It’s taken a decade, but today more than 80 million workers finally have the 5-person, fully-functioning, Senate-confirmed National Labor Relations Board they deserve. Just a few moments ago, the Senate confirmed President Obama’s 5 NLRB nominees, including Democrats Mark Pearce, Nancy Schiffer, and Kent Hirozawa is a victory worth celebrating.

CWA led this fight. Your phone calls and e-mails persuaded Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate to stand up to Mitch McConnell and to reach an agreement to allow votes on executive branch nominees.

Thanks to you, we will have labor law on Labor Day, and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Consumer Financial Protection Agency Director Richard Cordray, and Labor Secretary Tom Perez are now at work protecting workers, consumers and the environment.

A special thank you to our LPAT Members and to all of you who made the phone calls or spread the word. There is no doubt that Local 1101 was a leader when it came to calling our Senators and writing letters or signing petitions to push this across the goal line. Thank you again for understanding our priorities and for getting this done….

Transforming Fleet Management with Networkfleet

What is Fleet Management?

According to industry research firm Berg Insight

A fleet management (FM) solution is a vehicle-based system for commercial vehicles that incorporates data logging, satellite positioning and data communication to a backoffice application. The history of FM solutions goes back several decades. Today mobile networks can provide ubiquitous online connectivity at a reasonable cost and mobile computing technology delivers very high performance, as well as excellent usability. All of these components combined enable the delivery of a range of applications linking vehicles and enterprise IT systems.

Who is Networkfleet?

Networkfleet founded in 1999 and purchased by Verizon in 2012 as part of the Hughes Telematics acquisition, is a leading provider of wireless fleet management services that improve fleet efficiency by reducing fuel use, emissions and maintenance expenses.

Networkfleet’s technology combines vehicle diagnostic monitoring with an online GPS fleet tracking system, and the company has 165,000 vehicles across the nation reporting data.
The Networkfleet solution includes an in-vehicle GPS hardware device that connects to the diagnostic port to allow data to be sent over the Verizon network and viewed through the application.

Transforming Fleet Management

Verizon just launched the Networkfleet fleet-management solution, their first suite of fleet monitoring and management technology that runs end-to-end on their own network.

The “all-Verizon” solution combines the capabilities of Networkfleet — part of Hughes Telematics which Verizon acquired in July of 2012 — with the speed and reliability of the Verizon Wireless network to help fleet, operations and risk managers use technology to improve operations by managing speed, fuel consumption, drivers and vehicles. The new solution also optimizes vehicle use and routes via vehicle diagnostics to help hold the line on maintenance costs.

And, we are the first customer! Verizon is deploying Networkfleet in their own U.S. service fleet of 18,000 company vehicles to reduce their carbon footprint by taking advantage of in-vehicle hardware and a Web-based application for improved monitoring, management and route optimization capabilities.

Each vehicle is equipped with a GPS device that sends information to the Networkfleet Data Center over a secure wireless network. Key features include:

• GPS fleet tracking
• Asset tracking
• Fleet maps
• Vehicle diagnostics and alerts
• Roadside assistance
• Preventative maintenance 

The Networkfleet solution has been used in many vertical industries including: transportation, energy and utilities, government, retail and distribution, and construction.

Source: Verizon

By Scott Horsey

For decades after the 1930s, the National Labor Relations Board served as the arbiter for squabbles between management and unions, or workers who wanted to join a union. In more recent years, though, the board itself has become a battleground.

Democratic appointees to the NLRB have grown increasingly sympathetic to organized labor, while Republican appointees have grown increasingly hostile, says Harley Shaiken, who studies labor relations as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Management tends to in general prefer a far less active NLRB, where unions view it as essential for the future of the labor movement,” he says.

Shaiken says that antagonism extends to confirmation battles: Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked President Obama’s nominees to the board, making it hard to preserve the three-member quorum the NLRB needs to operate.

“The NLRB has been limping under the Obama presidency simply because the president has been unable to get appointments onto the five-member NLRB board,” Shaiken says.

That could end as early as next week, after a Senate deal defused a standoff over Republican filibusters of executive-branch appointees.

The ‘Recess’ Gambit

Last year, Obama used controversial “recess” appointments to fill vacant seats on the board, when the Senate was out of town, but not technically in recess. Several federal appeals courts have challenged that move, and the U.S. Supreme Court will consider the issue in its upcoming term.

Those recess appointments became a crucial bargaining chip in this week’s Senate negotiations over filibuster rules. Republicans agreed not to filibuster a series of presidential nominees, including the Labor secretary and the EPA administrator, both of whom were confirmed on Thursday.

