Members of Local 1298 in Connecticut rallied, marched and stayed strong during 18 months of AT&T bargaining that finally led to a tentative contract this week.

CWA members’ solidarity during 18 long months of bargaining paid off Wednesday night in Connecticut when Local 1298 reached a tentative agreement with AT&T that includes job protection language the company had refused to include earlier.

“We hung tough, the membership hung tough, we had the support of national, and AT&T knew it and finally realized that ‘we’re not going to get these guys to move,'” Local 1298 President Bill Henderson said.

The two tentative contracts, one for nearly 3,400 core employees and the other for 176 yellow page workers, are the last in the round of bargaining that CWA and AT&T began at tables nationwide in 2009. Ratification ballots will be sent to members on Monday and must be returned by Sept. 7.

Both of the 1298 agreements require AT&T to keep at least 84 percent of the represented jobs in Connecticut. “It’s not everything we wanted, but it’s big for us and we can build on it in the future,” Henderson said.

CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton praised the negotiating team. “The bargaining committee stayed focused and devoted themselves to getting a just contract for the members and I thank them, my assistant Dennis Trainor and Staff Representative Pat Telesco for their work and dedication,” he said.

Over the last three months, another 1,061 CWAers have signed up for COPE, or increased their contributions by at least $1 a week.

CWA’s political team has been working hard, providing information to members about COPE, their members of Congress and why it’s so important for CWAers to participate in the political and legislative process.

Local 3406’s mobilization invited CWAers to cool off and learn about COPE.

Eileen Winfrey, from CWA Local 3406 in Lafayette, La., encouraged CWAers to “Cool off with CWA and Cope” at a worksite mobilization. She handed out contact info for members of Congress and answered lots of questions. “This mobilization successfully planted the seed that will lead members to become active in this election, as well as COPE,” she said.

Local 1101 won 2 COPE awards at the Convention this year.

COPE contributions are the way CWA members show their support for elected officials and candidates that stand up for us. These voluntary contributions help keep our union and our union movement strong.

Every District and Sector that meets the minimum quota in giving will hold a drawing among those CWA members who have signed up or increased their COPE contributions, with a combined drawing for those that don’t reach the minimum. CWA will award up to eight top prizes of a trip for two to Las Vegas, including airfare and two nights’ hotel accommodation.

Any CWAer who becomes a new contributor or increases her or his weekly contributions by $1 will get a COPE t-shirt.

The contest runs until October and the winners will be announced on Election Day, Nov. 2.

• Biennial conventions
• Merger of Districts 2 and 13
• Merger of Communications and Technologies and Telecommunications Sectors
• Vote on the Executive Board for the Canadian Director

CWA convention delegates again voted to move CWA forward and adopted several changes that will support every level of CWA in building our union. That action continues the work of the Ready for the Future plan that CWA began in 2005.

Delegates, in a roll call vote, approved a biennial schedule for CWA conventions that will take effect in 2011, allowing CWA to put more resources into frontline representation. Delegates voted new provisions to handle appeals, elections and other issues, ensuring that CWA will remain the most democratic union in the labor movement.

The convention approved the merger of District 2 and 13, and effective next year, 50,000 CWAers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia will be part of District 2-13. Local union members and leaders in both districts had strongly endorsed the merger, along with vice presidents Ron Collins, D2, and Ed Mooney, D13.

“I am proud of everyone in District 13 for making this merger possible. Local leaders did not hesitate in taking action they knew would better serve members’ and our union’s best interest,” Mooney said.

“Members in District 2 and 13 have shown that they are ready for the future by embracing change when it is necessary to strengthen our union. All sides of the CWA triangle are strengthened by our taking this step to unite our two districts,” Collins said.

Delegates also voted to combine the Communications and Technologies and the Telecommunications offices, creating a new office with a single vice president. Both C and T Vice President Ralph Maly and Telecommunications Vice President supported the merger.

Maly pointed out that the two sectors already had been working together closely for several years, “a real plus for our members.” Gurganus said the merger would make the sector even stronger and able to build more bargaining power for members.

Delegates also voted to give CWA’s Canadian director a vote on the Executive Board. The director of CWA/SCA, currently Arnold Amber, was added to the executive board in 2008.

Busloads of CWA members were on Capitol Hill for CWA’s Lobby Day, holding more than 140 meetings with members of Congress and staff on jobs, bargaining rights for public safety officers and high-speed broadband access for all Americans.

