cwa newsletter, thursday,

8/11/2019 CWA Newsletter, Thursday,

1/13

August 28, 2014

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President Cohen's Labor Day 2014 Message Let's Make Labor Day Less About the End of Summer and More

About Restoring Workers' Rights Cohen: There is No Hope for Economic Justice or Democracy If

We Are Divided Movement Building Update Bargaining Update Who's Taking the Ice Bucket Challenge Next? Organizing U pda te Election Upd ate Inequality: Rebuilding the Middle Class Requires Reviving Strong

Unions National Women's Committee Report: It's Time for Paid Family

Leave in the U.S. New Benefits for CWAers Through Union Plus

President Cohen's Labor Day 2014 Message

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President Cohen's Labor Day message is also posted on Huffington Post .

Working Americans Can't Just Wait for the Next President

We tried waiting and hoping for real change six years ago. Today, incomeinequality grows steadily worse while economic opportunity is out of reach for most. Collective bargaining coverage for working Americans has fallen to thelowest level in eight years. Productivity grows while wages have not yetrebounded to the 2008 level.
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Earlier this year, and largely unnoticed, the 160 million-member InternationalTrade Union Confederation (ITUC) published its report on the global state of workers' rights. It rated nations a "1" if abuses were uncommon and a "5" if workers had no rights at all. The U.S. came in at 4, meaning "SystematicViolations of Workers Rights." We lagged behind 73 other nations. For the

first thirty years following passage of the National Labor Relations Act in1935, the U.S. would have been rated a "1." None of the more than 100 other nations in this report has declined as the U.S. has, and many countries likeBrazil, Uruguay, South Africa, and most of Eastern Europe have improveddramatically.

How bad is a "4"? This is hurricane season and if we think of a category 4storm, like Superstorm Sandy, we get some idea of the severity of this crisis.

Just 6 percent of private sector U.S. workers have collective bargainingrights. Including public workers only brings the percentage of U.S. workers

with bargaining rights to 11%. This is down from 35% some fifty years ago.No other nation has experienced a similar decline.

For all the useful talk about U.S. economic inequality and calls to raise theminimum wage, 2014 mostly will be another year like the last 50, withpersistent attacks on workers' rights, huge income and wealth gains for thetop 1 % and a declining standard of living for the other 99%.

Yet Labor Day this year will be much like recent years, a little less labor and alittle more like the end of summer. Political attention begins to focus onNovember elections, but the food fight for the next presidential election is

warming up.

Six years ago, as the election of a new president loomed, there was muchanticipation about a different economic order, and a focus on adoption of theEmployee Free Choice Act, passed in 2008 by the House of Representativeswith a 60% margin.

As important as a raise in the minimum wage is, that still would leave theother 95% of U.S. workers with the same troubling economic future that theyface today. Workers would continue to have no hope on workers' rights andwould be subject to a political system based more than ever on wealth thanks

to a string of Supreme Court decisions.

The next presidential election likely will focus much less on workers' rights,and more on social issues and government spending. What we learned over the past six years is that the combination of dysfunctional Senate rules, bigmoney in politics, the attack on voting rights, and barriers to citizenship for 20million immigrants are real barriers to economic change. Unless we break


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through these barriers, it's just more of the same for working Americans.

There is hope if we link workers' rights to the huge democracy movement thatis growing across the U.S. Labor, plus greens, consumers, and democratsfrom all parties realize that our nation today is not what democracy looks like.

Can we all focus on the blocks to a 21st century democracy as at least our number two issue? Fifty large membership organizations now endorsing theDemocracy Initiative say, "Yes we can!" Our collective membership totalsmore than 35 million and if we can focus a growing part of our time andresources on these structural blocks as well as workers' rights, theenvironment, poverty, and human rights, we might even dream the Americandream again.

On September 8, the Senate will vote on a constitutional amendment thatwould reverse recent Supreme Court decisions and allow Congress toregulate election spending. It is now clear the amendment will receive

majority support but based on likely total opposition from Republicans, it willfall short of the two-thirds required by the Constitution to move forward. Moreimportant, the vote will signal that there is serious support for reform, whether through an eventual Supreme Court reversal or amendment.

For the millions of Americans facing another Labor Day without labor rights, itis also a time to commit much more deeply to broader reform of our democracy and think far beyond the next election.

We do know what democracy should look like. Get big money out of politics. A Senate that debates and votes on the key issues of the day. Universal

voter registration so all citizens can turn out on Election Day. A path tocitizenship for immigrants that at least resembles the path that my family andothers who immigrated 100 or more years ago followed.

This Labor Day I will look forward to a warm summer day, but I'm alsodreaming of the movement we can build.

Let's Make Labor Day Less About the End of Summer and More AboutRestoring Workers' Rights

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CWA President Larry Cohen and MSNBC television commentator Ed Schultz
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discuss what it will take for workers to regain economic justice.

What's the way forward? Watch here .

