CWA Newsletter, Thursday, June 13, 2013

7/28/2019 CWA Newsletter, Thursday, June 13, 2013

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June 13, 2013

Send tips to [email protected] or @CWANews . Follow thelatest developments at www.resistancegrowing.org .

You Won't Want to Miss the Next CWA Town Hall Call: J une 20

Activists Push 'Give Me 5 NLRB Members' Messageon Capitol Hill

CWA Activists Hit the Streets for MississippiCandidates

Moral Mondays

Bargaining Update

Fight Goes on at Peabody/Patriot Coal

Senate Begins Debate on Immigration Reform

Sing It Out Loud!

A Father's Day Poem

You Won't Want to Miss the Next CWA Town Hall Call: J une20

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In the 1930s, workers took to the streets, protesting poorworking conditions, low wages and exploitative laborpractices. Some died fighting for their rights. As a result,President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress establishedthe National Labor Relations Board to provide workers aplace to seek justice.

Today we are on the verge of losing the NLRB.

J oin next week's CWA Town Hall Call on Thursday, J une 20,
mailto:[email protected]://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=14HPklWQB5K%2BeQivGv7hjo90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=FQ42zKiqWiJTSi84AP7UpY90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=FQ42zKiqWiJTSi84AP7UpY90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=14HPklWQB5K%2BeQivGv7hjo90YCJZ9wH5mailto:[email protected]://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=jgMUKo3anKUSM%2BA%2FqYT7II90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=9umKJTPAy481fb8xPn72zo90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=WqULC7H867%2BFT%2F1bdOigXI90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=Yzx7Ywx3H4cZ0PIUqou3HY90YCJZ9wH5


2/13

at 7:30 p.m. ET to take a stand and learn how you can fightback.

Register here: http://cwa-union.org/cwacall .

Activists Push 'Give Me 5 NLRB Members' Message onCapitol Hill

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At CWA's latest political boot camp in Northern California, 25members made four calls each into Sens. Dianne Feinsteinand Barbara Boxer's offices, telling them, "Give us five!" Intotal, about 100 calls were made.

Union activists spent two days on Capitol Hill, telling senatorsand staff that the Senate majority must confirm all five NLRBnominees to ensure 80 million workers have rights underfederal law.
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3/13

CWA activist Robert England and the fly-in's Californiadelegation visit Sen. Barbara Boxer's office.

The current board has one confirmed member whose term

expires in late August; two others are recess appointments. Ina broad ruling, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals voided theseand other recess appointments made by President Obama. If the Senate doesn't act before its August recess begins, 80million private sector workers, both union members and non-represented, will lose their rights on the job. And we know theopposition won't stop there.

This week more than 50 local leaders and allies from 24states were part of the "fly-in," that brought union activists,including Robert England of CWA Local 9415, who traveled

from Bakersfield, Calif., to lobby elected officials in the Senateand House. England had meetings scheduled at the offices of California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer,among others.

"It's cut and dry: Approve all five NLRB nominees or changethe rules," said England. "This is so important to workers."

The Sierra Club, another CWA ally, was featured in a print adin Roll Call , a Capitol Hill publication. The message, fromMichael Brune, executive director, said:


4/13

"We can't hold big polluters accountable or protect the rightsof American workers and consumers if we've got no cops onthe beat. But, inaction in the Senate has left key watchdogagencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and theNational Labor Relations Board without leaders while puttingkey safeguards in jeopardy. The Senate Majority needs tobreak the logjam and confirm the President's qualifiednominees to fix the Senate and show the American peoplethey can still get things done."

CWA Activists Hit t he St reet s for M ississippi Candidates

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Mississippi state employees campaigned hard for J acksoncity council member Chokwe Lumumba, securing him alandslide win in his mayoral election last week.

"Our workers were engaged precinct walks, preppingmaterials to go out to voters, sweat and tears," said BrendaScott, president of Mississippi Alliance of State Employees-CWA Local 3570. "We were very instrumental in his success."

Lumumba, a pro-worker candidate who campaigned on aliving wage and improving community jobs, easily defeated

three independents, winning 87 percent of the vote. Afterwinning his Democratic primary, CWA activists becamepermanent fixtures in the Lumumba campaign, helping withphone banking, canvassing neighborhoods, rolling thousandsof newspapers with sample ballots and poll watching. All theway up until Election Day, at least 10 CWAers could be foundon each shift at Lumumba's campaign office.

