Mar 3, 2016 - Get Arrested with President Shelton

CWA President Chris Shelton issued this statement on the results of the Super Tuesday primaries:

Members of the Communications Workers of America voted decisively to endorse Bernie Sanders for President, knowing that we were in it for the long haul. Like Senator Sanders, we are determined to take on today's one-sided economy, where political contributions wipe out the voice of ordinary Americans and where Wall Street calls all the shots – about our jobs, our communities and our livelihoods.

That's what the Sanders campaign is all about. We're not going anywhere. We continue to support Senator Sanders' campaign that calls out an economic and political establishment that's rigged against working families.

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate whose campaign is funded by the small dollar contributions of ordinary Americans. That matters. He has energized millions of voters with his message of fundamental change that benefits working families, not the 1 percent, and the fight isn't over.

In the coming primary states, and especially in California, New York, New Jersey, and Ohio – where CWA has its largest numbers of members – activists will continue to canvass neighborhoods, organize worksite actions, staff phone banks, and rally around Senator Sanders and the grassroots revolution our country needs.

Tentative Contract for D6 Mobility Workers

On Feb. 28, CWA's District 6 bargaining team reached a tentative four-year agreement with AT&T Mobility covering 9,400 Mobility workers in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

CWA members will be joining a telephone town hall call on Monday, March 7, to get more information about the tentative contract. Read more here.

The settlement will be presented to the membership for a ratification vote.

Across District 6, Mobility workers mobilized at retail stores and call centers, putting the company on notice: "these shoes were made for walking."

Negotiations Open with AT&T West

CWA's District 9 bargaining team. From left: Anthony Velez, Marisa Remski, District 9 VP Tom Runnion, Ellen West, Art Gonzalez, Cherie Brokaw
and Pam Suniga.

Negotiations between CWA District 9 and AT&T West got underway on Feb. 23. CWA D9 Vice President Tom Runnion made it clear to AT&T that CWAers were fighting for fairness and, "our goal in these negotiations is to improve living standards for our families. We want secure jobs, secure health care and a secure retirement." The contract covers about 16,000 workers.

So far, the company has come back with demands for givebacks – looking to cut pay schedules, holidays and vacations, freeze pensions and eliminate protections from excessive monitoring, among other retrogressive demands.

On the first day of negotiations, District 9 CWAers mobilized for a fair contract. Clockwise, from top left: Members of Local 9408, Fresno; Local 9003, Los Angeles; and Local 9509, San Diego.

Flight Attendants Keep the Pressure on United

The AFA-CWA Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC), representing 25,000 Flight Attendants at United, Continental and Continental Micronesia Airlines, completed three more days of negotiations in Denver.

The JNC's goal is to continue to build on progress in previous mediation sessions and work through critical issues including scheduling, sick leave, vacations, job share/partnership and other issues, then work to resolve the economic issues to reach a joint agreement covering all United Flight Attendants. The next round of bargaining is March 7 in Phoenix.

On February 18, more than 400 Flight Attendants joined the Day of Action at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, picketing outside the United Airlines departures area. They were joined by Flight Attendants from American, Southwest, ExpressJet and Envoy and AFA-CWA's flying partners from the Air Line Pilots Association.

Verizon Members Mobilize

CWA Local 1101 members in New York protest Verizon's continued demands for concessions, chanting, "They say cut back, we say fight back!"

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In informational picketing In Dover, Del., members of Local 13100 tell the public that "Verizon should build up FiOS, not executive compensation."

Pay Increase for Avaya Workers

CWA bargainers reached a two-year contract extension with Avaya that provides for a 2.5 percent wage increase, the first non-lump sum pay raise since 2012. The contract covers about 550 workers at Avaya.

CWA Telecommunications and Technologies Vice President Lisa Bolton said the contract continues to maintain current health care coverage. "There are no givebacks in this agreement," she said.

More than 500 CWA N.J. shop stewards and activists met for a day of mobilization training on the campaign to win a ballot question for a constitutional amendment to require the State of New Jersey to make full payments into the pension system.

This is an unprecedented, statewide member education campaign, aimed at mobilizing some 800,000 active employees and retirees to drive support for the constitutional amendment.

Governor Christie had signed a 2011 law requiring the state to do its part in restoring proper funding for the pension system, after forcing pension cuts for workers. But he reneged on the deal, grabbing billions of dollars from the pension system to reduce his budget shortfall.

Last fall, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Chris Christie didn't have to make scheduled pension payments into the public pension system.

CWA and other unions filed a petition for review with the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, meaning the lower court decision stands. "It just means what we already knew, which is that we have to protect the funding for these pensions by giving these pensions the same protections they would have in the private sector," said CWA New Jersey Director Hetty Rosenstein.

CWA stewards and activists are ready to go out and build support for the constitutional amendment to safeguard public worker pensions. CWA is leading the way on the campaign.