Nov 7, 2019 - Colorado CWAers Put Pressure on Republican Senator to Protect Jobs

Delta Air Lines

Flight Attendants at Delta Air Lines want to join AFA-CWA.

AFA-CWA is putting its full support behind thousands of Flight Attendants at Delta Air Lines who want to join the Flight Attendant union.

In a statement announcing the organizing efforts, the union's leadership, including AFA-CWA International President Sara Nelson, pointed out that as long as Delta management retains control of pay, benefits, and working conditions at the industry's most profitable airline, workers' bargaining power at all airlines is cut short.

Help us welcome Delta Flight Attendants to our union today as we work together to build worker power.

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Horizon Air

Horizon Flight Attendants, members of AFA-CWA, demonstrated along with labor allies at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and Portland International Airport (PDX) on Wednesday as they fight for a fair contract that includes better pay and benefits.

CWAers delivered across the country for working people in this week's elections! CWA members knocked on doors, made phone calls, and got out the vote to elect pro-worker candidates, including some of their fellow CWA members.

• Sheldon Neeley, President of NABET-CWA Local 54046, was elected mayor of Flint, Mich.
• Yvonne Kinston, a member of Local 3680 won her City Council race in Fayetteville, N.C., defeating incumbent Jim Arp.
• Elizabeth Brown of Local 4502 was reelected to the Columbus City Council.
• Judy Ward of Local 1000 was elected to the Pleasantville New Jersey City Council
• Patti Harris of Local 1014 was elected Mayor of Barrington, New Jersey
• Victoria Pacheco of Local 1032 was elected to the Keyport New Jersey City Council
• Mark Kruszcynski of Local 1036 was elected to the North Plainfield New Jersey Board of Education
• Danielle Spinner of Local 1036 was elected to the Willingboro New Jersey Board of Education
• Joseph Hiles of Local 1085 was elected to the Woodstown New Jersey City Council
• Nelson Carney of Local 1085 was elected to the Woodstown-Pilesgrove New Jersey Board of Education,
• Bob Milone of Local 1107 was elected as the Clarkstown New York Superintendent of Highways
• Chris Ryan of Local 1123 was elected as an Onondaga County New York Legislator
• Fred Hogan of IUE-CWA Local 81201 was elected to the Lynn Massachusetts City Council.

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CWA and IUE-CWA members knocked on doors and made phone calls to oust anti-worker Governor Matt Bevin who passed so-called "right-to-work" in Kentucky, electing Democrat Andy Beshear in a huge win for working people.

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CWA members across New York, New Jersey, and New England knocked on doors and made phone calls to elect pro-worker candidates, including their fellow CWA members, in a variety of local races that will have a huge and direct impact on our communities. See the full list of CWA District 1 wins here.

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CWA Local 2201 hosted a labor canvass to get out the union vote for pro-worker candidates in Richmond, Va. They joined forces with members of UFCW, AFGE, IBT, IBEW, NALC, UA, SMART, and OPEIU to knock on doors and make phone calls, helping contribute to a strong effort from Democrats, who took over the House of Delegates and the State Senate on Tuesday.

According to disturbing reports from the Philippines, military police raided the regional offices of several progressive and union organizations in Bacolod on Friday, arresting union organizer Mary-Anne Krueger (known as Anne) and others. Witnesses to the raid report that those conducting the raid planted two pistols and eight bullets on the property as a pretext to make the arrests.

Anne and her husband Michael de la Concepcion are longtime union organizers in the Philippines and CWA allies, even hosting CWA members when they visited during the 2016 Verizon strike. Last week's arrests, which may number as many as 60, appear to be part of a larger orchestrated crackdown meant to discourage workers from organizing.

"The arrest of Anne Krueger and larger raids and retaliation against union and progressive organizers are unacceptable and the latest evidence of the effort to silence and intimidate those seeking to improve the lives and conditions of Filipino workers," CWA President Chris Shelton said. "CWA strongly condemns the raids and arrests and stands in solidarity with Anne and her family and all those arrested in what appears to be a crackdown on workers exercising their human rights."

Support Anne and other Philippine union organizers by signing a petition to Philippine President President Rodrigo Duterte and local law enforcement officials. Click here to sign.

The CWA Joe Beirne Foundation will award 16 partial college scholarships of $4,000 each for two years for the 2020-2021 academic year. CWA members, their spouses, children, and grandchildren are eligible for the scholarships, including the dependents of retired, laid-off, or deceased members.

Apply here.

The Beirne scholarship program is made possible by funding from CWA locals. Read more about the program here.
 

Last week, Colorado CWA members dropped off almost 300 letters and postcards encouraging Republican Senator Cory Gardner to support three pieces of vital legislation: the United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act to protect call center jobs, the No Tax Breaks for Outsourcing Act to end Trump's tax breaks for companies that offshore jobs, and the Cabin Air Safety Act to require carbon monoxide detectors to be installed on commercial aircraft and monitored during flights.

This week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) formally approved the T-Mobile/Sprint merger, following a 3-2 vote. In a statement, CWA criticized the shortsighted decision. A lawsuit seeking to block the proposed merger by state attorneys general remains pending.

"The FCC's review process governing the T-Mobile/Sprint transaction has been fundamentally flawed, lacking in transparency, and failing to adhere to existing FCC rules and precedent," said Debbie Goldman, CWA's Research and Telecommunications Policy Director.
 

IUE-CWA President Carl Kennebrew authored an op-ed that was published by the Columbus Dispatch laying out how the Trump NAFTA 2.0 plan falls short for working people:

"For a renegotiated NAFTA to work better for workers, it would need to level the playing field. That means that it would need to include strong labor and environmental standards with swift and certain enforcement mechanisms," Kennebrew wrote. "Unfortunately, President Trump's USMCA deal doesn't address these issues. There are still too many loopholes and weaknesses in the standards, and the enforcement mechanism actually takes a step backward from past deals, in which labor and environmental enforcement was already far too weak."

Read the full piece here.