MASE-CWA has been involved in mayoral elections for thepast decade. But this was the first year that activists venturedoutside of J ackson to campaign for other mayoral hopefuls.

Workers helped state Rep. George Flaggs become mayor of Vicksburg. In Moss Point, they aided Billy Broomfield's movefrom the state House to city hall. State employeessuccessfully campaigned for Bill Luckett, a local attorney andbusinessman, in Clarksdale. Workers ensured state Rep.Kelvin Buck would become the next mayor of Holly Springs.And CWAers joined with the Building Trades to help elect
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5/13

Meridian's first black mayor, Percy Bland.

"It was all people old people, young people, AfricanAmericans, Hispanics Whites," said Liz Roberson, assistant tothe CWA Public Workers Vice President. "Everyone was

pulling together to make this happen. That's the beauty of it."

Moral Mondays

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CWA Local 3607 President Chris Myrick (above), and fifteen

local members participated in the Moral Monday Witness atthe North Carolina State Capital in Raleigh on June 9.

CWA activists are joining the "Moral Mondays" in NorthCarolina, a growing non-violent direct action targeting thestate's Republican general assembly and governor.
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6/13

Every Monday people are showing up outside the statehousein Raleigh to speak out against extreme public policies,including cutting the payroll tax credit for working people,slashing state unemployment benefits and rejecting federalfunds to expand Medicaid.

Last week, CWA Local 3607 President Chris Myrick andfifteen local members participated in a Moral Mondaydemonstration, where Rep. G.K. Butterfield showed up tosupport the activists and more than 60 people were arrested.

In a recent column in The Guardian , Moral Mondays leaderRev. William Barber wrote:

The appeal for each Moral Monday has been the same:urging legislators to govern for the good of the whole,

rather than for the wealthy. We didn't come to thisdecision lightly. In fact, we made several attempts tomeet with the far-right legislative leadership. GovernorPat McCrory invited us to his house for a 20-minute chat.We said we wanted to work with him to be sure hegoverned for the good of the whole, as the U.S.Constitution requires him to do. But it was clear he wasmarching to the beat of a different drummer.

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry just devoted a long segmentof her show to the protests. Watch it here .

Bargaining Update

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CWA Local 3181 and a strong community coalitionstopped an effort by the St. Lucie, Fla., County SchoolDistrict to privatize the jobs of 300 custodial serviceworkers, said Local President Rick Poulette. The

coalition convinced the board to reject contracting outand cutting the custodians' pay.
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7/13

In California, members of CWA Local 9586 at theSanta Fe Springs Yard call out Verizon West for its

corporate greed. Negotiations for a new contractcovering 5,000 workers are continuing.

The NABET-CWA team bargains a new PBS contract.


8/13

Workers tell CenturyLink to "Honor your word!"

A New J ersey appeals court has denied CWA's

request to block the privatization of New J ersey'slottery. "The ruling just says there's not an immediateirreparable harm. The court may say that $120 millionin a budget is not irreparable harm, but taxpayers of New J ersey may feel differently if this does not workout in their favor," said Seth Hahn, the CWA'slegislative and political director for New J ersey. Readmore here .

Iowa's Area Education Agency 267 Board approved a

contract covering 229 members of CWA Local 7170. The agreement provides for a wage and benefitincrease of 4.14 percent for workers in several jobcategories, including educational assistants, clerktechnicians, interpreters, occupational therapyassistants, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers andcooks. Read more here .

Members of NABET-CWA Local 52031 in theWashington, D.C. metro area overwhelmingly ratified anew contract with the Public Broadcasting Service. Thecontract, effective J uly 1, 2013 through J une 30, 2016,covers 44 workers and provides for wage increases, aratification bonus and other gains.

CWA Local 1168 members have voted in favor of going on strike at Kaleida Health, which operates four
http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=y9GgcAgxtA9BXo0W6IOdAI90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=y9GgcAgxtA9BXo0W6IOdAI90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=JxzjT21be0x9885RPygVi490YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=JxzjT21be0x9885RPygVi490YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=y9GgcAgxtA9BXo0W6IOdAI90YCJZ9wH5http://action.cwa-union.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=y9GgcAgxtA9BXo0W6IOdAI90YCJZ9wH5


9/13

hospitals in the Buffalo, NY, area. Read more here .

