News

  • CWA Applauds NM Attorney General’s Advisory Reaffirming Public Sector Workers’ Rights
    Communications Workers of America applauds the advisory issued by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas reaffirming public sector workers’ collective bargaining rights in the wake of the Janus decision. The advisory emphasized that the only change under the Janus decision is that public employers may no longer deduct agency fees from a nonmember’s wages, nor may a labor organization collect an agency fee from a nonmember, without the nonmember’s affirmative consent. The advisory pointed out that all other rights and obligations of public employers and public employees remain the same under the Public Employee Bargaining Act, noting that public employers are to continue to honor agreements and contracts (except as they relate to agency fee deductions of non-consenting nonmembers), that union members should continue to pay dues pursuant to existing agreements, and that nonmembers may choose to become dues-paying union members. The advisory reaffirmed that public employees have the right to organize; the right to choose a labor organization; the right to join a labor organization; the right to engage in lawful, concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining; and the right to be represented by a labor organization of their own choosing for the purpose of bargaining collectively on questions of wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. The right-wing attack on union fair share fees is all about making it more difficult for working people to defend themselves when corporations abuse their power. Attorney General Balderas’ advisory is an important reaffirmation of the collective bargaining rights that New Mexico public sector workers still have to join together in strong unions to speak up for themselves, their families, and their communities. — Aug 20
  • Bargaining Update
    AT&T Midwest and AT&T Legacy T CWA members delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures to AT&T Headquarters in Dallas last Friday during the final stop of the AT&T Broken Promises Tour. The tour kicked off in Detroit on August 6 and participants attended rallies and roundtable meetings in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis and Bloomington, Ind.; Kansas City, Mo. and other cities in the region that have experienced the effects of AT&T's job cuts. Check out the highlights video here. ### Elected officials continue to pressure AT&T to live up to the promises the company made on creating jobs with its massive profits from the Republican corporate tax cut bill. All 30 members of the Indiana House Democratic Caucus, led by Indiana House Democratic Leader Dr. Terry Goodin, sent a letter this week to AT&T Indiana President Bill Soards calling on the company to settle a fair contract with workers that protects and creates jobs as was promised by AT&T during debate over the tax bill. Similar letters have been sent by all of the Democratic members of the Ohio State Senate led by Ohio State Senate minority leader Kenny Yuko, and by Ohio House Democrats led by House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson pledged that if the tax cut passed, the company would spend at least $1 billion in capital expenditures and be able to create "7,000 good jobs for the middle class." Instead, despite $20 billion in tax savings, a new CWA analysis based on AT&T's Q2 earnings report estimates that the company has eliminated over 7,000 jobs since January 2018 when the tax cuts took effect. "It is our understanding that just weeks after the tax bill passed, AT&T laid off 1,500 workers. We also were advised that just this past week, another surplus was announced," the letter states. "We stand with the workers of Indiana and we support CWA's demand of job security, healthcare, and the return of contracted out/offshored jobs," the Indiana representatives wrote.  Read the full letter here. CWA members delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures to AT&T Headquarters in Dallas last Friday during the final stop of the AT&T Broken Promises Tour. ### Verizon CWA members at Verizon in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions and at Verizon Connected Solutions voted to ratify a four-year extension of their current contracts, which were set to expire in August 2019. The extensions provide for additional wage increases and enhanced retirement benefits. The agreement, which extends the contracts through August 5, 2023, will deliver an 11.2% wage increase over the additional four years and covers more than 34,000 Verizon workers, including call center workers, and central office and field technicians. "This agreement builds on the success of the 2016 strike, and it will ensure a better future and good, family-supporting jobs for thousands of Verizon workers," said CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor. "This is a solid contract for Verizon workers that will improve wages and raise the living standards of our members across the region," said Ed Mooney, Vice President for CWA District 2-13. Separate agreements were ratified covering 40 Verizon Wireless retail workers in Brooklyn and 7 workers in Hazleton, Pa., who voted last month to join CWA. Learn more here. ### Consolidated Communications Members of CWA Local 1400 and IBEW System Council T-9 voted overwhelmingly to ratify the tentative agreements between the unions and Consolidated Communications covering 1,200 workers in New England.  