282 Cablevision Workers Join CWA
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Yesterday, 282 Cablevision technicians and dispatchers in Brooklyn voted to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1109 in a union election administered by the National Labor Relations Board, overcoming a vigorous anti-union campaign led by Cablevision. They are the first Cablevision workers to join a union. Cable TV is an overwhelmingly nonunion industry while the traditional telecommunications industry remains highly unionized.
“I’ve waited 13 years for this,” said Cablevision technician Clarence Adams. “United, as members of Communications Workers of America, we now have the power to negotiate a fair contract that will give us the dignity and respect on the job we deserve.”
Cablevision workers are currently subject to arbitrary discipline and favoritism by managers, their health care coverage is inadequate, their workload is unreasonable and they have insufficient 401(k) retirement plans. Cablevision workers also make at least one-third less than Verizon workers, who are represented by CWA.
The Cablevision 99% Votes Today
Today, 285 Brooklyn-based Cablevision workers—the Cablevision 99%—will vote in a election for union representation.
According to the New York State AFL-CIO,
the workers have withstood a blistering assault on their right to form a union. Rather than coming to the table and discussing the merits of union representation in the open, Cablevision management is truly taking the low road, by pressuring workers with misinformation in endless “captive audience meetings.”
Despite this enormous pressure from the management 1 percent, the Cablevision 99% have been standing strong.
Check out the workers’ powerful video here. Then follow the directions on the action page to e-mail Cablevision management and let them know their workers have the right to organize free from harassment and intimidation.
According to their website, Read the rest of this entry »
Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s Parent, Fails to Live Up to Its Claims on Labor Rights
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Teresa Casertano in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department’s Global Campaigns section sends us this report.
T-Mobile USA workers were not surprised to learn that a recent report by the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD revealed that T-Mobile owner, Deutsche Telekom, had failed to meet its own claims about corporate social responsibility. Under the corporate social responsibility reporting standards set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Deutsche Telekom gives itself an A+ rating, yet it provides little evidence to justify granting itself such superior marks.
The TUAC report details the company’s failure to report on global standards and finds that Deutsche Telekom highlighted its practices in its home country of Germany while failing to disclose its labor and human rights record in its non-German operations. The company claims 14 core labor and human rights indicators are “covered completely” in its GRI Report, while a fifteenth is “covered partly.” In fact, the TUAC report shows that only two are covered completely, seven are covered partly, and six are not covered at all. The TUAC report also finds that Deutsche Telekom disproportionately focuses its employee reporting on management employees while making little reference to its policies for tens of thousands of non-management employees. According to the report, only one of Deutsche Telekom’s 17 reported sustainability “Key Performance Indicators” relates to workers at all.
NYC Marchers Want an Economy ‘for All Working People’
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On a brisk and sunny day in New York City, Christy Thornton stood at the corner of Broadway and 31st streets.
“We’re facing the same issues as everyone else…high unemployment, mountains of debt and a lack of opportunity,” said Thornton, a doctoral student in history at New York University. “I’m here to stand in solidarity with the labor movement and all working people.”
Thornton is a member of the NYC Student Assembly, which formed this fall when students came together at Occupy Wall Street in lower Manhattan.
Standing in the shadow of the Empire State Building, Thornton mixed with an assortment of New Yorkers—union members from the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the UAW, as well as three retired men who reminisced about strikes back in the 1940s. Read the rest of this entry »
UNITEHERE! Local 6—a Dynamic Force in N.Y. City
Despite the odds, members of UNITEHERE! Local 6 won respect and a contract that boosts wages and health care coverage from a restaurant owner who likened workers to chairs—yet another victory for the 23,000 low-wage service employees who are members of New York City’s dynamic union.
Today’s American Prospect feature on Local 6 showcases an effective union model that helps hotel, motel and restaurant workers win a voice on the job.
Check it out here.
Occupy Wall Street: ‘Working Families Are Struggling’
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Ja-Rei Wang, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, writes about her experience with Occupy Wall Street in New York City.