CWA members who visited Senate offices also raised the critical issue of Senate rule changes to end legislative gridlock that has blocked legislation to help working families.

They got fired up for the visits by an early morning speech by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who said CWA’s exhaustive work on health care reform proves what can be accomplished by building coalitions and never giving up.

Pelosi described the Democrats’ agenda to rebuild American manufacturing, including ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs offshore, pointing out that more jobs already have been created under the Obama administration than had been created during the entire eight-year Bush administration, when 4.6 million manufacturing jobs disappeared.

The Bush era left America “with a deep financial crisis, a deep recession, and deep deficits. Republican members of Congress are signing pledges to protect tax breaks for companies that ship American jobs overseas and other tax breaks for the rich. Democrats are standing up for the middle class – and we are not going back,” Pelosi said.

Watch Pelosi’s address here.

Washington, D.C. – June 28, 2010 – Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen today supported President Obama’s signing of a presidential memorandum seeking to make available more wireless spectrum available for commercial use:

“Increased spectrum is a good step forward towards reaching the FCC broadband goals. Wireless internet is critical, particularly in rural areas, if we are ever to close the global broadband gap. However, we still need the right mix of public incentives to encourage wired build out as reflected in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Revenue from spectrum auctions could be used to support 1 gigabit to anchor institutions such as hospitals, schools and libraries. It could also help bring to reality an implementation plan to reach the 2015 goals of 50 megabits downstream and 20 megabits upstream – still a dream for most of this country.”

Remarks By CWA President Larry Cohen

Eyes on the Prize

In 1956, as the Civil Rights movement was moving forward after decades of fighting segregation, activist Alice Wine wrote “Eyes on the Prize,” based on a gospel song written decades earlier.  A few years ago, Bruce Springsteen popularized it again in a recording with Pete Seeger and it seemed like a good way to begin today.  Music can carry us forward in tough times, and CWAers and working families are living through some tough times.

View full story here

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Legislation to close the Reverse Morris Trust tax loophole is before the Senate this week, and CWA members are working hard to get their senators on board.

The House of Representatives closed the Reverse Morris Trust tax loophole last week as part of H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.

CWA’s Legislative Political Action Team has been coordinating contacts to key senators, looking for support for H.R. 4213, including phone calls and letters. District vice presidents and local union presidents are writing to their senators, pointing out that the Reverse Morris Trust “is a Wall Street scheme that allows big businesses to avoid paying taxes on the sale of company assets” and that closing the loophole would have meant hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Because of the Senate rule requiring 60 votes for legislation to be considered, CWAers are urging their senators to reject a filibuster and get the bill to the senate floor for debate.

District 2 activists played a huge role in winning support from Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a key member of the Senate Finance Committee.

To send a message to your senator, click here.

The RMT tax loophole has enabled companies like Verizon to save millions of dollars in taxes from the sale of assets. H.R. 4213 also includes tax cuts and an extension of unemployment benefits.

Working families in Arkansas came very close to making Lt. Gov. Bill Halter the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. It’s disappointing to fall short, but CWA locals and members in Arkansas and District 6 did a tremendous amount of work and sent this powerful message to elected officials: 

“We will hold you accountable for your votes and for the choices you make on the issues that matter most to working families.”

Blanche Lincoln learned that by abandoning workers and doing the bidding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Big Business interests, she was in for the fight of her political life. That’s exactly what happened in Arkansas.

Here’s a reminder of how Blanche Lincoln abandoned workers:

• Lincoln voted to tax workers’ health care benefits when she voted against the health care and education reconciliation bill. 
• Lincoln refused to support even a compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act and would not allow the measure to come to the Senate floor for debate.
• Lincoln voted against allowing the nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board to come to the Senate floor for debate.
• Lincoln voted against the auto bailout.
• Lincoln sided with bankers and against reform of the student loan program.
• Lincoln voted to send millions of jobs overseas by supporting NAFTA and CAFTA.

Our campaign in Arkansas put Lincoln and every other elected official on notice. CWA members won’t support candidates who are Democrats in name only. We will support candidates who support us. We came within just a few thousand votes of winning in Arkansas. So imagine how effective our program can be as we take it across the country to hold elected officials accountable.   

CWA is building an independent political and legislative movement that supports working families in tough times, today’s times. The work our locals and coalition partners – the civil rights community, environmental activists and others — did in Arkansas shows that this kind of political change will happen. That’s the lesson of Arkansas.