Communications Workers of America Proposes “Middle Ground” To Protect an Open Internet

Washington, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America today mapped out a middle course for the Federal Communications Commission to follow in crafting rules to protect an open and free internet.

In reply comments submitted to the FCC’s Open Internet Proceeding, the CWA noted that the FCC’s National Broadband Plan sets ambitious broadband deployment goals to bring our nation’s infrastructure to global standards, which will be financed mostly with private capital. Therefore, as the Commission crafts open Internet rules, it can, and should, chart a middle course by adopting rules that will maintain a free and open Internet while preserving adequate incentives to promote job-creating investment in innovative broadband networks.

CWA pointed out that network providers made capital investments of more than 11 times that of application providers in 2008 and 2009, and employed almost ten times more Americans in good-paying family supporting jobs than the application providers.

CWA also said network providers must have the flexibility they need to manage and innovate over their networks. In turn, consumers should be protected from “unjust and unreasonable” discrimination on the Internet. Such a standard would protect consumers’ ability to access all legal content on the Internet without foreclosing their ability to experience the specialized quality of service needed for telemedicine, distance learning, public safety, entertainment and other purposes.

CWA noted that while the recent Comcast decision may affect the FCC’s legal reasoning in this proceeding, the court’s decision does not affect the soundness of the policies the Commission must employ to adopt the proposed rules. In the meantime, the CWA is urging industry to agree voluntarily to the FCC’s existing four Internet Principles, as well as a fifth regarding transparency that would require providers to report the actual speeds, reliability, contract terms, privacy policies, service limits and traffic management policies.

F.C.C. Push to Regulate Broadband Is Expected 
NY Times: By Edward Wyatt
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission will try to regulate broadband Internet service despite a recent court ruling that the commission had limited powers to do so……..

May is Labor History Month, and whether you want to learn about oral histories or famous union leaders, some new websites are making it easier than ever to explore the rich history of the fight for workers’ rights.

Union leaders, students, teachers and activists all can take advantage of new resources to keep telling our story and building our future.

The website of the American Labor Studies Center, www.labor-studies.org, links users to materials from the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, Labor Department, the AFL-CIO, top university labor programs and much more.

“Labor History Links,” a site developed by a Duke University labor historian, is a comprehensive bibliography of information, documents and links of U.S. labor history sites; users also can recommend links to be added to it. Click here to visit the site.

The website includes teachers’ lesson plans, information organized by date and topic, biographies and oral history, labor culture through films, songs, literature, art and photos, listings of state and local historical sites and much more.