Two Days to Go: Excitement Builds for One Nation Rally on Sunny Saturday

A lead inside organizer who continues to face a tough fight for a voice at work will be among the speakers, musicians, poets and comedians who will inspire and entertain hundreds of thousands of progressive Americans under sunny skies Saturday at Washington's One Nation rally.

Appearing at the Lincoln Memorial with CWA President Larry Cohen, Xerox/EZ Pass worker Barbara Elliott will describe her company's vicious campaign against employees fighting for bargaining rights at their call center in New York. Eighteen of Elliott's co-workers also are making the trip.

Like Cohen and Elliott, One Nation speakers will appear in pairs. Five pairs will get brief slots each hour from noon to 4 p.m., with music and entertainment in between.

Members of CWA Local 2222 leaflet D.C. residents about the big One Nation Rally. From left: Tim Firebaugh, Don Lewis, Al Hadid Rollins and Tracey Duffin.

CWA will have 10,000 people at the rally, with 154 buses bringing members from a dozen states. More than 400 progressive groups are sending people, from the NAACP and the Sierra Club to churches and student organizations. MSNBC's Ed Schultz has heavily promoted the rally and had Cohen as a guest on his show Wednesday. Click HERE to watch the clip.

Forecasters promise perfect weather: sunshine and comfortable temperatures in the mid- to upper-60s.

Let Them Eat Cake? Not if Piedmont Gets Its Way

Besides tearing up pro-union literature from agents' break room in Charlotte, Piedmont management confiscated two "CWA Vote Yes" cakes union supporters brought to a meeting.

With Piedmont agents' election only one week away, beginning Oct. 7, management has gone off the deep end in its efforts to try intimidate the union supporters.

At a meeting a couple days ago in Charlotte, Piedmont supervisors went ballistic over - can you believe it - two cakes that a CWA supporter ordered for his co-workers to enjoy during a captive-audience meeting by management.

The cakes were delivered to the agents' break room with big "Vote CWA Yes" messages on each. This was too much for the manager conducting the meeting, who packaged up the cakes and took them away so that no one could have a piece.

In Charlotte, Piedmont managers are also refusing to allow agents to post pro-union materials in their break room. Luckily, agents there captured on video a supervisor collecting and ripping down pro-union handouts, a clear violation of the law protecting workers' right to talk union in their break rooms.

Click here to watch the video.

Agents posted some handouts at ceiling height to make it harder for supervisors to remove everything. However, Piedmont has plastered the break room walls with plenty of anti-union literature. So much for freedom of choice.

With Delta flight attendants' election now underway, and the Piedmont agents' just a week away, management at both airlines are resorting to hardball tactics, pressuring workers in one-on-ones how they will vote, and writing up union supporters for talking to one another.

Both airlines seem to have forgotten that federal law protects workers' right to organize unions and expressly forbids management from taking any actions to intimidate workers exercising their right to form a union.

If you are Piedmont agent or Delta flight attendant please forward this article and video to your co-workers.

Civil Rights Conference Energizes Members to Fight for Progress in Tough Times

Progress and challenges were the twin focus of the 2010 CWA Civil Rights and Equity Conference, which drew more than 200 members and leaders to New Orleans last week.

The National Civil Rights and Equity Committee spent months planning the conference. The members, one from each CWA district, are Local 1180 Secretary-Treasurer Gloria Middleton; Local 2222 Vice President William Steele; Local 3806 Area Rep (AT&T Mobility) Esther Pond; Local 4123 Secretary-Treasurer Gloria Lamas; Local 6016 Vice President (Avaya) Audry Brown; Local 7800 President Michael Lynch; Local 9413 Executive Vice President Elizabeth Sorenson; and Local 13100 Rep-At-Large Michael Biddle.

The committee presented District 7 Vice President Mary Taylor with its Mays-Carroll Award, given to honor CWA members who have made outstanding contributions to civil rights and minority practices.

The busy conference agenda include presentations from the CWA Executive Board's at-large diversity members and advice from Civil Rights Coordinators Linda Hinton, District 4, and Sylvia Ramos, District 6, on starting local civil rights and equity committees. Each participant received a new brochure and manual, and was given time to meet by district to discuss issues and future plans.

Participants also got personal insight from Presidents Judy Bruno, Local 3406, and Paul Pearson, Local 3410, on Hurricane Katrina's devastation and its impact on CWA families.

Addressing the conference theme, "Labor, the Disenfranchised, and the Economy in America," CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill discussed the difficulties facing CWA's sectors, the uphill battle to restore organizing and bargaining rights and America's vanishing middle class.

But Hill and CWA President Larry Cohen also stressed victories and reasons for hope: CWA's more diverse executive board and a strengthened human rights program, the success of CWA Strategic Industry Fund projects, and the major One Nation Rally Saturday in Washington that will energize 10,000 CWA members and hundreds of thousands of civil rights, labor, faith and Green allies for the hard work in the weeks left until Nov. 2.

The conference also heard from internationally known leaders, including Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Michael Wilson, executive director of Americans for Democratic Action; and Arlene Holt, AFL-CIO executive vice president.

Republicans Fail to Block New NMB Rule for Fair Union Elections

Despite their best efforts, Senate Republicans and three Democrats-in-name-only couldn't block new National Mediation Board rules that will finally bring democracy to union elections for flight attendants, passenger service agents and other airline and rail workers.

