The Regional Committee is happy to announce that the Dependent Care Reimbursement Fund has been approved for 2013.

The Regional Joint Work/Family Committee (Regional Committee) is a bargained for committee established in 1990. The Regional Committee is comprised of six Senior Level Managers and six Local Union Officers representing CWA New York / New England, Verizon and IBEW 2213.

Who is the New York Local Joint Work/Family Committee?

The NY Local Joint W/F Committee (NY Local Committee), comprised of union and management representatives, is responsible for researching, developing, deploying proposals for funding by regional, and communicating work/family initiatives.

Some of the initiatives that have come out of this Committee are:

• Dependent Care Reimbursement
• Domestic Abuse Awareness Training
• Men & Women as Allies
• 2010 Pendant
• Short Notice EWD’s (Excused Work Days)
• Gradual Return to Work (GRW), where employees can return to work gradually, after the birth or adoption of a child.

Find out about all of these programs at their website: New York / New England Regional Joint Work & Family Committee

This week Michigan became the country’s 24th “right to work” state. But more than 12,000 protesters didn’t let the misleadingly-named legislation pass quietly.

CWA activists joined workers pouring into the streets and flooding the state Capitol in what the Detroit Free Press is calling “the largest public protest the seat of state government has ever seen.” A number of schools even closed as teachers joined the demonstration in Lansing. As soon as the Michigan House voted, largely along party lines, to bar contracts requiring public and private employees to pay union dues, people in the gallery began chanting “Shame on you!” and “Recall! Recall! Recall!”

CWAers from around the state met in Lansing to join the protest.

“The attack in Michigan, financed by the wealthiest 1/10th of 1 percent is an attack on our standard of living, not just union finances,” said CWA President Larry Cohen. “The real goal of funders like billionaire Dick DeVos is to eliminate any voice for the 99 percent — especially a union voice. We will stay focused on bargaining and organizing rights just as the 1 percent is out to destroy those rights. Setbacks like these must lead to a broader movement for economic justice and democracy. Don’t moan. Organize!”

The GOP argument that this legislation will spur business investment and job creation is a flat out lie. In the words of President Obama, “These so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws, they don’t have to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics. What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.”

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has highlighted Indiana’s economic success since passing “right to work” as a motivation for Michigan to do the same. But a new Economic Policy Institute study found that not a single company came to Indiana because of “right to work” and it continues to lose jobs to non-”right to work” states.

“A study by the University of Notre Dame in January found that the average wages and benefits for non-farm workers in right-to-work states was $57,732, while in states without the law it was $65,567. States with anti-dues laws have higher rates of poverty and lower rates of health coverage,” The New York Times pointed out in an editorial.

The evidence is clear as day: This isn’t “right to work.” It’s right to work for less.

Note the graphic that clearly shows why Gov. Snyder pushed right to work in the lame duck session. In next year’s legislature, “right to work” can’t pass. Many Republican supporters of “right to work” were defeated or aren’t returning in January 2013.

Source: CWA News – Read the full story.

There is going to be a Memorial Service on Saturday December 15, for our CWA 1101 Sister and good friend, Patricia Smith.

In Memoriam:

Smith – Patricia Nancy (nee Farrell), 66, formerly of Maspeth Queens, on November 4, 2012. Loving mother of Kimberly (Kenny). Adoring grandmother of Christian. Dear sister of John (Nada). Longtime best friend of Deborah (Joe).

Friends may visit at Claude R. Boyd-Spencer Funeral Homes, 448 W. Main St, Babylon Village, Saturday December 15, 2-4:30 & 7-9:30p.m. Memorial Service at 7:30p.m. www.boyd-spencer.com

Many of you may have read the article in the NY Post today.

In typical fashion the Post ran an anti-union article, which was factually untrue. This is nothing new! As many of you remember the Post wrote many negative articles during our, recent contract dispute with Verizon, painting our membership as villains and spoiled troublemakers.

The truth was we did not disrupt last night’s event in any way shape or form.

We chose not to set up in front of the Hard Rock Café, where the event took place. We had a band from Local 802 musician’s Union playing Christmas Carols.

We made a flyer (text is below), which talked about the Great Work of the Lustgarten Foundation.

The Post was also inaccurate in its depiction of a rift between Local 802 and CWA, or any other Union. The Local 802 Vice President attended our event to offer support, as well as leaders from the Central Labor Council. John O’Connor recording vice president local 802 stated; “We support Cablevision workers 100%, that’s why I’m at this rally. Dolan wants people to think he’s a nice guy, we’re out here telling the truth about how he treats working people.”

