Communications Workers of America
Local 7800 - Seattle, WA

May 6, 2010

Ver.di to T-Mobile USA Workers: 'We've Got Your Back'

CWA District 13 Vice President Ed Mooney leaflets outside the Deutsche Telekom annual meeting in Cologne, Germany.

The Deutsche Telekom shareholders meeting was a marathon, but the T-Mobile USA workers and CWAers who attended the meeting are still pumped by the support they got from members of ver.di, the union representing German workers at T-Mobile. CWA District 13 Vice President Ed Mooney headed the U.S. group; see tweets, postings, photos and videos at www.loweringthebarforus.org.

Even before the meeting, ver.di was standing up for the rights of T-Mobile USA workers to have a union, without the company intimidation and interference they now face. Lothar Schröder, a leader and executive board member of ver.di, told a huge May Day crowd that Deutsche Telekom uses "vicious methods" to keep out CWA.  

"Ver.di and CWA have created a global union that will fight for the rights of T-Mobile workers. Together we will go to the annual meeting of Deutsche Telekom to turn on some heat!" Schröder said. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QNffh7muhs

More than 50 ver.di members distributed leaflets outside every entrance to the meeting that described T-Mobile USA's "wild west" tactics.

Kornelia Dubbel

At the meeting, Kornelia Dubbel, a ver.di member and member of the T-Mobile supervisory board, said that in the U.S., DT is known as an employer who spreads fear among its workers. "There is fear of arbitrary dismissal for being 'caught' by management for simply taking and reading a leaflet from the union. Why do you act this way?"

As to T-Mobile USA management's claim that the CWA campaign is 'all lies,' "I have been to the United States with some of my colleagues from ver.di and I could not talk to T-Mobile workers. I have seen this treatment first hand," she said.

Also at the meeting, Greg Kinczewski, vice president of the Marco Consulting Group, stressed that companies should not exploit the inadequacies of American labor law. "Decency requires more than compliance with the law!" And Markus Dufner, Association of Critical Shareholders, questioned why DT allows a double standard of respect for rights in Germany and a constant campaign of union avoidance in the United States.

The German media continues to report about the double standard that DT allows in the United States. And members of Congress also have stepped in, signing a letter to DT CEO René Obermann urging him to protect and respect workers' rights in the United States (see next story.)

House Members Urge Deutsche Telekom to Respect U.S. Workers' Rights

Hard work by CWA activists was key to getting 26 Democratic members of the House Education and Labor Committee to sign on to a letter calling on Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA, to protect and respect workers' rights in the U.S.

Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.), who chairs the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions subcommittee, circulated the letter to the 30 Democratic members. The letter now is being circulated among Republican members.

The Democratic House members told Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann that he needs to treat American workers with the same respect as its German workers, who are able to join unions without interference.

T-Mobile has used many tactics to try to stop workers from organizing, even hiring private security guards to interfere with organizing drives, the letter noted. "These reports paint a troubling picture of a company that appears far out of sync with Deutsche Telekom's stated commitment to respect workers' rights."

CWAers Challenge Windstream CEO on Retiree Health Care, Lawsuit

More than 150 CWA active and retired members demonstrate against Windstream's move to eliminate retiree health care.

Angry about Windstream's decision to eliminate retiree health care, more than 150 active and retired CWAers jammed the company's shareholder meeting in Little Rock, Ark.

Windstream notified retirees they would lose their long-promised health benefits effective July 2010. CWA represents about 3,000 retirees and workers at the company.

Even worse, Windstream is suing dozens of retirees who responded to a survey that the company mailed to them about health care. Workers who answered the question as to whether Windstream had the right to change or terminate benefits with "no," have been sued.

"Windstream is building an empire on the backs of retirees who helped build the company," said District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn, noting that Windstream has spent $2 billion to acquire four companies over the last year.

"The cost to replace health care will be unaffordable, especially for pre-Medicare retirees," said CWA Telecommunications Vice President Jimmy Gurganus. Windstream will provide a tiny subsidy toward retirees' new benefits, $17 a month for post-65 retirees and $80 a month for pre-65 retirees, but only if retirees use Windstream's choice for health insurance. And family policies cost about $1,800 a month.

Two Windstream retirees from CWA Local 6171 joined Gurganus in questioning CEO Jeff Gardner. "I asked how they could break an agreement we had with the company," said Debra Elijah, 53, who retired in 2006. "He gave us the same old answer – that most companies don't provide retiree health care."