Both the CWA and IBEW agreements maintain affordable health care and local jobs for the life of the agreements, and provide enhanced retirement benefits through a new 401K savings plan. In addition, the agreements restore 128 days of seniority to members who held the line during the strike of 2014-15. — Aug 16
  • Community Leaders Call on PUCO to Reject AT&T's Request to Drop Out of Lifeline Program
    CWAers joined a group of community leaders at an event at the Ohio Statehouse to call on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to reject AT&T's request to drop out of the Lifeline program. On Tuesday, CWAers joined a group including the NAACP, Ohio Poverty Law Center, Alliance for Retired Americans, and ProgressOhio at an event at the Ohio Statehouse to call on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to reject AT&T's request to drop out of the Lifeline program. AT&T's abandonment of the Lifeline program, which subsidizes vital phone and internet services, would harm more than 10,000 of their Ohio customers – including the elderly, veterans, and low-income households. "AT&T continues to put corporate profits over the needs of working families at every turn," said Ron Gay, Jr., CWA District 4 Staff Representative. "From their broken jobs promises following the tax windfall, to the call center closures and job cuts that have hit hard here in the Midwest, now this threat of withdrawal from Lifeline is just the latest attack. We aren't simply going to accept their behavior. We are organizing and will work to hold them accountable at every turn." AT&T withdrew from the Lifeline low-income discount program in 12 other states in 2017. In Ohio, there are a total of 1,597,000 households that qualify for the program, including 157,000 veterans and 452,000 households with children. Ohioans can submit comments via ProgressOhio here or on PUCO's website here. — Aug 16
  • Local 6355 is CWA STRONG
    Earlier this year, Missouri Republicans passed legislation to weaken public sector unions by making most state workers at-will employees, forcing unions to hold recertification votes every three years, making unions get annual permission from workers to withhold dues from paychecks, and more. But members of CWA Local 6355-Missouri State Workers Union are fighting back, including ramping up their organizing with a week-long "blitz" in early August led by the local's officers and activists. Starting with a goal to sign up at least 40 new members, they ended up with 47, and signed up nine new CWA Political Action Fund (PAF) contributors. Members of the local have been organizing at nine state social services offices and youth facilities in the St. Louis area, asking both members and non-members alike to step up and join the fight to regain the public sector collective bargaining rights that were stripped away during the last Missouri legislative session. Those who are out to crush the public sector labor movement in Missouri have underestimated CWAers who are working to make CWA STRONG! CWA Local 6355-Missouri State Workers Union are fighting back against Missouri Republicans' attacks on public sector unions. — Aug 16
  • South Dakota CWA Members Lead Fight Against Offshoring of Call Center Jobs
    CWA members in South Dakota are leading the fight against the offshoring of call center jobs. Highlighting the recent local layoffs of at least 80 Citi call center employees in Sioux Falls this year alone, members of CWA Local 7500 held a rally in Sioux Falls this week to call for politicians to step in and act. At the event, CWAers and allies called on the South Dakota congressional delegation to stand up for local working families by backing the bipartisan "U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act." "Introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate, the call center bill would require that U.S. callers be told the location of the call center to which they are speaking," CWA Local 7500 President Kim Thompson said. The bill would also require that companies offer callers the opportunity to be connected to a U.S. based center if preferred and make U.S. companies that offshore their call center jobs from the U.S. ineligible for certain federal grants and taxpayer-funded loans. The event garnered attention from many local media outlets across the state. CWA members in South Dakota are leading the fight against the offshoring of call center jobs. Highlighting the recent local layoffs of Citi call center employees, members of CWA Local 7500 held a rally in Sioux Falls this week to call for politicians to step in and act. — Aug 16