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District News

District 7

Public Safety Workers in Iowa and Arizona Join CWA

On Wednesday, May 7, CWA won an election for affiliation with the Woodbury (Iowa) County Sheriff's Department, Sioux City, Iowa and surrounding area.

The group is comprised of 39 Deputy Sheriffs and 100 civilian Corrections Officers. John Burpo, NCPSO, and Ken Mertes, CWA Local 7103 helped Staff Representative Midge Slater with this effort. The other choices on the ballot were FOP and no affiliation. we received all but one vote, which was cast for no affiliation.

In the last year Local 7077, AZCOPS, has organized 7 new units with the following numbers.

ADOT Peace Officers Assn. +34, Arizona Capitol Police Officers Assn. +48, Casa Grande Police Supervisors Assn +14, Maricopa Police Officers Assn. +28, Navajo County Probation Officers Assn. +16, Safford Police Officers Assn. +10, Yavapai County Lieutenants Assn. +8 for a total of 158 new members. This does not include the internal growth over the last year in Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Assn.1,000+, Arizona Probation Officers Association 100+, & Arizona Juvenile Corrections 100+.

 Hibbing-Virginia Typographical Union No. 727/CWA 14726 will be Certified by the NLRB for a New Unit

Hibbing-Virginia Typographical Union No. 727/CWA 14726 will be certified by the National Labor Relations Board for a new unit of Mailroom employees. There are 38 members in the new unit. The vote was 21 for and 7 against. The vote took place on May 8, 2008. All are employees of SPC Printing, Inc. in Hibbing, MN.

The Organizing Committee was composed of mailroom representatives Jason Larson lead unit organizer, Bill Sheehy unit organizer, Bill Larson unit organizer, under the direction of President Terry Salminen and Press Room Shop Stewart Todd Saatoff, with the assistance of local Secretary/Treasurer Judy Johnson and Staff Representative Billy J. Ausitn.

 Local 7603 Announces the Certified Organization of Employees From AT&T Mobility

CWA Local 7603 would like to announce the certified organization of employees from AT&T Mobility for the 35 employees in the AT&T Mobility Idaho Retail Sales Unit.

This effort was accomplished primarily through the actual employees at the Idaho Retail stores, so the greatest thanks goes to those employees that stood up for themselves and moved toward a better place to work by gaining a union representation voice and bargaining rights where previously there was none. As you know, this is a significant gain for these employees in a 'no rights at work' state.

A special thanks goes out to Jana Smith-Carr from CWA District 7, who helped our local throughout this process, and Michelle Manning from CWA Local 7818 who dedicated her time to organizing the employees located in Northern Idaho.

Please welcome the newest members to CWA and Local 7603!

Brent Duvall, CWA Local 7603 President
Jeff Taylor, CWA Local 7603 Vice President

Americans Need to Mourn the Dead Workers and Fight for the Living

By Linda Hatfield, Local 7000

On April 28, Tucson unions of the AFL-CIO will observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job, and to renew the fight for safe workplaces.

The toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths is enormous. Each year, thousands of workers are killed, and millions more are injured because of their jobs.

More than three decades ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality, winning protections that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Nonetheless, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous.

Our fight for safe jobs has gotten harder, because for more than seven years, the Bush administration has refused to act. Instead, at the behest of corporate interests, the administration has moved to roll back and weaken protections. Voluntary compliance has been favored over enforcement. Progress has ground to a halt and, in many cases, been reversed. Many workers today have minimal protection, with major hazards remaining unaddressed. Catastrophes in coal mines and factories continue, with little action to prevent them.

Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health investigations from July 1, 2007, through December 31, 2007, revealed these occupational fatalities:

An employee was crushed while making repairs on a tractor. The hydraulics engaged, closing a portion of the tractor on his upper torso.
An employee fell 9 feet during the process of dismantling a scaffold.
An employee stood or walked onto a floor joist that was not fully secured. The joist broke free, and the employee fell to the concrete, sustaining fatal head injuries.
An employee installing a bracket for an HVAC system fell from an 8-foot stepladder.
An employee cleaning a mixing/blending machine was killed when he requested that a co-worker turn on the machine so the rotating shaft could also be cleaned.
During maintenance work on a 747 plane, the main landing gear collapsed, crushing the mechanic in the wheel well.

Decades of struggles by workers and their unions have resulted in significant improvements in working conditions--but the fight to protect workers must continue. We must demand strong enforcement of job-safety laws, defend the gains we have won and push forward to address problems that remain:

Millions of workers, including public-sector workers and flight attendants, have no protection under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Companies that have repeatedly broken job-safety laws--killing workers--face only weak penalties.
Workplace standards are out of date and inadequate.
Many long-recognized hazards have not been addressed, and new workplace
Hazards that emerge get no attention.
Ergonomic hazards still cripple and injure more workers than any other workplace hazard.
Latino and immigrant workers are being killed on the job in record numbers.
Coal-mine catastrophes and deaths continue, while needed new protections are delayed.