Royce Perry, 60, who retired in 2007, wondered how Windstream could justify suing retirees for filling out a questionnaire. "Gardner said that Windstream did not intend the lawsuit to 'be adversarial,'" Perry said.

More than 60 active Windstream members and retirees bused in from Dallas, joining CWAers from Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Texarkana and Arkansas communities. Members from all five of CWA's Arkansas locals joined the demonstration, along with a contingent of CWAers in Little Rock for the next day's Verizon annual meeting, including CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins.

NY State Senate Hearing Calls Out Xerox/ACS on EZ Pass Fight

E-Z Pass call center workers in Staten Island, N.Y., are getting growing support from New York State elected and public officials in their fight for a fair contact.

A New York State Senate committee that oversees the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the New York State Thruway Authority and other agencies held a hearing April 30 to investigate the company's refusal to bargain fairly and the hostile work environment that E-Z pass workers face because of their support for CWA representation.

CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton testified at the hearing, as did President Ed Luster, CWA Local 1102, which represents the 300 call center workers since they voted for a union last August.

Ten current and former workers testified before the committee, telling senators about harsh working conditions and the company's refusal to begin contract negotiations.

Also testifying were representatives from the New York State Thruway Authority, the MTA, the Port Authority and other agencies.

Michael Fleischer, head of the Thruway Authority, told the Senate hearing that Xerox was contractually obligated to tell the government agencies about the labor dispute, but it hadn't done so. Fleischer said the labor dispute had reached the point where it could affect the service that E-Z Pass customers receive.

No Xerox executives or representatives attended the hearing.

Earlier this year, ACS/Xerox illegally fired 14 union activists. A big public backlash that targeted the company and Xerox CEO Ursula Burns for the company's illegal actions got workers their jobs back.

CWAers Out in Force at VZ Annual Meeting

CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins and CWA members protest Verizon-Frontier deal outside Verizon annual meeting.

CWA and IBEW members leafleted shareholders outside the Verizon annual meeting in Little Rock, stressing that Verizon risks damaging its corporate reputation by looking to use a tax loophole to sell off landlines and backing away from the build-out of high speed broadband.

CWA District 2 Vice President Ron Collins took that message to shareholders and executives inside the meeting too. "Verizon's been down this road a few times already, and the results haven't been good, not for workers, communities or quality service. Hawaiian Telecom, which bought Verizon lines – bankrupt. FairPoint, which bought lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont – bankrupt. In both those cases, workers lost jobs and customers and communities lost service and high speed broadband access." 

Collins said Verizon should continue to build out high speed broadband networks as the FCC's national broadband plan outlined, with a focus on service to anchor institutions like schools, hospitals and libraries.

Without high-speed broadband, citizens have no access to critical applications in telemedicine, distance learning, public safety, along with entertainment and other video. Verizon should continue to be a leader in bringing high speed networks to our communities, not abandoning them, he said.  

CWA also released a new report on the Verizon-Frontier deal and how it will harm West Virginia. In "Preventing a Telecom Disaster," CWA and telecom experts point out that for West Virginia and the 13 other states involved in this deal, the risks of the deal far outweigh the potential benefits.

Frontier's debt will increase by 75 percent; that company already is in a shakier position than when this deal was first proposed, the report notes.

If Verizon wants to sell its landlines, it should find a buyer that has the financial, technical and operational resources to meet West Virginia's needs, Collins stressed.

Improving Call Center Jobs a Top Priority for CWA Customer Service Activists

CWA Pres. Larry Cohen and Executive Vice Pres. Annie Hill join local union leaders in CWA’s Customer Service Activist Network in discussing ways to improve customer service jobs and help workers at non-union call centers get bargaining rights.

At a meeting of CWA's new Customer Service Activist Network, local union leaders across CWA sectors came together to talk about the critical problems facing customer service reps: unreasonable sales quotas, monitoring, health problems tied to stress, repetitive motion and headsets, and a general lack of respect.

The working group outlined its mission:

• We will improve the quality of work life by developing a bargaining and legislative agenda that resolves issues and concerns unique to customer service professionals.
  
  
• We will educate our local and national leaders on the need to work together to identify solutions to the concerns specific to customer service professionals.
  
  
• CWA is the customer service union. We will organize to build power and leverage for all.

CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill said, "the more we can grow the customer service part of our union, the more power and leverage we will have to address the issues that customer service representatives face," she said.

