Jan 7, 2021 - Yesterday's Insurrection Was an Attack on Our Democracy and other news

With this week's victories for Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, working people in Georgia and across the United States have ensured that their voices will be heard on Capitol Hill in 2021 and beyond.

"CWA activists in Georgia have spent years organizing and building a program to engage members and retirees in legislative and electoral work," said CWA President Chris Shelton. "There's no doubt that every vote mattered and their work to organize all around the state made a huge difference in winning Georgia for Joe Biden, Rev. Warnock, and Jon Ossoff. Mitch McConnell's days as the 'grim reaper,' single-handedly stopping legislation that would improve the lives of working people from even coming up for debate in the Senate, are over."

CWA members began preparing for the Georgia Senate race shortly after the 2018 midterm elections. Members educated their co-workers on issues including offshoring, corporate tax cuts, and providing paid leave for all workers and the importance of passing legislation like the PRO Act to enable more workers to join unions and fight back against corporate control of their lives and our economy. The pandemic brought even more urgency to those efforts, as CWA members continued to provide essential services while the McConnell-led Senate failed to act on legislation to protect their lives and their jobs.

For the runoff, CWAers from across the country joined the efforts in Georgia, pitching in on virtual phone banks.

"Our members went from winning a historic strike against AT&T in the summer of 2019 right into work on the Georgia Senate primary election, general election, and now this runoff," said CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt. "Mobilizing for a strike and turning out the vote serve the same goal: building worker power and fighting for economic justice."

CWAers, joined by special guests including Stacey Abrams, held numerous phonebanks to elect Warnock and Ossoff, and to ensure that working people's voices are heard once Biden and the new Congress are sworn in.

On Monday, workers at Google announced the creation of the Alphabet Workers Union. Alphabet is Google's parent company. The union will be open to all employees and contractors at any Alphabet company and the workers will be members of CWA Local 1400.

The historic launch received widespread media attention, including a feature story and editorial from the workers in the New York Times, and dozens of elected officials tweeted their support.

"This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers," said Alphabet Workers Union member Nicki Anselmo, a Program Manager at Google. "From fighting the 'real names' policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given to executives who've committed sexual harassment, we've seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively. Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade."

"We are glad to welcome the Alphabet Workers Union as members of CWA Local 1400," said CWA Local President Don Trementozzi. "We are a democratic, member-driven union, with experience building and sustaining worker power at some of America's largest corporations. This is an historic step toward making lasting improvements for workers at Google and other Alphabet companies."

Alphabet Workers have joined CWA Local 1400.

AT&T Mobility

In December, CWA and AT&T agreed to extend two contracts covering 24,000 technicians, call center customer support workers, and representatives at AT&T's retail stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. The "Orange" contract was set to expire on February 11, 2021, and the "Black" contract was set to expire on February 10, 2022. Each contract will be extended by one year.

The extension includes a 2.5% wage increase effective on the original contract expiration dates. Benefits remain the same under the existing cost sharing agreement. In addition, groundbreaking job security protections negotiated in 2017 remain in place. AT&T and CWA also agreed that AT&T Mobility Call Center employees who are temporarily working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic can continue to do so through June of 2021.

AT&T workers and community allies rallied together at a socially distant demonstration to demand change at AT&T’s Vallejo store.

On Christmas Eve, AT&T workers and community allies rallied together at a socially distant demonstration to demand change at AT&T Mobility's Vallejo store after an assistant manager sexually assaulted a worker in October. The demonstrators are calling for justice for the victim, CWA Local 9404 member Yesenia Ortiz, and accountability for Juan Moreno, the assistant manager, and Wahab Falak, the store manager, who were involved in egregious behavior; and an end to the retaliatory and toxic workplace created by management.

In October, Mr. Moreno called Ms. Ortiz across the sales floor and said, "I have a present for you," and proceeded to pull open her sweatshirt and shove a box of pens into her jacket. He then followed her aggressively as she walked away, breaking COVID-19 guidelines of standing six feet apart.

"The Vallejo AT&T store is the most toxic place I've ever worked," said Ortiz. "It's unbelievable that AT&T is aware that I was a victim of sexual assault committed by my co-worker, and yet he's been able to keep his job. AT&T needs to terminate Wahab and Juan immediately, and step in and take action to make sure that the laundry list of issues at our store is no longer tolerated."

Before the sexual assault, Mr. Moreno tore down Ms. Ortiz's Black Lives Matter sticker on her work locker at Mr. Falak's direction. The sticker was in the store's locker room where colleagues have personal stickers expressing a range of interests on their lockers. This happened despite the company's stance in support of Black lives and a commitment from AT&T's CEO John Stankey to dedicate company resources to support equality.

In December, CWA filed comments with the FCC raising serious concerns with the proposed acquisition of TracFone by Verizon.

TracFone is now one of the largest providers of Lifeline services, a federal program that makes phone and internet services more affordable for low-income customers, including many seniors. TracFone has approximately 1.7 million low-income subscribers in 43 states and the District of Columbia, or 22 percent of total Lifeline subscribers. By contrast, Verizon only offers its mobile wireless service to Lifeline customers in parts of four states.

Tracfone's critical role in providing Lifeline could be undermined if Verizon seeks to increase its profits by reducing promotion of Tracfone's Lifeline services or limiting Tracfone users to basic services rather than making 5G service widely available.

Read more here.

CWA has established a memorial page for members who have lost their lives to COVID-19.

This week we honor the memory of Chris Lechuga, a member of CWA Local 7019 who worked for CenturyLink in Phoenix, Ariz.