I was one of more than 1,000 students, working families, parents, freelance artists, union members, health care providers and immigrants who weaved through Manhattan’s sidewalks to Washington Square Park to protest the growing wealth inequality in our country, rising unemployment, powerful corporate influence on politics and the need for financial reform, among other concerns. The marching contingent was made up of a diverse group of people of all ages, genders and ethnicities taking part over the weekend in Occupy Wall Street’s “International Day of Action.”
Parents marched in tow with their young children, some of whom even led protesters in chants. There were supportive honks and cheers from people passing by in cars and on the streets when protesters chanted: “We are the 99 percent! You are the 99 percent!”
The energy, spirit and camaraderie from the march followed protesters into Washington Square Park after a stop at a Chase bank to support people moving their money from large banks to local banks. At a General Assembly organized by physicians practicing in the Bronx, doctors shared their personal stories as health care providers and the stories of their patients that led them to believe we need “Healthcare for the 99 Percent.”
One doctor from the Bronx described the links between the economic crisis, persistent poverty, food insecurity, unemployment, lack of education and poor health:
Long Island Working Families Battle Attack on Middle Class
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The attacks on the middle class and the ability of public employees to bargain collectively are spreading from Wisconsin and Ohio to Long Island’s Nassau County, where a proposed bill would gives the county executive the right to unilaterally open contracts and decide what provisions the executive wants to retain, change or eliminate.
Jerry Laricchiuta, president of the Civil and State Employees Association (CSEA) Local 830 in Nassau County, puts the issue bluntly in the video here.
We’re not only defending our rights here in Nassau County, we’re defending the sanctity of the cotnract which has ripple effects across the country.
Or as Suzanne Tirino, president of the Crossing Guard Unit, CSEA Local 830, says:
To open our contracts is unfair, it’s unconstitutional. If our contracts are opened, what do we believe in after that?
White House to Cantor: Hypocrisy Unbound
Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor’s depiction of Occupy Wall Street protests as “growing mobs” drew an appropriate response from White House spokesman Jay Carney today. Saying he sensed “a little hypocrisy unbound here,” Carney went on to say that
what we’re seeing on the streets of New York is a an expression of democracy. I think I remember how Mr. Cantor described protests of the tea party–I can’t understand how one man’s mob is another man’s democracy.
That is, when members of the so-called tea party shouted down anyone who opposed them in congressional townhall meetings, Cantor said nary a word about a mob gone awry. In fact, he supported them.
Shuler Talks with Students at Occupy Wall Street
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to head to New York where Occupy Wall Street is now entering its third week. I had just flown into New York City from Minneapolis and was coming off the enthusiasm and passion of 800 young workers at the AFL-CIO Next Up Summit. Young workers at the Summit issued a statement of support for Occupy Wall Street, and I had to see and experience the movement first-hand.
I spoke to several students from Rutgers University about why they were participating in the movement. They were concerned about the imbalance in the economy and the runaway greed they’re seeing in the financial economy. While the anger and frustration is what’s rightly getting the attention, we also talked about the importance of focusing on solutions. And when we start talking about that, it was clear there are real policy changes that can put power back in the hands of the 99 percent – things like the financial speculation tax that would help pay for the creation of jobs, the Buffet rule and holding banks accountable for corrupt foreclosure practices.
I was inspired by what I saw — people of all stripes are expressing their anger and frustration at the lack of attention paid to “the other 99 percent.”
It’s so exciting to watch a new generation mobilize an organic movement for social justice — it gives me tremendous hope and optimism that we can get our country back on track now and for the future.
The Triangle Fire: Still Burning Before Our Nation
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We hope you will share this special AFL-CIO Now feature on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire with your friends, family and co-workers as a way to recognize America’s workers, past and present, who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so much to improve the lives of all workers.
When word got out two weeks ago that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had ordered the windows of the state Capitol building bolted shut during the ongoing protests against his attacks on public employees, it was a chilling reminder of a similar action by the employers of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.
Nearly 100 years ago to the day of Walker’s order—which he rescinded after public outrage—146 workers, mostly young immigrant girls, jumped to their deaths from the 10-story building, unable to escape a fire because factory foremen had locked all the doors. The owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, worried the workers would steal from the company.
