August '07 Executive Vice President's Report

The Union for the Information Age

August 2007 Executive Vice-President's Report
by Stan Wylie, Vice President

While the month of July went fast I started to wonder if it was going to end… Lots of stuff going on.

Grievances are up almost 90% from last year. Previously I had said they were double but seemed to slow a bit. Although that said, the severity of discipline seems to be higher then it was before. I have seen cases where before the company as a matter of practice would do Written Warnings and now for similar cases seem to stepping it up with suspensions and Warnings of Dismissals. I can not stress enough the importance of keeping logs and or journals of your day. Most of the employees are held to some sort of standard or goal (CIP/QJD) and when we don't meet that goal are held accountable for it. We then are asked questions about items or events from weeks if not months before and are kind of expected to have some sort of explanation. I don't know about you but it is hard for me to remember one week from the next let alone the previous month. That is why it is important to have some notes we can refer too. One of the most important things we can do is hold the managers accountable. It is their responsibility to ensure you have the tools needed to meet the expectations and in most cases they do not take that responsibility. They say they are there to help and will assist. They promise to give updates or shortcuts or faster processes to help you obtain the goal… With rare exception I have never really seem them follow through. Hold them accountable!

This month we will be a year from the end of the contract. You know what that means…! It is time to prepare. It is time to pay attention. As you know our CEO is leaving we are unsure about who is coming and we are unsure about the goals of the new leadership team. What we are sure of is it will be very difficult. Last contract when the "savior" and his team came to bargaining the company brought only regressive proposals to the table initially. Not a single benefit for the workers just take backs. I can only assume this time will be similar. Our strength is in our solidarity, our ability to send a loud clear message, and the support of each other. I will ask now that everyone please consider this over the next few months and join your other Brothers and Sisters in helping let the company know we will not settle for cutbacks. The company begged us a few years back to help them (bonuses versus pay raises for one) get through the financial struggles it was having and if we did they would reward us later… I don't know about you but I am still waiting… It is payback time. So please again as we go through the process over the next year please volunteer some time and participate in mobilizations that the Local puts on. I look forward to seeing you.

This month was also the CWA convention. I cannot express how interesting these conventions are. This year was the 69th. Imagine that our union has been around longer then most of us. It has had its trials and turbulations. Membership goes up and membership goes down. People before us made huge sacrifices to belong to unions across this country many even gave their lives, so today we can have a voice in the workplace and protection against unfair and unsafe practices that companies do when they can get away with it. Today we are a strong union we are adapting to the political changes we are moving forward. "We're on the March"; that will be the theme for this year. More then a theme though last year we passed the Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF). The premise of the fund is to allow this union to go on the offensive instead of playing defense all the time. In its first year the fund has grown to around 28 million those funds will be used to actively pursue objectives that are important to working families and members of the CWA. Many different areas are being targeted for this, the Employee Free Choice Act which when passed (and it will pass) will help in organizing workers into unions, is one example and another is healthcare. The CWA will be training folks to work with political allies across the country to bring reform to the healthcare system in this country.

Speaking of healthcare…. Have you seen Sicko? I would encourage everyone to go see it. We already know America has issues in regards to healthcare but it is interesting to see what healthcare is like in other countries and then ask yourself why not this country? Why can't we have what every other industrialized nation has? What can I do? There is plenty! As part of the SIF campaign the union has updated the healthcare voices website with new tools, suggestions, and petitions to sign. I would encourage everyone to take a look at it. The website address is http://www.healthcarevoices.org I encourage everyone to visit this site as well http://www.healthcare-now.org. Both sites are full of wonderful information and resources. On a side note and more out of curiosity to see who reads my report I will personally pay for 10 people to see the movie Sicko** (**conditions apply. Must be a member of Local 7800, one per individual, Stewards and Committee Chairs are excluded) just contact me with a ticket stub dated after 08-14-07 and be one of the first 10 and I will pay you for the stub.

Jeannine Cunningham (legislative Committee Chair) Linda Rieland (Mobilization Committee Chair) and myself attended a Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) conference on healthcare as well in July. It was an interesting conference several sate legislators attended and spoke. The focus on the conference was primarily working towards a healthcare initiative or plan that would include all Washingtonians and how labor can make that happen. The WSLC has endorsed a national plan as well; the council feels it is important to continue to work at a state level while the debate of a national reform goes on. More information on that will follow in the months ahead.

One last thing, clearly the upcoming elections are extremely important and clearly we need to make additional gains in Local and Federal elections of candidates that are friendly with working families, if I can encourage folks to give "$8.00 for 2008" ($2.00 a week) to COPE that will help us along the way.

I look forward to seeing more of you at the upcoming mobilization events and hopefully at community events as well. I heard a quote this week on a national radio show I would like to share and paraphrase a bit... "Labor has power, Labor can force change in the country, we just have to organize, get off our butts, and get active!!! Sounds like a plan to me!