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Let’s Get Ready!
The Countdown Begins: 312 Days to Expiration

We’re getting ready! August 2 began the one-year countdown to expiration of the Verizon East contracts, which also have huge implications for future Verizon West contracts.

On that day, IBEW and CWA members rallied at Verizon’s New England headquarters in Boston, in Upland, CA, Richmond, VA, Baltimore, MD and Morgantown, WV. Members also gathered at garages and workplaces throughout Verizon’s footprint.

“Union members are getting prepared now because the next collective bargaining agreement offers us our best chance to refocus management on making Verizon work for everyone: customers, employees and investors alike,” said IBEW Local 2222 Business Manager Myles Calvey.


**Verizon MEMBERS**

If you are not yet FOI or FOT certified and want to begin working towards this goal, here is an easy way to get started. More


100 join in protest against Verizon
Employees in L.B., N.Y. complain of overwork, anti-union actions, outsourcing.
More


Stan Santos, with Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 9408 in Fresno dress to protray Verizon Wireless CEO Seidenberg holding a sign with the quote said by Seidenberg, "No company can guarantee work, pensions, or health care." CWA are voicing their opinions against mandatory overtime and for Employee Free Choice Act in front of Verizon's Long Beach facility on Ocean Blvd. (Diandra Jay / Press-Telegram)


Long Beach Techs Testify about Verizon's Illegal Tactics
August 16, 2007


In arbitration hearings this week and last, eight technicians from Verizon's Maintenance Control Office in Long Beach, Calif., have stepped forward to testify that the company used coercive tactics to intimidate union supporters in a representation election the workers narrowly lost in April.
The day before the election, Verizon's senior vice president for network operations, Michael Poling, went cubicle to cubicle telling the workers, "You will not get raises. You will not get under the union contract." Poling had been flown into Long Beach at the apparent instruction of Denny Strigl, Verizon's president and chief operating officer. The actions are violations of CWA's neutrality and expedited election agreement at Verizon that covers former GTE network services units. The workers lost the election by just 7 votes. Weeks earlier, 105 of the 170 workers had signed union authorization cards.

"It's courageous of these workers to come forward and testify given what they have endured," said CWA Local 9586 President Gregg Gibson, whose local has been assisting the workers. "The experience has made them stronger and increased their respect for what unions are all about," he said. Verizon's number two HR official flew in for the hearings assisted by three high-powered attorneys.

A second round of hearings is scheduled in October, but Verizon has filed suit in U.S. District Court to rule the arbitration out of order. It is claiming the complaint should have been filed before the vote, not afterwards. CWA's agreement with the company, however, specifically states that the union has 5 days after an election to file charges.
According to a mid-level manager who tipped off the local, Strigl had stressed the importance of defeating the union drive in a conference call for managers in California. From then until the vote, the company deluged the workers almost daily with e-mails attacking the union and collective bargaining.


CWA’s New Diversity Plan Reflects Strategies from AFL-CIO Diversity Dialogues
by James Parks, Jul 17, 2007


Delegates to CWA’s convention approved a new diversity plan.

In a historic action to support union efforts to reach out to a new generation of workers—many of whom are women and people of color—the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA’s) convention meeting in Toronto voted yesterday to add four at-large diversity seats to the union’s executive board to give a greater voice to local leaders.

Convention delegates created the four seats, representing four geographic areas of the union, with the goal of having at least three of the new members be people of color and at least two women. At-large diversity board members will have a full voice and vote on all executive board deliberations.

CWA President Larry Cohen says the decision “is not about being politically correct, it’s about doing the right thing.”
Bringing the perspective and ideas of local leaders and activists to the top ranks of the union’s leadership can only make us stronger and wiser and better equipped to take on the tough challenges facing our movement in the 21st century.

Our fight for economic justice in the workplace and social justice in our world is strengthened today by this action to make certain that workers of every description see themselves reflected in our leadership.
The diversity plan is a key component of CWA’s Ready for the Future program, adopted last year to strengthen its grassroots activist base and develop strategic initiatives to take on critical issues in bargaining and public policy.

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who chaired a committee to develop a plan to increase diversity, says the convention’s action is in keeping with the union’s goals and history.
The fight for equity and justice is what organized labor is all about, and CWA has always been on the forefront of positive change. This diversity plan ensures that all will have a strong voice in the workplace, in society and in our union. It’s the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, the only thing to do.

CWA’s action puts into practice one of the strategies promoted by the recent AFL-CIO Diversity Dialogues. Nearly 200 union leaders and activists met July 14 in San Francisco in the fourth and final conference to discuss strategies to increase diversity in the leadership of their unions.

In the first three diversity dialogues held earlier in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit, local and regional union members, elected leaders and activists joined with members of AFL-CIO constituency groups and central local body and state federation leaders for frank discussions about the best ways to ensure that the leadership of the union movement is as diverse as its membership.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told the participants in San Francisco that diversity is essential to the future of the union movement.
We simply cannot reach our goal of restoring the vitality of our movement as a bargaining power and a political power without the contributions and active participation of all our members. And we can’t restore the voice of working families without significant membership growth. Women and minorities are our greatest hope for achieving that growth, but we’re not presenting a picture of a union movement they want to join.

There’s an old hymn that says, “There is power in the blood,” and we need to adopt that thought and sing, “There is power in diversity.”


**Verizon MEMBERS**

If you are not yet FOI or FOT certified and want to begin working towards this goal, here is an easy way to get started. More

List of Verizon Stewards
Verizon Contracts:

The wall that Verizon is building around VZ Business is a bad idea. Bad for workers, bad for customers, bad for shareholders, and bad for business.
Verizon is using VZ Business—and its non-union working conditions—to perform communications work usually done at union rates and benefits.

Clerical, tech, service, and operator work is being moved out of the bargaining unit—even for non- Enterprise customers.

  • If small and medium business customers
    purchase MCI platform products, such as
    VoIP, their DA and operator calls will be
    handled at former MCI call centers.
  • Orders for POTS circuits coming to union
    service reps for one huge customer have
    dropped by 90% since the merger.
  • In Washington state, tech work for
    Washington Mutual bank will be
    performed by VZB employees.

Verizon’s bad plan sets the stage for labor unrest—the last thing Wall Street wants to hear when it’s already jittery about Verizon’s FiOS vs. cable. It’s up to us to get Verizon to change this plan. Educate your
co-workers, report info to your Local, and mobilize!


 

 










 

 

 

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