cwa newsletter, thursday, june 20, 2013

7/28/2019 CWA Newsletter, Thursday, June 20, 2013

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June 20, 2013

Send tips to [email protected] or@CWANews. Follow the latestdevelopments at www.resistancegrowing.org.

CWA Town Hall Call Tonight! Bargaining Update President Cohen Talks Democracy Initiative at Netroots Nation CWA Activists Press Their Senators on NLRB Fly In Lobby Day on Immigration and NLRB

CWA's Ron Collins Gets Arrested for Mine Workers Organizing Update Movement Building Arizona Governor Signs Voter Suppression Bill Newspaper Guild Forum Looks at Media Ownership with

Emphasis on Koch Brothers Immigration Amendment Gives Critical Support to U.S. STEM

Workers, StudentsSOLD TIME = UNEMPLOYMENT LINE

CWA Town Hall Call Tonight!

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In the 1930s, workers took to the streets, protesting poor workingconditions, low wages and exploitative labor practices. Some diedfighting for their rights. As a result, President Franklin D. Rooseveltand Congress established the National Labor Relations Board toprovide workers a place to seek justice.
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2/12

Today we are on the verge of losing the NLRB.

J oin the CWA Town Hall Call tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET to take a standand learn how you can fight back.

Bargaining Update

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Bargaining began this week for a new contract covering 1,600CWA members at Frontier Communications in West Virginia.The CWA bargaining team told the company that our goal is tonegotiate a contract "that protects good union jobs and thatgives our members the opportunity to grow along with the

Company." Piedmont Airlines Flight Attendants are picketing major

Piedmont-serviced airports to raise awareness over stalledcontract talks. The National Mediation Board could decide soonwhether to release the Flight Attendants to go on strike. Readabout a recent action at Harrisburg International Airport'sterminal here.

Horizon Air Flight Attendants reached a tentative agreementthat includes increased compensation, a new schedulingsystem and substantial improvements in flexibility and quality oflife for the over 500 workers. Voting on the agreement will endJ uly 18.

President Cohen Talks Democracy Initiative at Netroots Nation

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Our democracy is in distress, dominated by corporate America. Toachieve democratic change, we must push back against corporate andbillionaire-funded efforts to suppress voter participation, stop theinfluence of corporate money in our political system and end theobstruction and abuse of the Senate rules.

Tomorrow at Netroots Nation, CWA President Larry Cohen will be
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3/12

exploring these issues and more on a panel with Democracy Initiativeco-founders NAACP President Benjamin J ealous and GreenpeaceExecutive Director Phil Radford. They'll be joined by Working FamiliesParty Co-chair Karen Scharff and New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall.Salon's J oan Walsh will moderate.

Watch the live stream at 4:30 p.m. PST atfixthesenatenow.org/pages/three-keys-to-reclaiming-our-democracy.

CWA Activists Press Their Senators on NLRB

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CWA Legislative and Political Team activists continued to press their

Senators on the need to confirm all five Presidential nominations tothe NLRB, and to change the Senate rules, if necessary, to get itdone.

Indiana CWAers met with Senator J oe Donnelly on J une 7, said StateLPAT Coordinator Angie Schritter. So far, the team has delivered 251signed letters and about 20-30 new letters come in every day, shesaid. At worksites, LPAT activists are handing out flyers and urgingmembers to make phone calls.

In Colorado, activists had a meeting with Senator Mark Udall andreported that the senator is completely on board with why we need a
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4/12

fully functioning NLRB and changing the Senate rules to make ithappen. An active CWA retired members' council is helping withletters and phone calls.

Plans are in the works for a National Day of Action on J uly 2, with

CWAers, especially in critical states, holding rallies and meetingsoutside their senators' district offices and hitting as many worksites aspossible to help members make those calls to Capitol Hill. "We want togenerate tens of thousands of telephone calls to senators, and remindthem that we expect the Senate Democratic majority to change therules if necessary to get all five NLRB presidential nominationsconfirmed," said CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins.

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force publicized its support for afully functioning NLRB in an ad in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaperthat reaches members of Congress and their staffs.

"The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the agency thatenforces federal labor law. Fewer than half the states provide any sortof anti-discrimination protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual ortransgender employees. And because there is no federal law that barsworkplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or genderidentity, LGBT workers who suffer workplace discrimination have noremedy or recourse. We call on the Senate majority to confirm all fiveNLRB members to safeguard workers' rights on the job so that LGBTworkers, who may be especially vulnerable to the whims of theiremployers, may have their rights protected by a fully functioning

NLRB."

Fly In Lobby Day on Immigration and NLRB

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5/12

As part of the "Fly In" on the NLRB and immigration reform, RobertEngland, an LPAT activist and member of CWA Local 9415, met withHouse Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senator Barbara Boxer'sstaff.

CWA's Ron Collins Gets Arrested for Mine Workers

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CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins, with CWA members, stands withPatriot miners.

Below: Collins is arrested.
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6/12

CWA members continue to be a big part of the thousands of activistswho protest at Peabody/Patriot Coal locations.

In St. Louis last week, CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins fired up thecrowd, then was arrested along with United Mine Workers members.Check out this video.

Patriot executives now say they are willing to resume negotiations;about a week ago, Patriot said it wasn't interested in bargaining with

the UMWA. A bankruptcy judge has approved Patriot's bid to throwout its collective bargaining agreements and slash retiree health care;the judge said cuts can begin as early as J uly 1.

Hundreds of CWA activists have participated in rallies and actions inSt. Louis and Charleston, WVa., to protest Peabody's move to stripretiree health care benefits from 23,000 miners and their families.

