applications in telemedicine, distance learning, public
safety, along with entertainment and other video. Verizon should
continue to be a leader in bringing high speed networks to our
communities, not abandoning them, he said.
CWA also released a new report on the Verizon-Frontier deal
and how it will harm West Virginia. In "Preventing a Telecom
Disaster," CWA and telecom experts point out that for West
Virginia and the 13 other states involved in this deal, the
risks of the deal far outweigh the potential benefits.
Frontier's debt will increase by 75 percent; that company
already is in a shakier position than when this deal was first
proposed, the report notes.
If Verizon wants to sell its landlines, it should find a
buyer that has the financial, technical and operational
resources to meet West Virginia's needs, Collins stressed.
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CWA Pres. Larry Cohen and Executive
Vice Pres. Annie Hill join local union leaders in CWA’s
Customer Service Activist Network in discussing ways to improve
customer service jobs and help workers at non-union call centers
get bargaining
rights. |
At a meeting of CWA's new Customer Service Activist Network,
local union leaders across CWA sectors came together to talk
about the critical problems facing customer service reps:
unreasonable sales quotas, monitoring, health problems tied to
stress, repetitive motion and headsets, and a general lack of
respect.
The working group outlined its mission:
- We will improve the quality of work life by developing a
bargaining and legislative agenda that resolves issues and
concerns unique to customer service professionals.
- We will educate our local and national leaders on the need
to work together to identify solutions to the concerns specific
to customer service professionals.
- CWA is the customer service union. We will organize to build
power and leverage for all.
CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said, "the more we
can grow the customer service part of our union, the more power
and leverage we will have to address the issues that customer
service representatives face," she said.
Valerie Packer is a member of the customer service activist
network and executive vice president of Local 7621 representing
Qwest workers in Idaho. Even if employers only care about the
bottom line, there's good reason to treat call center workers as
valued members of the team because we're the first contact for
customers, she said.
CWA represents about 150,000 customer service representatives
working in the private and public sector in telecommunications,
government, airlines and the newspaper industry. CWA's customer
service activists will meet Oct. 21-23 in San Diego at CWA's
Customer Service Professionals Conference to continue to work
through the tough issues facing reps. Stay tuned for more
conference details.
Tom Juravich, a
professor at the University of Massachusetts and labor activist,
spoke to the committee by phone. His latest book, “At the
Altar of the Bottom Line,” interviews CWA Local 1400
members at the Verizon center in Andover, Mass., and spotlights
their concerns, including that priority given to sales quotas
means that workers can’t always provide the service or
help that customers want. Read an excerpt here.
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At the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference,
Best Speaker Ever Nancy Pelosi said our nation must continue the
work of creating good-paying, clean energy jobs, so that more
people can share in economic growth and
success. |
Protecting workers' rights and building out high-speed
broadband to every community will spur the economic growth our
country needs and create quality, union, green jobs, CWA
President Larry Cohen told participants this week at the Good
Jobs Green Jobs Conference.
Cohen said access to high-speed broadband networks is
critical to the economic survival and growth of rural
communities and towns across the country, just as water rights
and highways were in years past. "Without access, those
communities will disappear."
Some 3,000 labor and environmental activists, business
leaders, elected officials and others attended the Washington
D.C. forum that focused on ideas to help build a new, green
economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and
preserves America's economic and environmental security. CWA is
a member of the Blue Green Alliance, which sponsors the forum.
Attending the forum were CWA and IUE-CWA members already
doing some of the nation's greenest jobs: building out high
speed broadband, and manufacturing zero-emission buses in St.
Cloud, Minn., hybrid car batteries in Springfield, Ohio,
low-voltage wind transformers in Washington, Mo., and clean jet
engines in Lynn, Mass.
IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said that green, clean energy
jobs will mean growth for American workers and our economy. We
must ensure that "going green in the U.S. doesn't become another
excuse for companies to outsource jobs overseas."
Also attending the forum's first day were House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Steelworkers President Leo
Gerard, Sierra Club Executive Chairman Carl Pope and others.
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Local and state leaders from the Sierra Club
and CWA are working together in five states to promote the
buildout of high speed broadband networks that will help
safeguard the environment and create quality
jobs. |
In a win-win-win proposition for workers, consumers and the
environment, CWA and the Sierra Club are working together to
ensure that all Americans have access to high-speed broadband
networks.
Representing Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia,
about 40 state and local Sierra Club and CWA leaders met at CWA
headquarters. The meeting grew out of the Blue-Green Alliance,
bringing unions and environmentalists together to support truly
high speed Internet (1 gigabit to anchor institutions) to
network sustainable communities in the green economy with union
jobs.
"The growth of broadband will mean stable jobs in the
communications industry and new opportunities to save energy and
protect the environment," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "It is
fundamental to the shared goals of the Blue-Green Alliance."
A key goal is to bring one gigabit of broadband service to to
schools, hospitals and public buildings in every community in
the country, one element of the FCC's national broadband plan.
Another priority is getting utility providers to use broadband
for "smart grids" that allow consumers to more efficiently use
power, saving energy and money.
Jonathan Kevles, senior strategist for the Sierra
Club's Clean Energy Campaign, said the meeting was very
positive, with "two influential groups sitting together for the
first time, articulating their mutual goal of a national smart
grid, and putting together a plan to implement it."
CWA and Sierra Club members will be building coalitions
in the five states.
Just like 40,000 other CWA members at AT&T Mobility, 315
workers from the former Centennial Wireless in Indiana and
Michigan have a union voice, joining CWA through majority sign
up. In Indiana, some 290 customer care representatives at the
Ft. Wayne call center and a 10-person statewide unit of
technicians now are represented by CWA Local 4900.
In Michigan, a unit of 15 network technicians from
Michigan won representation by Local 4100. District 4 Vice
President Seth Rosen credits Local 4900 organizer Beth Dubree
and District organizing coordinator Jeff Lacher for helping the
workers build a strong inside committee and majority support
among their co-workers.
Centennial Wireless was acquired last November by AT&T
Mobility and provides service in the Midwest, Southeast, Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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