CWA District 9 VP Jim Weitkamp: Speech to the USW Annual Convention

CWA District 9 VP Jim Weitkamp addressed the USW Annual Convention on Sunday, August 14

Thank you, sisters and brothers, for allowing me to address you today. Your theme “Stand up, fight back” could not be more appropriate! The right wing in this country is bent on destroying collective bargaining, labor and the middle class in this country. Americans know inequality is on the rise but many are still not fully aware of the extent to which the landscape has changed. Wall Street speculators, CEOs with their gigantic bonuses and their stooge lobbyists, are buying Washington and they’re not willing to rest until the working class is reduced to the social and economic level they suffered in the days of the robber barons.

This country is not prosperous or free when corporations sit on record profits while millions of workers sit idle in their homes.

The nation cannot be properous or free when the top 1% own more than the entire middle class combined.

We are not prosperous or free when the majority of the people in this country live week to week, worrying about how they will put food on the table, pay the mortgage, praying the whole time that if they are lucky enough to have a job that their car will start and that they can afford to put gas in the tank.

The measure of prosperity in this nation isn’t just how much wealth can be amassed by the privileged, rather it should be whether the people who helped create that wealth and prosperity share in it and can lead satisfying lives.

Americans used to know that if they played by the rules and worked hard they’d be able to take care of their families, send their kids to college or terchnical school and have a secure retirement.

Today though, the rules are being written by the privileged and well-connected and the middle class is facing obstacles not just to success, but to survival.

Freedom isn’t the right to own your own member of Congress, it’s the right we all have to a fair wage, a decent life, retirement and hope for the future.

The newly emboldened right wing has been salivating at the chance to expand their attack on public workers, begun in Wisconsin, New Jersey and countless other points of the country, to the private sector. At midnight on August 6, Verizon took up that standard for private corporations everywhere... Minutes before the contract expiration, and after weeks of surface negotiation, Verizon had over 100 regressive proposals on the table.

Verizon seeks to gut contracts and erase gains fought for and won as far back as 1943. They propose to turn back the clock and drastically cut wages, eliminate pensions and destroy the concept of employer paid medical benefits. The proposed cuts in medical benefits alone would mean an immediate $6,500 or more out of the pockets of these workers and their families. Verizon's total proposed package would cut the overall earnings of these highly skilled, hard working american workers by $20,000 a year. All this from a company that made 108 billion in revenue and 19 billion (with a “b”) profit last year. This from a corporation that pays its CEO 300 times the wage of an average worker. This from a corporation that paid its five “top” people over a quarter of a billion in compensation last year. This from a corporation that is sending struck work to Mexico.

Verizon has aligned itself with the ultra right wing in this country which is dertimined to destroy collective bargaining in the United States. They have their hand in the pocket of every working class family in this country. We will not stand by and let them mug us in broad daylight.

On midnight August 6, 45,000 courageous CWA and IBEW members took to the streets. This strike is large—the largest in many years. It is a turning point for labor with our fate hanging in the balance... It is our job to stand up, to fight and to win. We must make sure the whole world is watching.

You can help us by educating your entire membership on just what this fight is all about. Mobilize and join us on the picket lines back east and join us as we picket and work to close down Verizon Wireless stores nationwide. Share our information and participate in our activities whenever and wherever you can. You all have flier with our information and on the back a form you can use to sign on for the fight. I thank you in advance and I expect to get one back from each and every one of you.

You cannot be spectators in this fight. I’ve been in a street brawl myself a time or two and because I’m a unionist, I was never alone. Because I’m a unionist I was sometimes bloodied but never bowed. Well, I’m ready for this one and you‘ll never lose a brawl when the 1.2 million active and retired members of the United Steel Workers have your back.

I am honored to have been able to address you today and once again see first hand just what solidarity looks like.

We will fight this war for as long as it takes and with your help we will be there one day longer!

Thank you!