Cohen: There is No Hope for Economic Justice or Democracy If We AreDivided

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CWA President Larry Cohen was one of 200 people arrested for civildisobedience outside the White House as part of the National Day to Fight for Families to protest the deportations that are breaking families apart. You canwatch a short video of the rally here .
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CWAers joined the action in front of the White House, where some 2,000activists turned out to call on President Obama to stop the deportations.

In Washington, D.C., CWAers joined more than 2,000 activists from unions,community groups, farm organizations, religious groups, immigrant advocatesand others in calling on President Obama to take action now to cut the hugenumber of people being deported every day more than 1,000 and keepfamilies intact.

In addition to this unprecedented level of deportations, "thousands of childrenfleeing violence in Central America have been deported as well. Whathappened to the inscription on our Statue of Liberty "Give me your tired,your poor," Cohen asked.

"Is this what we have come to? Divided up, as working people, based onwhere we came from? Divided up, as in Ferguson, Missouri, based on race?We have no hope for economic justice or democracy if we are divided,regardless of why," he said.

The President must take action and send the message that regardless of race or national origin, this remains the nation of the American dream, hesaid.

Across the country, thousands more families, community leaders, people of faith and others, participated in vigils, town halls and other events to push for action on immigration reform now.

Last year, the Senate passed a comprehensive bill by a bi-partisan vote. TheHouse has refused to act, instead calling for increased deportation and


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enforcement-only policies that are devastating families.

From left: CWA's own President Larry Cohen, T&T Vice President Bill Batesand Chief of Staff Ron Collins are arrested in front of the White House, part of a nationwide Day to Fight for Families and against deportations.

Movement Building Update

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Moral Week of Action in Raleigh, NC
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7/13


8/13


9/13

Who's Taking the Ice Bucket Challenge Next?

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CWA President Larry Cohen took the ALS "ice bucket challenge" then calledout CWA vice presidents Chris Shelton, D1, and Ed Mooney, D2-13, to takethe challenge and pass it on.

CWA President Cohen takes the challenge.

In Albuquerque for the D7 District Conference, Cohen was doused with thehuge bucket of ice and cold water by SuperShuttle drivers, members of CWALocal 7777.

The challenge is raising awareness and research dollars to help find a curefor ALS also known as "Lou Gehrig's disease" a progressive,degenerative disease of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. CWA D2Vice President Pete Catucci died from ALS disease in 2009.

They get soaked by the icy water, but participants also donate to the ALS Association. As of this week, $89 million has been raised. For moreinformation, click here .

Organizing Update
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10/13

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Chanting "vote like your job depends on it," Members of CWA Local 13301,with CWA District 2-13 Vice President Ed Mooney, center, talk with workersat the Philadelphia International Airport. Agentss at US Airways and American Airlines are voting now on CWA representation.

Election Update

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Steve Sarnoff won his primary race for a State Assembly seat in PinellasCounty, Fla., defeating two other candidates. He will face his Republicanopponent for the House District 67 seat in the November election.

Sarnoff is a city worker in Clearwater and president of CWA Local 3179.
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11/13

Inequality: Rebuilding the Middle Class Requires Reviving StrongUnions

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Check out this new report from Campaign for America's Future. It's exactly ontarget when it comes to what needs to be done to reverse the growinginequality in our country.

Here's what Robert Borosage, president of the Institute for America's Future,

says:

"America now suffers the most extreme inequality of the industrialworld, as the broad middle class continues to sink. Why does the U.S.no longer enjoy widely shared prosperity? The most popular explanations focus on the changes wrought by globalization andtechnology, and the transition to a service economy. The most toutedremedies are greater education and more worker training.

"But, if history is any guide, the most important policy is too often theleast mentioned: workers regaining a voice at work, through organizing

and broad-based collective bargaining. The power to bargain acrossentire sectors of the economy enables workers to demand a fair shareof the profits and productivity they help to create. A voice at work limitsexecutive excesses and curbs wage theft and other fair labor violations."

National Women's Committee Report: It's Time for Paid Family Leave inthe U.S.

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Did you know that just 11 percent of U.S. workers have access to paid familyleave through their employers? And only 40 percent have access to personal
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medical leave?

The Family and Medical Leave Act, passed more than 20 years ago, providesup to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but it doesn't do enough. That's the focus of a new report by CWA's National Women's Committee member Esther Pond,

CWA Local 3806.

The next step forward is the FAMILY Act. Introduced last year by Sen. KirstenGillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), this legislation wouldestablish a self-sustaining, national paid leave insurance plan funded byemployer and employee contributions.

Private and public, full time and part time, and self-employed workers wouldbe eligible for the benefits.

Some states like New Jersey, California and Rhode Island already have put

in place paid leave insurance programs, but we need a national law to makesure that all workers can better balance their work and family responsibilities.

Read more about the Family Act in the full report .

And then become a CWA Human Rights activist and help push importantmeasure like the Family Act forward.

Sign up here .

New Benefits for CWAers Through Union Plus

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Union Plus has worked with Hertz to arrange for two new discounted offersfor car rental brands Dollar and Thrifty. Hertz recently purchased Dollar and

Thrifty.

These new programs have been added to the Union Plus website . Check itout for more information and to make reservations.
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