14 Union Supporters Fired at E-Z Pass, Take Action Now
This just in from the Communications Workers of America (CWA):
One by one, 14 union supporters at the E-Z Pass administrative center in New York got a call from their boss on Monday asking them to “come into my office.” Then, one by one, all union supporters were told that their services were no longer needed. One union activist, Frank Buonvicino, was told, “We know you were one of the union leaders,” as he was let go. On the Friday before they were fired, all these workers had sent a message by standing up for 60 seconds while continuing to work.
The E-Z Pass administrative center is operated by Xerox. Xerox is refusing to bargain a contract with these newly organized CWA members, even though they won an election in May 2009.
Said Buonvicino:
I gave 150 percent to this company for five years. I am asking my union brothers and sisters to help us get our jobs back.
Tell Xerox CEO Ursula Burns that firing union supporters and refusing to bargain is outrageous. Send a message here.
Workers Across Nation Choose a Voice with AFL-CIO Unions
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County workers, professional employees, bakery workers, airborne pilots and “ghost” pilots and sheriff’s deputies are among the latest workers to choose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions.
In Utah, more than 400 Salt Lake County workers won a union voice with AFSCME Local 1004. The 408 county employees—skilled trades, maintenance and service workers—could vote for union representation only after AFSCME fought and won passage of a county collective bargaining ordinance last year.
John Farrer, a Highway Department worker, says:
This is definitely a positive thing for workers, and that’s why they voted it in. With all that’s happened, the wage cuts, benefits going down and insurance going up, we need a strong union voice to represent the interests of working families.
New Journalism, New Organizing Strategies for Freelancers
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Steve Stallone, International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) president and editor of Ralph, the publication of the California Media Workers Guild, describes how members of The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) are experimenting with innovative programs to strengthen the newspaper trade and their jobs as print communicators. Stallone is editor of the series.
As newsrooms shrink at many cash-strapped media organizations, pundits are pronouncing the death of traditional print sources of journalism. The 1,800-member California Media Workers Guild has responded by exploring new economic models and pioneering projects to sustain quality jobs and quality journalism.
In a weeklong series of special reports, “New Times: New Guild,” launched yesterday, Local 39521 California Media Workers Guild activists write about their experiments with innovative programs to keep themselves and their trade alive.
Tell Congress: Don’t Tax Working Families’ Health Care Benefits
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Today, union leaders are meeting with President Obama to discuss the next step in health care reform legislation, especially the tax on workers’ health care benefits in the Senate bill. On Wednesday, you can join the fight to pass health care reform that works for working families as part of the AFL-CIO’s National Call-In Blitz to the U.S. House.
Both the House and Senate have passed health care reform bills that will be merged into final legislation over the next few weeks. The House version is far better for working families.
Overall, the House bill comes closer to AFL-CIO’s health care reform goals, including a public health care option, a much stronger employer fair share provision and no tax on workers’ health care benefits.
While the Senate bill has many good points, it is deeply flawed. Click here to compare the two.
Union Leaders Tell President’s Economic Advisory Board: Worker Training Key to Job Creation
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Daniel Marschall, AFL-CIO Legislative and Policy Specialist for Workforce Issues, reports on union participation in this week’s meeting of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Unionists from manufacturing, high technology and services industries this week urged the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) to integrate innovative education reforms and best practices in worker training into the Obama administration’s approach to creating jobs and recovering from the recession.
Speaking at a technology meeting sponsored by the newly formed PERAB Education and Training Subcommittee Dec. 16, Matthew McKinnon, director of the Machinists (IAM) Legislative and Political Action Department, emphasized the importance of building an educational system that has a place for technical training, providing multiple pathways for young people and dislocated workers to move into high-skill, family sustaining jobs.
Philadelphia Transit Workers End Strike, and More Bargaining News
More than 5,100 members of the Transport Workers (TWU) ended their strike in Philadelphia this morning, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
NEGOTIATIONS
TWU, SEPTA: The six-day strike by Philadelphia transit workers is over. Transport Workers (TWU) Local 234 and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) reached a tentative agreement early this morning, in time to get trains and buses running for the morning commute. A ratification vote by TWU’s 5,100 members will be held in the next 10 days.
Proposed Health Care ‘Excise Tax’ a Tax on the Middle Class
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The Senate Finance Committee’s 40 percent excise tax on so-called “Cadillac” health care plans would hit 37 percent of family health insurance plans and 41 percent of single plans by 2019, according to an analysis of the committee’s original health care reform bill conducted by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).
By 2015, according to this analysis, the excise tax would slam 24 million households, growing to 39 million households by 2019. Nearly one-third of middle-class households making between $50,000 and $100,000 would be affected by 2019.
According to a just-released Communications Workers of America (CWA) report on the JCT estimates, the excise tax-part of the health care reform legislation that the Senate Finance Committee passed on Tuesday,
will have a dramatic effect on those plans forcing steep reductions in benefits, shifting costs to workers, and a significant increase in taxes on millions of middle-class families.
Health Care Action: Union Activists Visit Congress, Deliver Letters from Consumers
This morning, more than 100 local and state union activists and leaders kicked off a two-day National House Call on Congress action, delivering the first batches of more than 42,000 letters from union members demanding real health care reform.
An Arkansas couple is personally delivering to Capitol Hill their story of a near fatal accident and a four-year struggle with their insurance company that’s led to their bankruptcy.
The union leaders, from more than two dozen states, also are reminding lawmakers that the union members and working families who worked so hard on their campaigns last fall are the same people who strongly back health care reform. They are telling senators that reform must control costs, not tax benefits, include a strong public option, require employers to pay their fair share and hold insurance companies accountable.
U.S. Still Lags Way Behind in Internet Speed
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The United States continues to lag far behind the world’s other industrialized nations when it comes to Internet speed—and the impact goes far beyond the time it takes your movies or music to download or family videos to upload. It slows the economy and job growth, too.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) third annual Speed Matters survey finds that even at the current rate of improvement, it still would take the United States 15 years to catch up with the global Internet speed leader South Korea, where speeds are four times faster than in the United States.
The average download speed of U.S. Internet connections is 5.1 megabits per second, significantly below the averages of countries like South Korea (20.1 mbps), Japan (16 mbps) and Sweden (12.7 mbps).
CWA, AT&T Reach Third Tentative Agreement
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) reached another tentative agreement with AT&T. The three-year deal covers nearly 8,000 technicians and service representatives who were part of AT&T Corp., the company acquired by SBC Communications Inc. in 2006. SBC subsequently changed its name to AT&T.
The workers’ main goal in the bargaining was job security. The tentative agreement—the third with AT&T since negotiations began in February—offers the same 8.75 percent hourly wage increases and benefit provisions as those gained for employees at AT&T Midwest and AT&T West. In a statement, CWA Vice President Ralph Maly says:
This agreement achieves our members’ key goal which was to improve employment security and safeguard jobs. It maintains workers’ standard of living and safeguards quality health care. In these extremely difficult economic times, these are tremendous achievements.
