Verizon West Members Overwhelmingly Approve Contract

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.

Split Decision on Verizon-Frontier Deal

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.

In Germany, T-Mobile USA Workers Learn ‘Respect is the Difference

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, Broadband Key to Green Jobs Being "Good Jobs"

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.

CWA Proposes “Middle Ground” To Protect an Open Internet

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……..

Learn More During Labor History Month

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.

CWAers Rally at FCC against Verizon-Frontier Deal

About 200 CWAers from West Virginia, plus supporters from IBEW and the AFL-CIO, rallied outside the Federal Communications Commission, letting regulators know that the proposed Verizon-Frontier Communications deal is a disaster waiting to happen.

Verizon Communications wants to sell landlines in West Virginia and 13 other states to Frontier so it can take advantage of a tax loophole.  Similar deals by Verizon in other states have ended in bankruptcy, lost jobs, the loss of high speed broadband access and overall reduced service quality.

“This deal will pad the pockets of Wall Street executives while only deepening the digital divide,” said CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins.

Following the rally, CWA President Larry Cohen, Collins and a group of CWA members met with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. Collins  and other CWAers also met with the chief of staff for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and other FCC officials.

Inside the FCC, CWA presented Commissioner Copps with letters from 71 West Virginia legislators who oppose the deal; letters expressing concern or opposition from 18 county commissions, and petitions from more than 5,000 West Virginia citizens calling on the state Public Service Commission to reject the deal. 

The FCC can block the deal if it determines that the sale isn’t in the public interest.  In March, an Illinois administrative law judge recommended that the state Commerce Commission reject the deal; the West Virginia Public Service Commission staff and the state’s consumer advocate also strongly oppose it.

CWA or IBEW have intervened in state regulatory proceedings on the proposed sale in West Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, and Washington. The FCC will take up the case after the states have concluded their reviews.

For more information, go to www.verizonfrontierdeal.org.

CWA Joe Beirne Foundation’s Annual Scholarship

Applications are now being accepted through March 31st for the CWA Joe Beirne Foundation’s annual scholarship offerings for the 2010-2011 school year.

The Foundation’s Board of Directors has approved the awarding of fifteen (15) partial college scholarships of up to $3,000 each, and the winners also will receive second-year scholarships for the same amount, contingent upon satisfactory academic achievement.

Eligible for the scholarships are CWA members, their spouses, children and grandchildren, including the dependents of retired, laid-off, or deceased members.

Applicants must be high school graduates or high school students who will graduate during the year in which they apply.  Undergraduate and graduate students returning to school may also apply.

Applications will be available solely online for completion and submission to the Foundation’s website: 
http://www.cwa-union.org/members/beirne

Demand Action Now on NLRB Appointments

Craig Becker and Mark Pearce, highly respected labor lawyers whom President Obama nominated for seats on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Meanwhile, the NLRB, tasked with protecting American workers’ rights, has been handicapped with vacancies for the past two years.

CWA is continuing to press for NLRB nominees Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to be confirmed as soon as possible, with a recess appointment from President Obama if necessary.

With just two active members now on the NLRB, “thousands of fired workers can get no justice and hundreds of thousands have no bargaining rights as every critical case at the national level is frozen,” said CWA President Larry Cohen.

Presidents routinely make appointments during the Senate recess, especially when lawmakers have refused to confirm nominees to critical positions. Ronald Reagan made 243 recess appointments, George W. Bush made 171, Bill Clinton made 140 and George H.W. Bush made 77.

Enough is enough. Call the White House switchboard today and demand that President Obama fight Republican obstructionism and use his executive power to appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the NLRB during the Presidents Day recess. 

Call the White House NOW: (800) 705-7083.

Becker already has received majority backing in the Senate and both won committee support, but the Republican minority has continually blocked their appointments. America’s working people are getting short shrift and it’s past time to do something about it. Workers need an NLRB that can enforce the National Labor Relations Act and protect workers’ rights—not an NLRB handicapped by vacancies.