CWA Newsletter, February 20, 2014

8/12/2019 CWA Newsletter, February 20, 2014

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February 20, 2014

Want to be in next week's CWA Newsletter? Send your stories and photos [email protected]@CWANews. Follow the latest developments atwww.resistancegrowing.org.

1 Million People Demand Better Banks

New Jersey Homeowners Protest Sheriff's Sale

of CWA Member's Home 1,500 New Jersey Public Employees Affiliate with CWA

Dunkin' Donuts Workers Ratify New Contract

Building Our Movement

Cohen: Senator Corker Must Be Held Accountable forAttackingVWWorkers

Unions Aren't Retreating in the South

'We Have Each Other's Back' was Message from CWA Customer

Service Conference

1 Million People Demand Better Banks

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UK; UNI Finance affiliates from Ireland, the Netherlands, Malta, Brazil,Argentina, Sweden, Australia and Tunisia; New-York based communitygroups; the Occupy Wall Street movement; and more. Outside of Citibank,activists chanted, "Solidarity forever and the unions make us strong," apopular song in the African trade union movement, and "They got bailed out,

we got sold out."

"I have been to sales rallies, where the top executives of the company bragabout how great the stock is doing, then the next morning I have to listen toone of my tellers complain she doesn't have enough money to buy babyformula for her child," said Robert Freeman, a former bank worker who is nowworking to organize the industry.

A new report found that even in New York City, the world capital of finance,U.S. bank workers are worse off than their global counterparts. In fact, bankworkers in developing countries like Tanzania, Lebanon, the Philippines

and Malaysia have far greater rights because they have a voice in theworkplace through their union.

The New York Daily Newsreported:

On average, bank workers in the 22 countries surveyed have sixmonths of paid parental leave vs. the U.S., where most workersreceive very little paid parental leave.

In Germany, bank workers get 72 weeks of paid sick leave at 100%pay; the average in New York is four weeks.

In Nepal, a collective bargaining contract has helped reduce thenumber of jobs being outsourced, whereas New York has shed 19,800financial services jobs since 2008.

Colombian bank employees join the rally.

Below: Activists from all around the world sent photos in support of the day ofaction.
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"It's ridiculous. How can the supposedly richest, most wealthy, most powerfulcountry in the world treat its workers worse than countries that have lowerliving standards," said Alex Shalom, a Bank of America teller. "What's thedifference? Why does Tanzania have better standards than the United Statesin banking? The only answer is that people there are organized and ready to

fight for their rights, and here, we need to do that as well."

On Tuesday, UNI Finance Secretary General Philip Jennings also sent aletter to Citibank CEO Michael Corbat, asking for a meeting with the tradeunion movement.

Christy Hoffman, deputy general secretary for UNI Global Union, said thatthis day of action was a new milestone for the U.S. bank workers campaign."Nowadays, it is really hard to build unions in the United States and this kindof innovative solidarity movement can make a change by delivering themessage to the U.S. workers that they are not alone," she said.

To learn morevisit the UNI's campaign website here.

Andclick hereto send a message to the CEO of Citibank.

New Jersey Homeowners Protest Sheriff's Sale of CWA Member's Home

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New Jersey homeowners marched on a Wells Fargo branch in Irvington onWednesday, delivering a 2,000-signature petition demanding that the bankstop the sheriff's sale of a CWA member's New Jersey home.
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Activists protest a Wells Fargo branch in Irvington, NJ.

Below: Paulette McQueen fights to save her home.

In 2010, Paulette McQueen, a CWA Local 1037 home child care provider andshop steward, missed one mortgage payment. The very next month sheattempted to hand deliver the missed payment and the current month'spayment, but Wells Fargo refused and began to foreclose on the home,where she works as a child care provider and lives with four generations ofher family, including her 86-year-old-mother, Lavinia Curry. A sheriff's sale ofthe family home is now scheduled for March 25.

CWA has partnered with NJ Communities United, Occupy Homes and theHome Defenders League to help McQueen and her family. Activists in almosta dozen cities across the country also protested at their local Wells Fargobranches.

"We have the money to pay, but Wells Fargo refused to accept it," saidMcQueen. "For more than three years we've been battling to save our house


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so our mother can live out the rest of her years with dignity and respect in theplace our family calls home. Wells Fargo needs to do right by our family."

Watch a video of the action here.

Last year, McQueen's story hit national news when the township of Irvingtonannounced a plan that could save her home. Using the legal doctrine of"eminent domain," the new program would acquire houses with underwatermortgages and revalue them on behalf of homeowners so they can makemore affordable payments.

You can read more about the program here.

