Report of the National Committee on Equity To the 61st Annual Convention
The National Committee on Equity would like to highlight to the delegates the following issues and accomplishments.
Hate Crimes
It is a sad reality that hate crimes and the groups that perpetuate them have significantly increased in recent years. The Southern Poverty Law Center documented 474 hate groups operating in the United States last year, a 20% increase from 1996. With hate sites proliferating on the Internet racists organizers are reaching young people around the country like never before.
Under existing law, hate crimes can only be prosecuted when the victim is engaged in a federally protected activity like voting or applying for a job. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 1999, S.622 and H.R. 1082 would eliminate the federally protected activity clause, so that crimes like the dragging death of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, or the beating to death of Matthew Shepard at the University of Wyoming, would be more easily prosecuted. In addition the proposed legislation would cover hate crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation, gender or disability for the first time. Over 40 states have hate crimes statutes but only 21 cover sexual orientation, only 22 cover gender and only 21 cover disability.
The Equity Committee urges delegates to support passage of this Bill by writing and calling your congressional representatives.
Attack on Seniority has adverse impact on minorities
New Jersey Governor Whitman launched an unprecedented attack on the seniority rights of over 36,000 CWA public workers this year. Despite overwhelming opposition to the proposed plan even in the Republican controlled state Legislature, Whitman tried to unilaterally implement the changes. The cornerstone of the plan was to use supervisory evaluations instead of seniority as the basis for layoff. Under the Governor's plan, a worker would receive 24 points for an outstanding evaluation, 16 for commendable, 12 for satisfactory and 0 for less than satisfactory.
In a layoff situation, an employee's total seniority would be calculated by adding the points from the evaluation to total years of service. Under this plan an employee with one year of service who received an outstanding evaluation would be treated as if he/she had 25 years of service (1 year of service +24 pts for an outstanding evaluation). Thus in a lay-off situation, a one-year employee with a single outstanding evaluation could keep his/her job while an employee with 24 years of seniority and a satisfactory evaluation got laid off.
Using data provided by the New Jersey Department of Personnel, CWA was able to demonstrate a clear and unacceptable pattern of racial bias in supervisory evaluations. CWA found that a much higher percentage of whites obtained the highest evaluation rating than African Americans, Hispanic Americans and minorities as a group for every year from 1994-1998. In 1998, for example, 48.8% of whites received the highest rating compared to only 25.2% of African Americans and 27.2% of all minorities.
We commend the Locals and staff for exposing this discrimination and fighting full out for one of the core principals of the labor movement. This fight reminds us once again that we cannot take anything that we have obtained in the past for granted, that we must always be vigilant. This will not be the last attack on seniority. We can be certain that another employer on another day in another place will try it again. It is up to us to be prepared, just like our sisters and brothers in New Jersey and the many generations of unionists who came before us.
Pride At Work
Pride at Work joins the A. Philip Randolph Institute, The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance , the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement as the newest AFL-CIO constituency group. The purpose of Pride at Work is to mobilize mutual support between the organized labor movement and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community around organizing for social and economic justice. At its first national convention in February 1999, the delegates adopted an ambitious agenda which includes organizing, building a strong political voice for workers, fighting for immigrant rights and joining local broad-based coalitions such as Jobs with Justice. Membership and other information can be found on the Pride at Work Web site.
The committee urges the delegates to support Pride at Work and the other AFL-CIO constituency groups by encouraging members in these communities to join and participate.
Puerto Rican Telephone Workers Stand Tall
The committee recognizes that, ultimately, the issues surrounding equity in the workplace and also in our society can be effectively fought for by groups of organized workers. While instances of workers standing up for their rights and civil rights abound, the committee draws attention to the positive role that our union played in the 41-day strike of the 6,500 telephone sisters and brothers in the Puerto Rico Telephone Company.
At the request of the two unions involved in the 1998 strike, the CWA marshalled economic, political, human and organizational resources that assisted the unions in successfully protecting the jobs of their members and convincing GTE (the new owners of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company) to respect and negotiate over the impact of the privatization of the company. As a result of this joint campaign, CWA has built even stronger bonds with the workers in Puerto Rico and increased its understanding of the national, political and cultural issues that permeate the workers struggle on the island. The two independent unions continue to work closely with our existing members in Puerto Rico in CWA Local 3150 and TNG Local 225. Through this work CWA made new important allies in Puerto Rico; our membership's diversity proved to be an asset, and we are all stronger because of that.
