News

A victory for workers struggling to bargain collectively at South Africa's Vodacom could have ripple effects for workers throughout the African continent and around the world – including Verizon Wireless employees in the United States, union leaders say.

In a landmark victory for Canadian workers, the country's Supreme Court ruled 6-1 last week that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Charter of Rights, similar to the Bill of Rights in the United States.

Lead by CWA President Larry Cohen, more than a hundred union activists in Washington, D.C., demonstrated outside the German Embassy to show solidarity with 16,000 striking workers at Deutsche Telekom in Germany. The workers are fighting management demands to shift 50,000 jobs to subsidiary T-Services, where workers would face big cuts in pay but increased working hours. The workers, members of ver.di, the German telecommunications union, went on strike beginning May 11.

CWA Vice President Ralph Maly, communications and technologies, blasted Alcatel Lucent's proposed plan to close the North Andover, Mass., facility (also known as Merrimack Valley) unless union-represented workers find and agree to accept $6.6 million in cost cutting adjustments.

A unit of 25 contract employees who install hubs, routers and video equipment at AT&T central offices in Reno, Nevada, won representation last week with CWA Local 9413. The vote in the NLRB-sponsored election was 14-8. The workers are employed by NorthStar Communications Group, a contractor performing installations at AT&T central offices that are part of "Project Lightspeed" and support the rollout of U-Verse, AT&T's high-speed, fiber optic video, internet, data and communications service.