CWA Members Press New Flyer for Community Benefits Agreement to Help Workers and Communities

CWA members who work at New Flyer in Minnesota traveled to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) conference in New York City last week to deliver a letter to Chris Stoddart, the President of the bus division of New Flyer Industries, urging him to negotiate a Community Benefits Agreement to create better jobs, equal opportunity, and healthier communities for workers across the country.
 
Community Benefits Agreements have been used in recent years to ensure that taxpayer-funded investment centers on worker and community needs. More than 60 percent of New Flyer's income comes from taxpayer-funded purchases of their products.

The coalition of CWA, IUE-CWA, and community, labor, civil rights, and environmental groups that delivered the letter also gave Stoddart a copy of a new report from Jobs to Move America that details worker complaints about racial discrimination and sexual harassment and concerns about health and safety at a non-union New Flyer factory in Anniston, Ala.

At the conference, CWAers shared their stories about how getting a union in their workplace helped them unite and tackle issues more effectively, and talked about how they want more workers to have a voice on the job without fear of retaliation, including the workers at the Anniston plant. With the help of their union, the Minnesota CWA members won significant limitations to forced overtime, a major new heat stress policy and safer work processes, wage increases, and more inclusive treatment.

CWA members at New Flyer in Minnesota shared their stories about how getting a union in their workplace helped them unite and tackle issues more effectively, and talked about how they want more workers to have a voice on the job without fear of retaliation, including the workers at the Anniston, Ala., plant.