The First Memorial Day
By Larry Bowers, Associate press
CWA members from District One attended the second day of the Democratic State Convention to show their support for Assemblyman Richard Brodsky. Assemblyman Brodsky, along with 4 other declared candidates, was at the primary in hopes of winning the majority of votes to be the next Democratic candidate for Attorney General.
The State Party Chairman, Jay Jacobs, announced that State Committee members would move to allow all the Attorney General candidates on the primary ballot, regardless of how many votes were committed to them as the convention began.
Under party rules, any candidate with 25 percent of the vote automatically wins a place on the Democratic primary ballot. Going into the convention, only two candidates — Ms. Rice and State Senator Eric T. Schneiderman, who represents a Manhattan-Bronx district — appeared likely to meet that threshold.
To allow everyone onto the ballot, Mr. Jacobs said, party leaders would hold two rounds of balloting, which would allow some Committee members to vote for more than one candidate. “We made the decision that it was smart to get everyone on the ballot,” said Mr. Jacobs, who is also the chairman of the Nassau County Democratic Organization.
The first round of voting by party delegates put Kathleen M. Rice, the Nassau County District Attorney; State Senator Eric T. Scheiderman, and Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky on the primary ballot.
A second round of voting put two other candidates – Eric R. Dinallo, a former State Insurance Superintendent, and Sean Coffey, a trial lawyer and novice politician — on the ballot as well.
Assembly Richard Brodsky represents a district in Westchester County where the convention is being held. In order to improve telecommunications consumer protections and service quality, Assemblyman Brodsky authored significant legislation. His Cable Television Reform Act was signed into law in 1990, and his legislation of 1994 limited surcharges and increased penalties for Consumer Owned Currency Operated Telephones (COCOT) service vendors.
Richard Brodsky backs CWA politically by sponsoring bills like the following:
Bill # A02208C – Sponsor: Assemblyman Richard Brodsky
Requires the public service commission to conduct an in-depth public interest analysis of proposed mergers by telephone corporations and other telecommunications services providers; requires the demonstration of certain public benefits as a condition for approval thereof.
Richard Brodsky has been a good friend to CWA and has also shown his on-going support by attending many of the CWA rallies. CWA was happy to attend the convention and show their support for Richard Brodsky.
Transcript: Executive Vice President Angel Feliciano speaking
We want to remind any Members interested in accepting the IPP package, that the forms must be faxed in no later then 11:59 PM, Tuesday June 1st.
Thank you for calling and please keep in touch with these tapes
Should I stay or should I go?
CWA 1101 Secretary Jim Trainor, Vice President Joe Manley and Executive Vice President Angel Feliciano (left to right)
The 1101 Exec. board has been conducting meetings at Verizon building locations to discuss the IPP/Pension offer.
Executive Vice President Angel Feliciano, Secretary Jim Trainor and Vice President Joe Manley (pictured right) talk to the members at 153rd Street , one of the last IPP/Pension meetings.
Now it’s time to decide, should I stay or should I go.
The number of members that opt to take the IPP/Pension package will be posted when it becomes available.
Just a few weeks after 309 workers at AT&T Mobility in Indiana won CWA representation, more than two-thirds have signed up as members and nearly half have joined CWA-COPE.
“Mobility workers are excited to be part of CWA and understand the importance of supporting and participating in political action,” said CWA Local 4900 President Tim Strong. After attending the local’s first new member orientation, 232 joined CWA, and 154 signed up for COPE.
Strong said the workers, 19 network techs and 290 customer service reps, are looking forward to pay and benefit increases under CWA’s “Orange” contract at AT&T Mobility.
“Having worked for Centennial Wireless, which was non-union before being bought by AT&T last year, Mobility workers looked forward to having a voice in the workplace. It was their key issue,” Strong said.
CWA District 4 is working to bring CWA representation to several hundred retail workers in Indiana who also worked for Centennial.
In a huge vote, CWA members at Verizon West ratified a three-year contract that increases wages by 8.25 percent and holds the line against health care cost-shifting for 5,500 workers in California.
CWA District 9 Vice President Jim Weitkamp said that a very high percentage of members returned ballots; members voted by a margin of 20-1 to approve the contract. He commended the bargaining team and mobilization by locals and members for their hard work that resulted in a quality contract.
