August 2007 President's Report to the Executive Board and Membership Submitted by Malachy Sreenan

The CWA Annual Convention was held in Toronto, July 15th through 17th, 2007. Consistent with this year’s theme, “We’re on the March” convention delegates voted on many issues that will change the course of the union movement in the United States in the years ahead. Most notably, with a decision that is way ahead of any other major union in this country, CWA voted to add four at-large diversity seats, rank and file voices to its highest governing body, the CWA Executive Board. The goal of this decision is to increase diversity on the board, and ensure that the leadership of this great union more accurately represents and reflects its membership. This action will strengthen the foundation of CWA and ensure that leadership reflects the diversity, experiences and strengths of the full range of CWA's membership. This action was a key component of CWA's Ready for the Future plan, adopted last year to strengthen CWA's grassroots activist base and develop strategic initiatives to take on critical issues in CWA industries and in public policy. Delegates to the 69th CWA Convention in Toronto also witnessed the signing of a strategic alliance with the United Steelworkers (USW) to help support CWA's 8,000 Canadian members; and pledged to support embryonic stem cell research to help treat devastating diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease, and much more. Other resolutions endorsed the Restoring Pension Promises to All Workers Act and urged all members to actively support NABET-CWA members who are battling to keep their pensions in bargaining with ABC-TV; called on CWA to bring worldwide attention to the crisis in Darfur; called for the restoration of true country-of-origin labeling for food and other consumer products entering the United States; declared an immediate end to U.S. involvement in Iraq; and affirmed that CWA will organize the telecom industry wall-to-wall and insist that any contracted work be performed in the U.S. by union workers. CWA members and activists have an important question to ask the candidates for president of the United States: "What will you do to lead the effort to restore workers' rights? How will you lead the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act?" CWA President Larry Cohen stressed that it's not enough for a candidate to say, " as President, I'll sign the bill when it comes to my desk." "We need to hear how these candidates will stand up for us and how they'll fight against a Senate filibuster," he said. Finally some good news relating to Qwest; Joe Nacchio, was sentenced to six years in prison, with the judge saying that "overarching greed" led the former Qwest CEO to engage in illegal stock trades. Nacchio must forfeit the $52 million in proceeds from those sales, pay a maximum, $19 million, fine and serve two years probation when he completes his time in prison. His request to be released on bail pending an appeal of his conviction was denied. While nothing will ever compensate employees, retirees and stockholders for the losses they endured at the hands of the latest in a string of corporate criminals, this verdict is at least a vindication. Despite having one more criminal off the streets, we continue to feel the effects of Nacchio’s actions at Qwest today. For some reason corporate executives, and indeed management at all levels, seem incapable of accepting responsibility and continue to take their own incompetence and ineptitude out on the rank and file employees. As you are probably well aware, the targets ‘du jour’ are the Network, Customer Data and Central Office Technicians. We have made some progress with pushing back on the QJD/CTEP and CQUE documented discussions, and forcing management to own their part in coaching and development, and helping their employees to be successful. The latest in a long list of obstacles is the new Supervisory Analysis Tool. Well, according to Qwest, it is neither new, nor is it a tool. It is, in fact, a computer program which combines information from WAFA and GPS, and creates a report of technicians’ daily activities. It is more important than ever that every technician keeps a daily log of his/her work activities. It is very difficult to refute the stacks of information which the company can produce with conceptual data. Since we must defend ourselves, we need to defend ourselves with concrete data. Also, be careful not to do anything which could result in your being identified on a GPS report. Don’t go to coffee straight from the garage, don’t congregate, and be where you are supposed to be. August 17th, 2007 marks the one-year date until the expiration of the current contract with Qwest. If the last couple of years are any indication, then we are in for a tough battle next year to maintain occupational and retiree healthcare, and the other benefits that we have fought for and gained over the last several years. I am honored, once again, to have been elected to the 2008 Bargaining Committee, and look forward to serving with Suzie Miller, from Local 7777 in Denver, Ken Saether from Local 7906 in Eugene, Oregon, and Kent Anderson, from Local 7704 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are a great group of people who, along with District 7 Bargaining Agent, reed Roberts, will do an excellent job in representing all of the Qwest members throughout the district. As I have said many times before, however, the real power lies on the front lines, with you, the members. Please make a pledge to become more involved, as early on the process as possible. There is no better way to show Qwest that we are serious about fighting for our benefits, for improved working conditions, and for the respect that we deserve, which unfortunately seems to have taken a steeper slide than the stock price. The Communications Workers of America/MV Bargaining Committee is pleased to announce that a tentative agreement was reached on Friday July 27th, 2007. The number one concern of the members during this round of bargaining was wages. We are pleased to announce that the committee was successful in negotiating significant wage increases over the life of the new 3-year contract. Other significant improvements include:   -         Increases in the BTW and Cadet Training differentials -         Increase in the overall percentage of full-time bids -         Reduction in the introductory period/timeframe for new hires -         Reduction in the waiting period for insurance coverage -         The addition of a 401(k) plan to employee benefits -         Limit in the amount of time an employee can be suspended pending investigation -         Additional family members included under the funeral leave provision -         Ability to carry over sick leave from one year to the next

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