Bargaining at CenturyLink has been suspended andwill resume on J une 18. Updates can be found on

District 7's website: http://www.cwadistrict7.org . Fight Goes on at P eabo dy/P atriot Coal

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CWA members stand with UMWA miners in fight for fairnessat Peabody/Patriot.

The United Mine Workers is appealing the decision of afederal bankruptcy judge that approved Patriot Coal Corp.'splan to throw out its collective bargaining agreements andslash retiree benefits. Patriot now has suspended contractnegotiations.

The ruling affects 23,000 retired miners and their families whoface the loss of their health care benefits. UMWA miners andretirees worked at Peabody and Arch operations in Kentuckyand West Virginia, which each spun off part of theirbusinesses to form Patriot.

Unions and progressive allies have been standing with theUMWA miners, in civil disobedience, non-violent protest andother actions at Peabody/Patriot Coal headquarters in St.Louis, and in Charleston, W.Va., and Henderson, Ky. CWAPresident Larry Cohen was arrested in St. Louis, andhundreds of CWA members have joined the protests.
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10/13

It's one of the worst examples of corporate greed yet.

Despite its profitability, Peabody created Patriot Coal in 2007and gave that company 11 percent of its assets, 43 percent of its retiree liability and some underwater coal contracts, theUMWA said. Some 90 percent of retirees whose benefits willbe slashed never worked for Patriot. Then, in 2008, Patriotbought Arch-spinoff Magnum Coal, and Arch saddled thatcompany with 12 percent of its assets and 96 percent of itsretiree health-care liabilities.

Keep up with the latest on Facebook .

Senate Begins Deb ate o n Im migra tion Reform

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The Senate opened debate on comprehensive immigrationreform this week, with many amendments expected to beproposed to the Border Security, Economic Opportunity andImmigration Modernization Act, S. 744.

The bill was put together by a bipartisan "Gang of Eight,"although that version was modified by the J udiciaryCommittee that accepted changes pushed by Sen. Orrin

Hatch (R-Utah).

Hatch called for changes in the H-1B visa program that willallow preferential treatment by corporations for foreign bornworkers at the expense of U.S. workers, and other changesthat will hurt U.S. tech workers who already face a toughemployment outlook. Hatch has indicated he'll push for morechanges that tech companies want, at the expense of U.S.workers. CWA will fight back against these cuts to workerprotections and will oppose amendments that look toeliminate or further delay the path to citizenship for immigrant

workers. The time is now for comprehensive immigration reform and atrue path to citizenship for 11 million immigrant workers. CWAis committed to the comprehensive reform our nation needsand to safeguarding the rights of all workers.

Sing It Out Loud!
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11/13

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CWA District 1 health care members at activist training.

At a recent activist training in Albany, NY, CWA District 1health care workers sang a unique rendition of Elvis's "LoveMe Tender." They called it, "Ouch, I'm Tender."

It was a tribute to the effort to pass a safe patient handling billin the New York state legislature this year.

"Workers injured / Some made lame / Then they're made toblame," they sang.

Watch it here .

A Father's Day Poe m

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Paul Romaine is the son of a longtime CWA member, WilburErnest Romaine, who worked for Verizon/New York

Telephone for 35 years. Paul says "that my first two years of

attending college at Cornell were made possible because of the CWA's J oseph A. Beirne Scholarship."

He wrote this poem about his father.

As a boy my father's huge handswith weathered fingers as thick as sausagewould splice cables or grab handholds
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on telephone poles that he climbed each day,

but at night those huge fingers madeRusty come to life at bed timeand Dad would talk to Rusty and me,

with Rusty groaning about being crushedovernight when I rolled on top of him.

Hey! I would shout, and Rusty snuggled closeand told me that he loved me.

Dad gloried in his strength and control: Arm wrestling match, pushing a mower,or writing a check in his neat round hand.

But lately his hands were spotted and pale.

His fingers couldn't hold a pen steady,and they even had trouble holding a fork.

So when I heard today that Dad had died,I remembered those huge hands,and how I never saw Dad, except at night,and how those hands paid for a homeand protected us, and made a stuffed dog talk.


13/13

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CWA Newsletter, Thursday, June 13, 2013

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