News

With the presidential election in double overtime and some U.S. House and Senate races still too close to call on Nov. 8, at least one thing was clear the day after Election 2000: Labor’s impassioned fight for working families and workers’ rights had a thunderous impact.

CWA has reached a tentative agreement with Qwest Communications and Qwest Business Resources Inc., that will extend the current contract covering 35,000 CWA members and provide wage and benefit improvements. The company was formed by the merger of US West and Qwest which was finalized in June.

Participants at the SBC National Bargaining Conference on Nov. 8-9 adopted a bargaining resolution spelling out key goals. A summary follows:

SBC Communications is very successful — the nation’s second most profitable communications company.

In preparation for early bargaining with SBC Communications, CWA local union officers and committee members from four districts discussed bargaining goals and strategies at the national SBC bargaining conference in San Diego Nov. 9-10.

CWA Local 14177 successfully beat back an attempt by an independent union to reclaim representation rights at the New Era Cap Co.’s Derby, N.Y., plant by a vote of 290 for CWA, 77 for the independent and one for “no union.”