1,500 New Jersey Public Employees Affiliate with CWA

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Camden County Council 10, an independent labor union representing morethan 1,500 public employees in New Jersey's Camden County, voted 573-118 Wednesday night to affiliate with CWA.

The vote brings Council 10 members into CWA Local 1014. The affiliationincreases the strength of both organizations.

A letter from Council 10 President Karl Walko strongly recommended theaffiliation, saying, "Public employers have become more aggressive andsmall labor organizations have very limited leverage."

CWA conducted 10 meetings throughout Council 10's jurisdiction and metwith and received a unanimous endorsement from Council 10's board oftrustees and shop stewards. A package of materials was sent to all Council10 members and it included a leaflet with pictures and quotes from activists infavor of affiliation.

Principal Library Assistant from the Camden County Library Linda Dilks said,"An affiliation with CWA is beneficial for many reasons. CWA not only has aremarkable reputation but I believe CWA is the strongest union in the State ofNew Jersey. There is no better union to affiliate with than CWA. "

New Jersey State Director, Hetty Rosenstein, praised the organizing drive.

"This affiliation is not about absorbing Council 10. It's about how we all go
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forward together within a stronger union," she said. "CWA now has over5,000 members and family members in Camden County. That makes us apowerhouse in one of the most important political areas of the state. We are aunion with a deep commitment to public services and fighting for cities."

Dunkin' Donuts Workers Ratify New Contract

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Guild negotiators seal the deal with Hudson News.

Dunkin' Donuts workers have unanimously ratified a new three-year contractthat will give raises to some of the only unionized fast food employees in NewYork City. The Newspaper Guild of New York represents 67 workers at three

Dunkin' Donuts shops at New York's Penn Station, which are operated byHudson News, and 257 workers at the company's newsstands at severalManhattan travel hubs.Read more at the Guild's website.

Building Our Movement

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CWA members from AT&T Mobility were out at the T-Mobile call center inSpringfield, Mo., to show their support for workers' fight for a voice.

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CWA members marched with UFCW and WESPAC members in support ofthe nine workers who were fired from Mrs. Green's Natural Market in Mt.Kisco, N.Y. Last year, the National Labor Relations Board charged Mrs.Green's with violating federal labor law by illegally interrogating andintimidating employees in the weeks leading up to their union election. Thefederal charges were settled in November, and Mrs. Green's agreed under

federal order put up a poster, notifying employees of their basic rights thatwere protected under federal laws, in their store for 60-days. During thatperiod, Mrs. Green's abruptly fired nine pro-union workers for "poor customerservice."Read more over at UFCW Local 1500's website.

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A year-and-a-half after voting overwhelmingly for Guild representation,teachers at Kaplan are still fighting for a contract that provides basic benefitsto 90 percent of the workforce that is part-time. Management refuses tobudge. Kaplan ESL instructors, backed by their students, say enough isenough!

Cohen: Senator Corker Must Be Held Accountable for Attacking VW Workers

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CWA PresidentLarry Cohen wrote this piecein The Huffington Postfollowingthe union election vote in Chattanooga:

Last week, on the eve of a long awaited representation election inChattanooga, Tennessee, Senator Bob Corker made the outrageousstatement that if workers voted "No," VW would add a new product tothe plant. Even though the plant manager denied this, Corker persisted.Given the role of the VW Board of Supervisors in managing the globalcorporation, and the 50% membership of union members on that board,it is virtually certain Corker isn't telling the truth. It is also virtually certainthat his campaigning for a No vote made a difference in the very close
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election against union representation.

Corker's comments were compounded by the Tennessee Governor andlegislative leaders stating that if workers voted to join every other VWassembly plant in the world with a union, the state would not provide

any additional benefits for expanded jobs and production. All of this wasamplified by a campaign funded by Grover Norquist and the Kochbrothers.

Never before in the 79-year-old history of the National Labor RelationsAct has there been this type of blatant interference by elected officials.The stated goal of the Act is to promote collective bargaining, notintimidation by government.

The facts get even worse for Corker. Four years ago, he campaignedagainst President Obama's efforts to revive GM despite the fact that the

plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee would close otherwise. Today, there are2,000 jobs there and the plant is booming.

VW is currently, by most measures, one of the most effective carcompanies in the world. Worker participation at all levels, includingcollective bargaining, is a critical component, even at the plant inMexico. Yet Corker seems to think he knows best and that his rightwing ideology is much more important than the facts, or federal law.

