CWA Delegates Back Employee Free Choice, Health Care and Unity

by James Parks, Jun 25, 2009

More than 2,500 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) delivered a message to their representatives on Capitol Hill yesterday: It’s time to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and real health care reform.

The Capitol Hill lobby day is part of the union’s four-day convention in Washington, D.C., which ends today. Delegates will go back to the Capitol today to join thousands of workers in the mass rally in support of health care reform.

Before heading to meet with lawmakers yesterday, the CWA members heard Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) say the nation cannot have a strong middle class without a strong union movement. Biden said the Obama administration is committed to leveling the playing field for workers and giving them the bargaining power they need to rebuild the middle class.

Harkin asked:

Why should people have to crawl across broken glass and go through a kind of boot-camp hell in order to join a perfectly legal organization?

So our goal is to restore some measure of balance and fairness to the organizing process.

Both Biden and Harkin echoed the remarks by CWA President Larry Cohen, who said in his opening address Monday that 70 countries have a majority sign-up system for joining unions, but the United States does not. Cohen said the ability to join a union and bargain is crucial to the nation’s standard of living in the future. Click here to see a video of Cohen’s address.

We can’t restore the middle class with tax cuts. We can’t do it with federal jobs or another stimulus-even though some or all of those might be good ideas. But if workers across the U.S. had real bargaining rights, it would translate to bargaining and buying power.  It’s about time that we stand up for union contracts and stop worrying about bankers’ contracts.  Let the bankers fend for themselves and let’s stand up for each other.

Cohen said the union movement must be unified to carry out its mission of making life better for all.

In tough times like these, there will not be good answers until we create a movement of working families, rebuild our bargaining power through massive organizing, continue to build our political power as we are doing here this week, and unify our labor movement.

The delegates passed a resolution saying that in this time of great opportunity for the union movement:

It has never been more important for the union movement to be united so that we can fully take advantage of these opportunities. Together, we are stronger.

The resolution called for “exploring new ways of working together with the AFL-CIO, Change to Win and the National Education Association (NEA), and new ways of supporting each others’ campaigns. The passage of the resolution was highlighted by the presence of AFT Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel for the vote.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told the convention Tuesday the Labor Department is “back in the enforcement business” after eight years of neglect of worker protections by the Bush administration.

We need more than jobs, we need good jobs-and that means safe jobs,

secure jobs, decent benefits and wages-it means a voice on the job.

Also during the convention, Michael Copps, acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, received the Herbert Block Freedom Award from The Newspaper Guild-CWA (TNG-CWA) for his work to force debate and transparency over media consolidation.

As giant media companies pushed for FCC rule changes to let them get even bigger, Copps called for public hearings across the country that gave communities, public interest groups and individuals an opportunity to be heard.

TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer said:

While others tried to limit hearings and move quickly, Commissioner Copps made certain all voices were heard. He has set some of the highest standards for democracy in government today, and in doing so, has helped maintain a free and competitive press.

The Freedom Award is named for the late Washington Post editorial cartoonist best known as Herblock, who was a Guild member for 67 years.

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