Valerie Packer is a member of the customer service activist network and executive vice president of Local 7621 representing Qwest workers in Idaho. Even if employers only care about the bottom line, there's good reason to treat call center workers as valued members of the team because we're the first contact for customers, she said.

CWA represents about 150,000 customer service representatives working in the private and public sector in telecommunications, government, airlines and the newspaper industry. CWA's customer service activists will meet Oct. 21-23 in San Diego at CWA's Customer Service Professionals Conference to continue to work through the tough issues facing reps. Stay tuned for more conference details. 

Tom Juravich, a professor at the University of Massachusetts and labor activist, spoke to the committee by phone. His latest book, “At the Altar of the Bottom Line,” interviews CWA Local 1400 members at the Verizon center in Andover, Mass., and spotlights their concerns, including that priority given to sales quotas means that workers can’t always provide the service or help that customers want. Read an excerpt here.

Protecting Workers' Rights, Broadband Key to Green Jobs Being 'Good Jobs'

At the Good Jobs Green Jobs conference, Best Speaker Ever Nancy Pelosi said our nation must continue the work of creating good-paying, clean energy jobs, so that more people can share in economic growth and success.

Protecting workers' rights and building out high-speed broadband to every community will spur the economic growth our country needs and create quality, union, green jobs, CWA President Larry Cohen told participants this week at the Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference.

Cohen said access to high-speed broadband networks is critical to the economic survival and growth of rural communities and towns across the country, just as water rights and highways were in years past. "Without access, those communities will disappear."

Some 3,000 labor and environmental activists, business leaders, elected officials and others attended the Washington D.C. forum that focused on ideas to help build a new, green economy that creates good jobs, reduces global warming and preserves America's economic and environmental security. CWA is a member of the Blue Green Alliance, which sponsors the forum.

Attending the forum were CWA and IUE-CWA members already doing some of the nation's greenest jobs: building out high speed broadband, and manufacturing zero-emission buses in St. Cloud, Minn., hybrid car batteries in Springfield, Ohio, low-voltage wind transformers in Washington, Mo., and clean jet engines in Lynn, Mass.

IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said that green, clean energy jobs will mean growth for American workers and our economy. We must ensure that "going green in the U.S. doesn't become another excuse for companies to outsource jobs overseas."

Also attending the forum's first day were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, Sierra Club Executive Chairman Carl Pope and others.

Sierra Club, CWA Join Forces on Broadband Build-Out

Local and state leaders from the Sierra Club and CWA are working together in five states to promote the buildout of high speed broadband networks that will help safeguard the environment and create quality jobs.

In a win-win-win proposition for workers, consumers and the environment, CWA and the Sierra Club are working together to ensure that all Americans have access to high-speed broadband networks.

Representing Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, about 40 state and local Sierra Club and CWA leaders met at CWA headquarters. The meeting grew out of the Blue-Green Alliance, bringing unions and environmentalists together to support truly high speed Internet (1 gigabit to anchor institutions) to network sustainable communities in the green economy with union jobs.

"The growth of broadband will mean stable jobs in the communications industry and new opportunities to save energy and protect the environment," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "It is fundamental to the shared goals of the Blue-Green Alliance."

A key goal is to bring one gigabit of broadband service to to schools, hospitals and public buildings in every community in the country, one element of the FCC's national broadband plan. Another priority is getting utility providers to use broadband for "smart grids" that allow consumers to more efficiently use power, saving energy and money.

Jonathan  Kevles, senior strategist for the Sierra Club's Clean Energy Campaign, said the meeting was very positive, with "two influential groups sitting together for the first time, articulating their mutual goal of a national smart grid, and putting together a plan to implement it."

CWA and Sierra Club members will be building coalitions in the five states.

315 AT&T Mobility Workers Join CWA in Indiana, Michigan

Just like 40,000 other CWA members at AT&T Mobility, 315 workers from the former Centennial Wireless in Indiana and Michigan have a union voice, joining CWA through majority sign up. In Indiana, some 290 customer care representatives at the Ft. Wayne call center and a 10-person statewide unit of technicians now are represented by CWA Local 4900.

In Michigan, a unit of 15 network technicians from Michigan won representation by Local 4100. District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen credits Local 4900 organizer Beth Dubree and District organizing coordinator Jeff Lacher for helping the workers build a strong inside committee and majority support among their co-workers.

Centennial Wireless was acquired last November by AT&T Mobility and provides service in the Midwest, Southeast, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.