This year, with the election, there is an opportunity to change the direction of the country and make workers' issues a priority.

On Workers Memorial Day, we will continue the fight. We will fight to create good jobs in this country and to guarantee health care for all. We will fight for the freedom of workers to form unions and, through their unions, to speak out and bargain for safe jobs, respect and a better future.

Linda Hatfield, chair of the Pima Area Labor Federation, is the president of the Communications Workers of America Local 7000. She is also is the labor liaison to the Pima County Democratic Party, a member of the state Agricultural Employment Relations Board and a member of the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona board of directors.

Valley Telephone Cooperative Voted Unanimously for Union Representation

(Submitted by Mary Kay Pence, CWA Representative)

In today's NLRB run election, the employees at Coon Valley Telephone Cooperative voted unanimously for union representation.

Coon Valley Telephone Cooperative provides local telephone service, high speed internet service and cable television in Menlo, IA. and some surrounding communities. The employees were prepared for the anti-union campaign and actually felt some of the one-on-one meetings with the manager and members of the board were productive. The employees would like to have periodic meetings with the board written into their new contract.

Previously the only way they could get the management to listed to their concerns was to threaten to quit. They are looking forward to having a voice at work and a binding contract.

Marcus Courtney Has Been Appointed the New Head of Department for UNI Telecom Global Union

The UNI Telecom Vice Presidents met with UNI World president Shoji Morishima and the new Head of the Telecom Department, Marcus Courtney, to discuss the future priorities for the UNI Telecom department. The meeting which took place in Tokyo, Japan, also included Neil Anderson who is handing over the Head of Department's role to Marcus. The Vice President's from each region started by discussing what progress they had made in their region implementing UNI Telecom's action plan, which had been developed in 2007 at UNI Telecom's Athens world conference. They then went on to discussing their priorities for the future.

It was agreed that the future priorities for the sector were grouped under three main themes. The first being the convergence and change that was occurring in the sector within the telecom, IT and media industries and the changes this brought to jobs and work especially considering the changes being made to the regulations affecting the industry. A priority was put on developing policies and structures that aided workers and putting in place lobbying programmes so that regulators, governments and decision makers took workers needs into consideration when making their decisions on these issues.

The second main priority was on developing organizing opportunities and workers rights in the multinational companies dominating the ICT industries. Particular emphasis would be put on developing campaigns and networks to ensure the multinationals were respecting workers rights to organize and to help unions in their organizing efforts particularly in mobile phone companies.

It was also agreed that the use of non regular workers, temporary agency and dispatch workers was increasingly becoming a trend in the telecom industry and UNI Telecom needed to find ways to assist unions to organize these workers. A focus on dealing with these non regular workers would be developed.

Finally it was agreed that the next world Telecom meeting, which is due to be held in Nyon, June 30 - July 1, would focus on these issues and communicating UI's actions and successes with affiliates. The June world meeting would be structured around three panel discussions on these themes and affiliates attending that meeting would be invited to contribute to the debate and to develop goals for UNI Telecom and it's new team.

UNI Telecom World President, Shoji Morishima with the Regional Vice Presidents, Marcus Courtney, Neil Anderson, UNI Staff and NWJ Staff

Davenport IA AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA

Card Signing Frenzy that Occurred as Workers Reported to Work on Monday the 14th.

Today, April 21, 2008, the American Arbitration Association confirmed that the majority of the AT&T Mobility employees at the new Davenport Iowa call center asked to form a union with CWA. With that confirmation, they are certified and join our CWA family. The call center currently has approximately 200 employees and will grow to over 500 at full capacity.

Rodney Blackwell, Vice President of Local 7110, Ananda Foster - an AT&T Mobility employee from Local 7901 in Portland and Staff Representative Kay Pence worked on the campaign.

They helped build a strong inside committee of just 8 but the committee has been talking with their co-workers for weeks. On Monday, April 14th the committee began to sign their co-workers up to obtain card-check union recognition. Amazingly, in just 1 day, 70% signed up. Since that day, 18 more signed. This demonstrates how workers will form unions if today's anti-union corporate culture is checked by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.


In inside organizing Committee included our new leaders: Rosa Wilsons; Donna Guthrie, Justin Schmittler, Freda Coons, Ashlie Timms, Tony Steckman and Rayshanetta Goodlet.

 The Davenport AT&T Organizing Committee - (left to right, front to back) Donna Guthrie, Ashlie Timms, Justin Schmittler, Annette Beebower, Freda Coons, Rayshanette Goodlet, Rosa Wilson, Tony Steckman

Organizing Committee members Rosa Wilson, Donna Guthrie and Tony Steckman enjoy the overwhelming union support

Committee leader explains the power of the union

 

  Coming soon...

 

Recent Contract Negotiations and Settlements

  Coming soon....
 

Copyright ©2008 Communications Workers of America - District 7
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Last updated: May 14, 2008.