But in return they insisted the White House come up with two new nominees for the NLRB.

“The NLRB nominations, I think, were at the heart of the deal to avert the so-called ‘nuclear option’ in the Senate,” says Ilyse Schuman, an attorney who represents management in labor disputes.

Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, is disappointed that Obama had to withdraw his two recess nominees. But Cohen says he’s perfectly happy with their replacements: Nancy Schiffer, who has been a lawyer for the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers, and Kent Hirozawa, chief counsel to the NLRB.

Cohen says he thinks they’ll be just as favorable for organized labor as were the previous nominees: Sharon Block and Richard Griffin.

“There’s no difference, in terms of their skills, their background, their commitment, their values,” says Cohen. “There’s no difference.”

‘Full Speed Ahead’

Schuman agrees the new NLRB board members will be equally pro-labor, and without the handicap of a legally dubious recess appointment.

“With this cloud of uncertainty removed from the authority of the board, it is going to return full speed ahead, if not even faster, on implementing, I think, enormous changes to labor-management relations,” Schuman says.

Schuman says the NLRB could now make it easier for workers to organize a union, something the Obama administration has tried but failed to do legislatively.

Read the full story here.

Today the Senate reached an agreement that will allow votes on some of President Obama’s executive nominations. As part of the agreement, Senators have committed to confirming a Democratic majority on the NLRB before the August recess. We’ll be discussing this agreement as well as other issues important to our union on this Thursday’s Union Hall Call at 7:30 ET.

Our monthly calls are an opportunity for activists like you to hear about the work that other CWAers have been doing to strengthen our union and build our movement.

Don’t miss it! Register for the call today: http://cwa-union.org/cwacalhttp://cwa-union.org/cwacall

A new scholarship has been established to honor the memory of former President of CWA Local 1101 Ed Dempsey. Ed was elected not long after the difficult 1971 seven month strike against New York Telephone. He took over a local that was militant but in turmoil and heading into another contract fight. With strength, direction and smarts, Ed Dempsey changed the Local to be the most respected and feared in CWA.

Dempsey’s unique negotiating ability gave him a lead role for all bargaining for three decades. Three decades that brought considerable advances for all members of CWA, locally and even nationwide.

The Ed Dempsey Scholarship will provide one winner with an award of a one-time payment of $5000. The rules and eligibility for the new scholarship will be the same as for the Dennis Diemer Scholarship with the exception being that active members do not have to be considered a “full-time” student.

SCHOLARSHIP RULES

To be eligible for either the Dennis Diemer or Edward Dempsey Scholarship Award you must be:

1. An active member of CWA Local 1101.
2. The spouse or child of an active member of CWA Local1101.
3. A retired member of CWA 1101.
4. The spouse, child, or grandchild of a retired or deceased member of CWA Local1101.
5. Write and submit a 500 word essay on a Labor Topic.

Member, for the purpose of these Scholarship Awards, means:

1. Active member: Member in good standing at the time the application is submitted and thereafter.
2. Retired member: Member in good standing at the time of retirement.
3. Deceased member: Member in good standing at the time of death.

The applicant must be either:

1. A high school student or graduate who has been accepted at an accredited college or university.
2. A college student working full time toward an undergraduate or associate degree (matriculating) at an accredited college or university.
3. An active member who has been accepted at an accredited college, university or trade school.

Scholarship Fund Application Instructions:

1. Take or mail completed form, same form for both awards, along with your letter of acceptance or other documentary proof from the college or university where you have been accepted or presently attending, to: CWA Local 1101, 275 7TH Ave., New York, N.Y. 10001.
2. Final determination on the eligibility of any application will be made by the Local 1101 Scholarship Committee.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (center).

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman accused Verizon on Tuesday of depriving customers in the beach haven of Fire Island of essential services as part of an overarching business strategy to abandon the traditional copper telephone network in favor of wireless and fiber networks.

In a blistering 12-page statement filed with the New York Public Service Commission that came to light today, Schneiderman requested the commission replace Verizon with another carrier in areas where it is no longer willing to provide traditional or “wireline” service.

The controversy centers around recent moves by Verizon to replace traditional phone service with a wireless service it calls Voice Link. Verizon first began doing this in the western part of Fire Island and areas along the Jersey Shore after its network was severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy. There have recently been reports that Verizon is also installing Voice Link in parts of the Catskills and in Manhattan.

Read the full story here.