The contract establishes a preferred provider health care option for employees, ensures that a sales incentive plan for customer service representatives will remain voluntary and includes an agreement by the company to meet with the union to discuss ways to reduce subcontracting.
The 1101 Executive Board has been conducting Retirement Seminars at various work locations to go over the enhanced IPP/Pension offer.
1101 Treasurer Terry Daly has been running the evening Retirement Seminars at local headquarters. On May 14th Terry opened with, “First you have to decide, are you going or are you staying. Can you do it? Can you meet your obligations? There are not a lot of jobs out there and they don’t want us, we’re old. On the other hand, I’ve been here 40 years and this is the best package I’ve seen to date.”
Terry went on to explain every detail relating to the IPP/Pension offer. He stayed till the end of the seminar to address any questions the members had.
Terry invited representatives from the law firm FOA (Fine Olin and Anderman) to answer questions concerning disability/workers compensation and Acumen Investment Services to address questions about financial planning.
Charleston, West Virginia – The Communications Workers of America said today it is weighing all options after yesterday’s approval by the West Virginia Public Service Commission of the sale of the Verizon’s phone lines in the state to Frontier Communications.
“We’re in the process of evaluating the order,” said CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins. “After full review we’ll look at what we can do that will best serve West Virginia consumers and CWA members.” The union has 10 days to file a motion for reconsideration. If the ruling on that motion is unfavorable, CWA has 30 days to file an appeal with the state Supreme Court.
“Of course, we’re disappointed but we’re heartened by the fact that at least one person on the three-member commission agreed with us and the more than 80 legislators, several county commissions and a broad coalition of consumer, union and first responder organizations who stated that this deal is too risky and not in the public interest,” Collins said. “The split decision shows our arguments about the deal had validity.”
Collins also pointed out the commission’s ruling earlier this week requiring Verizon to put $72 million into an escrow account to improve the company’s aging copper network shows the commission agrees with the union on the issue of Verizon’s quality of service.
“The ink was barely dry on the first ruling which, in essence, says Verizon hasn’t done its job in taking care of its operations,” Collins said. “To give Verizon a pass to leave the state and turn over these problem-riddled lines to a smaller company doesn’t make a lot of sense to us.”
The $72 million ruling also shows Frontier didn’t know what it was buying when it entered into this deal. Had it known the true conditions of the operations and that the PSC would require $72 million in improvements, would Frontier have committed billions to this deal, Collins said.
CWA, which has opposed the deal since it was first announced a year ago, maintains that Verizon shouldn’t be allowed to leave West Virginia without first fixing its problems. As a public utility, the PSC has the power to take action and Collins said the $72 million isn’t enough. Today is the deadline for Verizon to put the $72 million into an escrow account.
The PSC ruling also set out conditions that must be met by Frontier. CWA is reviewing those conditions as well.
It was an eye-opening experience for T-Mobile USA workers to see firsthand how differently their company treats workers in Germany.
During the 10 days that T-Mobile USA workers spent in Germany for the Deutsche Telekom annual meeting and other events, meetings with their German colleagues strengthened their commitment to continue the fight for a union in the United States.
“While there were many differences on issues like pay and due process, the most recurring issue was respect,” said CWA District 6 staff representative Judy Graves who was part of the CWA delegation. When a German worker was asked how bathroom breaks are handled, she simply responded, “I go. She was taken aback to learn that it’s not that simple for T-Mobile workers,” said Graves.
When discussing measures used to evaluate workers’ performance, T-Mobile USA workers discovered a huge difference in how management uses the data. In Germany, scores are used to encourage workers to improve performance. In the U.S., low scores mean warnings or discipline.
German management uses GPS technology to improve dispatching, the US workers learned. In the United States, management uses GPS positioning technology to punish workers for being in the wrong place.
“After the meeting, a ver.di member came up to me and apologized for our treatment,” one of the T-Mobile USA workers wrote in a blog at www.LoweringTheBarForUs.org. “She had no reason to apologize. We stand together and fight for the same rights and respect. It’s the greedy corporations who need to stop stuffing their pockets and taking advantage of the lack of global regulations.”
Ver.di members at T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom encouraged the T-Mobile USA workers to keep fighting, not only for their own sake but to stop DT from trying to take away the gains that ver.di members have made.
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 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.