Civil rights and human rights groups, democracy groups, andprogressive labor all need to rally against Corker and his allies and on

behalf of the courageous leaders of the UAW in the Chattanooga plant.Those workers live in a state where they will now be under pressureevery day. Just as 80,000 rallied in Raleigh last week demanding votingrights, and as students and workers across Wisconsin turned out in thewinter of 2011 against the extremism of Scott Walker, all of us need tostand with the workers in Chattanooga, the UAW, their Germanpartners in I G Metall, and even VW management itself, in lettingSenator Corker and his allies know that his extremism will be met by allof us who are all ready to Stand Up and Fight Back!

Unions Aren't Retreating in the South

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Despite UAW's organizing defeat in Tennessee, unions aren't backing down
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from their quest to give workers a voice in the South. At the AFL-CIO's winterstrategy meeting in Houston this week, leaders vowed to strengthen andmobilize their allies.

The Wall Street Journalreported:

Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America,said one of labor's strategies will be to link up with civil-rights andhuman-rights groups fighting issues such as voting rights.

"If we separate these issues, we all lose," he said. "The challenge forpeople in labor...is to build that kind of coalition," said Mr. Cohen."There's now much more incentive to build that movement inTennessee."

TheJournalalso blogged:

Communications Workers of America President Larry Cohen said hisunion has done most of its organizing in the South over the pastdecade, "not because we focused on the South, but because wefocused on certain kinds of work that was growing" in that region, hesaid. Mr. Cohen said the union of roughly 700,000 members in the U.S.and Canada has about 150,000 workers in the Southern U.S., includingat AT&T Mobility. The union represents workers at that company inmore than a half-dozen Southern states, including Alabama, Tennesseeand Georgia, according to the union's website.

Here's the take by Slate, which quoted Cohen saying:

"It's not so much a turning point in terms of working people and howthey behave, but to have a U.S. senator, who takes an oath of office tobe part of the federal government, ignore the preamble to the NationalLabor Relations Act, which clearly states that it's the policy of thisgovernment to promote collective bargaining. Instead, he attacked it."

'We Have Each Other's Back' was Message from CWA Customer Service

Conference

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CWA customer service members met with colleagues from around the globeat this year's CWA customer service professionals' conference. In panels and
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one-on-one conversations, workers talked about improving wages, workingconditions, respect on the job and professionalism.

The conference was jointly sponsored by CWA and UNI Global Union, thelabor federation representing 20 million workers worldwide. Customer service

workers from countries including New Zealand, the United Kingdom,Germany, Romania, Philippines, Brazil and South Africa attended and spokewith their U.S. colleagues about building alliances to help build power for allcustomer service workers.

CWA President Larry Cohen, speaking at the customer service professionals'conference in Orlando, says call center workers around the globe aresupporting each other and raising standards.

CWA President Larry Cohen said that the work of call center workers wasprecarious, whether in the U.S., or Europe or Asia. "For all call centerworkers, from finance or telecoms and from global north or global south, allwork is precarious. Whether it's outsourced to another nation or outsourcedacross the street, every call center worker in every sector faces this. How dowe stand up and fight together? How do we say to multinationals you will

not pit us against each other? By standing together and raising our standardstogether," he said.

UNI Deputy General Secretary Christy Hoffman called for a new strategy toensure dignity at work for all call center workers. "The workers in many casesshare the same employers or share the same problems. They are underpaidbut skilled and well educated and their working conditions do not reflect that,"


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she said.

Josh Coleman, a top earner at the T-Mobile US call center in Wichita, Kans.,who was fired because of his support for union representation, alsoaddressed participants. The National Labor Relations Board announced that

the U.S. government would prosecute T-Mobile US for violating federal laborlaw.

U.S. Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) talked about the disaster of "fasttrack" and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, for workers, the environment andconsumers. Grayson has characterized TPP "as a punch in the face to themiddle class of America, but I'm not allowed to tell you why," in condemningthe secrecy and one-sided negotiations of the trade deal.

CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins noted that "for the past few years, we've beenworking with UNI Global Union on issues for customer service workers, from

dealing with job stress to increasing wages to pressing for greaterprofessional recognition of the work that customer service reps and others doevery day. This joint conference is taking that work to the next step, andthat's exactly what we need to do in today's global economy."

Locals committed to actions that will get underway when participants returnhome. Activists signed up for these campaigns: Trans-Pacific Partnership, T-Mobile US organizing and American Airlines organizing.

These CWA Customer Service Committee members helped put theconference together: Sandy Kmetyk, Local 13500; Rosie Dunbar, 3902;

Vickey Hoots, 3640; Mary Elizabeth Lewis, 4004; Rick Smathers, 4527;Monica Eason, 6016; Valerie Packer and Chris Pagnac, 7250; Lynn Johnson,9333; Rick Hunt, 13500, and Kim Leiser, 31026.

Documents

CWA Newsletter, February 20, 2014