Peabody created Patriot Coal in 2007 and gave that company 11percent of its assets, 43 percent of its retiree liability and someunderwater coal contracts, the UMWA said. Some 90 percent ofretirees whose benefits will be slashed never worked for Patriot. Then,in 2008, Patriot bought Arch-spinoff Magnum Coal, and Arch saddledthat company with 12 percent of its assets and 96 percent of its retireehealth-care liabilities.

"We all know that the resources needed to really solve these problemsare piled up in the corporate coffers of Peabody Energy and ArchCoal. Those two companies made billions from the sweat and hard
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work of our members, and if these executives think we're going to sitidle while they abandon their promises and put our members at risk -well, then they don't really know or understand the United MineWorkers of America," said UMWA President Cecil Roberts.

The union is working with members of Congress from both parties topursue legislative remedies and has an ongoing public educationcampaign with a "Peabody Lied" television ad currently running in St.Louis and Evansville, Ill.

Organizing Update

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Build ing TU in New Mexico

TU activists at the Albuquerque, NM, call center were joined by ver.diunion members, Deutsche Telekom workers from Bavaria, Germany,in leafleting and building support for a union voice at T-Mobile USA.ver.di is the union that represents DT and T-Mobile workers inGermany, and ver.di members are supporting the fight for justiceamong U.S. workers. CWA Local 7011 members joined the action.

Deutsche Telekom activists at CWA Local 7011 in Albuquerque, NM,show their support for T-Mobile workers fighting for justice!

Below: ver.di activists join the leafleting at the T-Mobile call center inAlbuquerque.
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8/12

Movement Building

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In Minnesota, CWAers and Take Action Minnesota activists arestarting early to make sure union voters have all the information theyneed about Rep. J ohn Kline (R), chairman of the House Educationand Workforce Committee.

Today, they're knocking on doors in Kline's district, telling membersabout Kline's record. Among his votes: against fairer union

representation elections for workers, against health care reform,against preventing student loan interest rates from skyrocketing.Elected to Congress in 2002, he has a 0 percent rating from the AFL-CIO.

Arizona Governor Signs Voter Suppression Bill
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9/12

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Arizona Governor J an Brewer has signed a controversial election bill,HB 2305, that will suppress the right to vote, restrict citizens' use ofthe initiative process and limit voter choice by making it more difficultfor third parties to run candidates for office.

The measure is an extreme overhaul of the state's voting law. Thegovernor's office said that concerns that voters will be disenfranchisedwere "overblown."

Among the changes is the purging of the state's early voting rolls. Anywho didn't use an early voting ballot in the November 2012 elections

faces being dropped from the early voter list.

The measure lowers the number of signatures needed for Republicansand Democrats to quality for statewide and legislative races, butdramatically increases the number needed for third parties like theGreen party and others. Republicans in Arizona and other statesbelieve that limiting the votes received by Libertarian Party candidateswill boost the election of Republican candidates.

The bill makes it a crime for volunteer political workers andorganizations to collect early ballots from voters and take them to

polling places. The Democratic Party and voter advocacy groups haveprovided this service to voters for many years, at voters' choice.

It also includes new, stricter requirements for citizens' initiatives.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out an Arizona requirementthat prospective voters document their U.S. citizenship in order to usea "Motor Voter" registration form.

Newspaper Guild Forum Looks at Media Ownership with Emphasis onKoch Brothers

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TNG-CWA will host a forum on Wednesday, J une 26, at the NationalPress Club in Washington, D.C., with a special focus on the bid by the
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10/12

Koch brothers to buy the Tribune Newspapers.

The Koch brothers, who are right wing billionaires and big supportersof Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker who launched a major attackagainst public workers and their unions, are interested in buying the

newspaper group that includes the Los Angeles Times, the ChicagoTribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and others. Activists havebeen protesting outside the Los Angeles Times, raising concerns thatthe Koch's right-wing agenda would take over news coverage.

The session is titled, "Should the Koch Brothers Own the TribuneNewspapers?" but will go far beyond that debate, said TNG-CWAPresident Bernie Lunzer said. "The Koch brothers are a good catalystfor this discussion because their interest in the Tribune newspapershas helped renew and expand the debate about who owns and whoshould own our newspapers, TV stations and other media, and how

much of that media any one owner should control."

To participate by webcast, send your name, title, organization andcontact information to [email protected]. The AFL-CIO also isparticipating in the forum.

Immigration Amendment Gives Critical Support to U.S. STEMWorkers, Students

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CWA commended a bipartisan group of Senators for their work on anamendment to comprehensive immigration reform that will safeguardjobs and opportunity for U.S. workers and students in STEM fields Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Amendment 1311 was introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), J oe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and J effSessions (R-Ala.)

It requires employers to hire "equally or better qualified" U.S. STEMworkers before looking to hire H-1B visa holders.

This amendment is an important fix to S. 744, the Border Security,Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Today,recent U.S. graduates in STEM fields face unemployment rates of 7.4percent (engineers) and nearly 6 percent (in mathematics). U.S.students studying for occupations within the STEM sectors need to
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know that jobs and opportunity will be available to them as theycontinue their studies.

It would be ironic if the increase in STEM funds to help students payfor education, created as part of a compromise over H-1B visa levels,

leads to a greater number of U.S. students who can't find work in theirSTEM profession, CWA said.

High skill U.S. workers also need assurances that they will not bedumped by employers looking to abuse the H-1B program andoffshore their work.

CWA urges the U.S. Senate to debate, vote on and adopt thisamendment to comprehensive immigration reform.

CWA501 Third Street NWWashington, DC 20001www.cwa-union.org

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12/12

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SOLD TIME = UNEMPLOYMENT LINE

cwa newsletter, thursday, june 20, 2013

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