News

A new IUE-CWA Sector president took the oath of office on April 8. Jim Clark, IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board chairman, succeeds Mike Bindas, who retired March 31 after 49 years of service to the manufacturing union, which merged with CWA in 2000.

CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara J. Easterling recently spent a day with officers and members of IUE-CWA Local 81455 as the local was set to begin contract negotiations with the Trane Co., in Trenton, N.J.

CWA's public employees and flight attendants would be among millions of workers newly covered by federal safety and health laws under a bill introduced on Workers Memorial Day by Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

They came from every employment sector in which workers pick up the phone and answer, "May I help you?" But whether in wireless or landline, operator services, airline reservations or newspaper ad sales, their work is much the same.

Editor's Note: The following pieces were written by CWA members Steve Tisza and Beverly Hicks following a trip to three cities in India to visit call centers and their workers employed by U.S. businesses. The trip was funded with a grant from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.