The NMB's rule change, upheld in June by a federal court, says that union elections under the Railway Labor Act, which also covers aviation workers, must be decided by a majority of votes. In the past, anyone who didn't cast a ballot was counted as a "No" vote.

Employers padded voter lists with names of workers with bad addresses or were no longer on the payroll, taking away any pretense of fair play. "Can you imagine the outcry from Republicans and any other politician if that was how U.S. elections were conducted?" CWA President Larry Cohen said. "They pound their chests about democracy but don't want those principles to apply to the workers they represent."

Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, three of the Senate's most unreliable Democrats on issues critical to workers and working families, joined Republicans in voting against a resolution to overturn the new rule. The vote was 43-56.

Senate GOP Kills Bill to Discourage Offshoring, Bring Back American Jobs

Ohio Senate candidate and Lt. Governor Lee Fisher joined CWA leaders Wednesday to condemn Senate Republicans for blocking a bill that would end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

"Job creation is not a political game," Fisher said, describing how Republicans have abused the Senate rules to derail legislation that would help American workers and their families. "What was once a well intentioned rule to protect the minority party has become a partisan weapon of mass destruction."

Fisher spoke to the media on a conference call with CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen and Local 4300 Vice President Ron Gay.

Rosen said that while abuse of Senate rules may "sound like an abstract topic, it's actually an issue with painful and real-world consequences" as Tuesday's vote against American jobs illustrated.

Gay pointed to Ohio's loss of tens of thousands of good, manufacturing jobs at companies such as Delphi and G.E. "Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would give companies a real incentive to keep and create jobs in the United States," he said. "They wouldn't even let it come up for discussion."

Adding insult to injury, Gay said, "my tax dollars are supporting tax breaks for the companies that moved our jobs offshore."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members have made billions exploiting cheap overseas labor, lobbied against the bill, making the wild claim that putting more Americans back to work wouldn't help the economy. "Replacing a job that is based in another country with a domestic job does not stimulate economic growth," the Chamber said.

House Passes Long-Sought Health Bill for Ground Zero Workers

A health care bill for Ground Zero workers that House Republicans blocked in July was passed 268-160 on Wednesday, when 13 Republicans joined Democrats to support it.

The 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would provide federal funds for medical monitoring and treatment for first responders, recovery crews and other workers exposed to Ground Zero toxins, including about 1,500 CWA members in telecom, the public sector, newspapers and broadcasting.

The bill's future in the U.S. Senate, which is on a campaign recess until after Election Day, is uncertain. Republicans, through the abuse of Senate rules like unanimous consent and the filibuster, have killed or weakened every bill since January 2009 that aims to protect workers, help working families or create jobs.

"Republicans on the campaign trail never miss a chance to praise 9/11's heroes, but for too many of them it's all talk," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "Their only goal is gridlock, stopping any and all progress to improve the lives of average Americans, and they'll keep doing it until the Senate rules are changed."

Iowa Hospital Workers, Alabama AT&T Mobility Techs Join CWA

Seeking strong representation, 90 employees at Hamilton (County) Hospital in Webster City, Iowa have voted to join CWA. The nurses, therapists, technicians and other direct patient care workers were formerly affiliated with the Iowa Nurses Association but said they'd received little support from INA, especially at the bargaining table.

The Hamilton unit is part of District 7's campaign to organize public hospital workers throughout Iowa, district Organizing Coordinator Jeff Lacher said. CWA represents 200 registered nurses at two other public hospitals in the state. District 7 Staff Representative Bonnie Winther and local organizer Teri Murphy assisted the workers with their campaign.

In a statewide campaign in Alabama, seven District 3 locals worked together to organize AT&T Mobility's unit of 30 network technicians through majority sign-up, District 3 Staff Representative M.M. Smith said. Job security and a strong grievance procedure were key issues.

St. Louis Guild Helps Build Home for Single Mom and Daughter

TNG-CWA Local 36047 members from the St. Louis Post Dispatch spent Saturday Sept. 25 helping Habitat for Humanity build a house for a woman and her six year old daughter. Pictured on the ladders are Dawn Majors, left, and Amanda Latham. From left to right are Shannon Duffy, local business representative; and TNG-CWA members Greg Jonsson, Reagan Branham, Jennifer Selph, Sean Sullivan, J.B. Forbes, and Colleen Schrappen.

Members of TNG-CWA Local 36047 in St. Louis spent last Saturday working on a Habitat for Humanity house that will soon be a real home for a single mother and her six  year old daughter.

The 1,600-square-foot house is one of 10 Habitat homes under construction in a neighborhood where 10 more homes were recently completed. Nine Guild members from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch volunteered their time, working alongside the woman who is buying the home. Habitat homes are sold at no profit and financed with affordable loans, and buyers put in hundreds of hours of sweat equity.

"They have professionals there to train you," Local Business Representative Shannon Duffy said. "We were working on flooring, closet shelves and we put a kind of an overhang over the patio. It's a very life-affirming experience. It makes you feel good about humanity."

Duffy said Guild members want to buy the new homeowner a tree for her yard and also are planning a "Trivia Night," a popular St. Louis activity, to raise funds for Habitat projects.

Learn more and find out how your local can get involved at www.habitat.org.

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