CROWN Gasoline Boycott
A civil rights lawsuit has been filed against Crown Petroleum. The class action lawsuit filed against Crown by African-Americans and female workers charges the company with discrimination in promotions, distribution of racist and sexist handbills by supervisors and the creation of a hostile work environment. Crown operates Crown gas stations, Fast Fare and Zippy Mart convenience stores throughout the South. The company has also been sued for health and property damage by the mostly Latino neighbors who live in the shadow of its largest refinery. Finally, Crown forcibly removed 252 union workers from its Pasadena,Texas, refinery in 1996 after they refused to accept the company's demands to eliminate 40 percent of the work force and gut contract provisions protecting older workers. Say no to racism, sexism and union-busting, don't buy Crown gasoline. For more information on the campaign, go to the Crown boycott site.
Census 2000
The U.S Constitution and the Census Act mandate that a National census be conducted every 10 years. Information gathered in the census is used by states and local governments to plan schools and highways and by the federal government to distribute funds for health care and other programs. The 1990 census was the least accurate census in modern time; 8.4 million were not counted and 4.4 million were counted twice. It marked the first time in five decades that a census was less accurate than its predecessor.
Those missed were disproportionately children, people of color and the urban and rural poor, while those counted twice were most often suburban dwellers. The 1990 racial and ethnic undercount was the highest ever recorded since the Census Bureau began conducting post census evaluations in 1940. The 1990 census missed 20% of Hispanics 4.3% of African Americans, 12.2% of American Indians and 2.3% of Asian Pacific Islanders. Children were also significantly undercounted.
The Equity Committee calls on CWA at all levels to ensure that this census in 2000 is more accurate than the past ones. CWA can promote census participation in the communities that have been undercounted in the past. CWA should also help recruit some of the hundreds of thousands of Census Bureau enumerators needed to find the people who in 1996 didn't return questionnaires. For details, see the Census 2000 Web site.
Newspapers Diversity
Given the importance of fair and accurate news coverage of communities that newspapers serve, The Newspaper Guild sector of CWA continued to prod news editors to aggressively recruit, promote and retain journalists of color to create newsrooms that truly reflect the face of North America today.
This year, the Guild blasted the American Society of Newspaper Editors(ASNE), the nation's oldest and largest newspaper editors group, for failure to achieve its goal of matching minority representation in newsrooms to minority representation in the U.S. population by the year 2000. The ASNE board instead amended its goal to the year 2025 or sooner and adopted a mission statement on newsroom diversity that states "...all newspapers should employ journalists of color and every newspaper should reflect the diversity of its community." The Guild said Athe new goal is too long and the commitment to finances to short.
A recent ASNE survey conducted found that people of color now represent 28% of the general U.S. population, whereas they represent only 11.5% of newsroom employees, a disappointing increase of only .09% from the previous year. Moreover, the survey also found that 40 percent of newspapers lack any journalists of color. The TNG office will continue to keep this issue before the public and agitate to speed up progress.
Celebrating 43 years of Service
Lastly, the Committee wishes to thank Mary Mays-Carroll for her leadership and friendship over the years. Mary joined CWA in 1955 the first day on the job at Ohio Bell. Over the years she held many different leadership positions in the Union and in 1989 she assumed the responsibility for the Civil Rights/Fair Practices office of CWA. When describing Mary most will point out that she is a class act and that is certainly true but to these committee members sitting up here and the many who served before us she has been a role model, a confident and a loyal friend. Mary Mays-Carroll retired on May 1 of this year after 43 years of service. Thank you, Mary.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gwendolyn Richardson, At Large-Executive Board Member
CWA Local 1180
Terry L. Schildt, Executive Vice President
CWA Local 2150
Elizabeth S. Roberson, Secretary
CWA Local 3106
Margaret B. Henderson, Secretary
CWA Local 4310
Linda Gray, Executive Board Member
CWA Local 6507
Marlene E. Orozco, Member
CWA Local 7777
Ed Venegas, President
CWA Local 9505
Michelle D. Porter, Division Secretary-Treasurer
CWA Local 13500