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The Good Work of the Lustgarten Foundation

Welcome to the Lustgarten Annual Fundraiser. As employees of Cablevision, we support funds going to curing Pancreatic Cancer. It is important work that offers hope to thousands of people suffering from such an awful disease.

We are troubled, however, that Cablevision CEO James Dolan seems willing to offer hope to those suffering from cancer, but wants to strip away all hope from his own employees. Dolan Acts Like Ebenzer Scrooge With His Own Workers

While James Dolan tries to project a positive image for himself amongst the philanthropic community, he acts much more like Ebenezer Scrooge to his hard working employees at Cablevision. Many of us lack affordable health benefits to provide for our families when illness hits. James Dolan must agree, because he recently made a change in medical coverage to make it more affordable for his employees. That is,all his employees with the exception of Cablevision workers in Brooklyn.

Dolan Punishes Cablevision Techs in Brooklyn
Cablevision employees have been negotiating with Dolan’s lawyers for almost a full year, and to date, Cablevision hasn’t offered even one penny more in wages, or health coverage. James Dolan himself told the workers that he would punish us for daring to vote for a union, and now he is following through on that threat. Tell James Dolan to stop discriminating against workers for exercising their democratic right to form a Union.

We think Scrooge himself would take great comfort in knowing that Dolan is continuing with his greedy tradition.

For more information, visit www.thecablevision99.org

Source: CWA1109.org

From: Association of BelTel Retirees Inc.

Federal Court Action Seeks to Reverse Spin-Off to Prudential Insurance Annuity Plan

Cold Spring Harbor, NY – November 29, 2012– Management retirees of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) have filed a federal lawsuit to halt their former employer’s
plan to sell off 41,000 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) protected pensions to the Prudential Insurance Company of America (NYSE: PRU) in exchange for providing Prudential with $7.5 billion in Verizon retirees’ pension assets. If the pension spinoff, which was expected to close in December, is not halted, beginning in January 2013, Prudential will replace retirees’ pensions with insurance annuities that are not ERISA-protected.

Attorneys Curtis L. Kennedy of Denver and Bob Goodman of Dallas representing retirees in conjunction with the 128,000 member non-profit Association of BellTel Retirees Inc. (www.BellTelRetirees.org) have filed for a request for an immediate temporary restraining order to be followed by a hearing to consider a preliminary injunction in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division charging that Verizon’s plan to transfer the retirees’ pensions from the Verizon Management Pension Plan into Prudential issued insurance annuities violates federal ERISA law.

On October 17 Verizon surprised 41,000 pre-January 1, 2010 company management retirees when it disclosed the transaction. Retirees claim the conversion to an annuity wipes out the federally insured pension safety net provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and is an effort to sever retirees ERISA protections, as well as the company’s fiduciary responsibilities to the very retirees who built their company. The Verizon Management Pension Plan currently has approximately 100,000 participants, including plaintiffs.

Retiree association President C. William Jones said, “On behalf of 41,000 Verizon retirees scattered across the country, who are being given no choice, no voice and no protection in the transfer of their pension assets, we are calling upon the company to reverse this action and halt this predatory business transaction that will impact many retired Americans, who labored a lifetime to fund their earned pension benefits.”

Retirees note that Prudential could also sell or transfer all or part of its ownership of the annuity asset to another company. While Prudential looks and sounds like a solid insurance company, the retirees say America’s history is littered with the carcasses of many once-great and too-bigto-fail financial powerhouses such as: AIG, Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co, Executive Life, The Equitable Life Assurance Society (Equitable Life), Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

Read the full document here.

Update: Court backs Verizon’s pension-shifting move

(Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications Inc. pension-plan beneficiaries lost a bid to block the company’s transfer of $7.5 billion in plan obligations to Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater in Dallas this month denied a request by two retirees who worked for a Verizon predecessor to issue an order stopping the deal, saying they failed to show a “substantial likelihood of success on the merits” of their case. Read the full story.

What To Do If Your Pension Is Frozen Or You’re Offered A Lump Sum

By Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes Staff

Do you now or have you ever participated in a “defined benefit” pension plan–the kind where a private sector employer promises a set monthly check based on your salary, years of service and retirement age? Are you now retired and receiving a monthly pension check?

If you’re one of the estimated 44 million Americans who can answer yes to either question, be on the alert for an e-mail or letter announcing “Important Changes to Your Retirement Benefits.”

There are three types of changes you might be confronted with, all part of an effort by older companies to reduce the risk on their balance sheets of guaranteeing employees’ retirement security.

Forbes – Read the full story.