May 23, 2024 - Groundbreaking New Contract at New Flyer in Alabama

IUE-CWA Local 83700 members at New Flyer's Anniston, Ala., facility overwhelmingly ratified their first union contract last week, with an astounding 99.39% of members voting in favor. New Flyer is the largest transit bus manufacturer in North America.

The new contract includes pay raises ranging from 15% to 38% by 2026, restrictions on forced overtime, expanded vacation and paid time off, improved parental leave, the addition of Juneteenth as a holiday, guaranteed cost-of-living adjustments, and enhanced retirement benefits.

IUE-CWA Local 83700 member Shannon Franks, an assembly worker at New Flyer, highlighted the transformative impact of the contract, remarking, "The new contract means better pay, and now that there are improved retirement contributions from the company, I will have a better future. It's truly a blessing." Franks emphasized the significance of the victory, stating, "Our union and the hard-fought pay increase will help improve our lives here in Alabama. All Alabama workers deserve the same benefits and a safe work environment."

The successful negotiations received widespread media coverage as an example of a resurgent Southern labor movement.

Workers at New Flyer were able to freely form their union under a neutrality agreement negotiated between the company and CWA in 2022. In the past few years, more than 1,150 New Flyer employees have formed unions with IUE-CWA at facilities in Anniston, Ala.; Shepherdsville, Ky.; and Jamestown, N.Y., joining the 1,200 employees already represented by CWA at New Flyer’s St. Cloud and Crookston, Minn., assembly plants.

Read more from the New Flyer workers about the impact of the new contract here.

 
Members of the IUE-CWA Local 83700 New Flyer bargaining team in Anniston, Ala., celebrate their first union contract.

Last week, following months of prolonged advocacy by transportation unions, including CWA, President Biden signed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2024 into law.

The five-year bill includes language to protect the 20,000 CWA-represented passenger service agents across American Airlines and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Piedmont and Envoy, as well as the 50,000 Flight Attendants across 20 airlines represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) from the dangers and hazards they face on a daily basis.

At the end of 2022, Courtney Edwards, a member of CWA Local 3645, was killed after a tragic on-the-job accident on the ramp. Edwards’ death was the second ramp fatality in five years. In 2019, Kendrick Hudson, also a member of Local 3645, was also killed in a tragic on-the-job accident. As a result of advocacy from CWA and its members, the legislation now directs the FAA to issue a safety review of airport ramp operations and hazards, including the risks of engine ingestion and jet blast zones. The FAA will now also publish training materials related to these hazards for ground crews.

Regarding above-the-wing workers, the FAA Reauthorization of 2024 provides new protections to prevent assaults against passenger service agents. Going forward, those who assault airport or air carrier employees—including those performing ticketing, check-in, baggage claim, or boarding functions—will face the same penalties as those who assault security personnel.

For Flight Attendants, the bill addresses other safety-critical issues, including clean air on flights, temperatures on planes, updates to crewmember self-defense training, improving aircraft evacuation standards, and the ability to safely pump breast milk as a pilot or Flight Attendant, along with many other important labor provisions for Flight Attendants.

Passengers and airline workers rely on a safe, dependent air transportation system, and the advocacy from CWA and other transportation unions produced a strong bill that secured authorization with key safety initiatives for the next five years.

AT&T Mobility IHX

Last week, approximately 400 AT&T Mobility In-Home Experts (IHX) in South Texas joined CWA under the terms of the Voluntary Recognition and Neutrality Agreement with AT&T Mobility.

In-Home Experts are sales representatives who manage their own portfolio of customers and provide service demonstrations, answer questions, and troubleshoot issues directly with customers. These jobs can require considerable travel and unconventional work schedules. Workers cited a lack of work-life balance and little say in decision-making as reasons for joining the union.

The campaign was led by CWA District 6 District Organizing Coordinator Yolanda Anderson, with support from CWA District 6 Administrative Director of Organizing Nancy Barrios.

Congratulations to all the new members of our union!

CWA active members and retirees at AT&T have been taking steps to fight back against a transaction that threatens the retirement security that members have earned through decades of loyal service to the company.

Last year, AT&T entered into an agreement to transfer pension benefits, covering over 96,000 retirees and beneficiaries, to a life insurance company called Athene Holding Ltd. AT&T gained more than $360 million in cost savings from the deal, while retirees lost the protections of federal law and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

AT&T retirees have filed a class action complaint against AT&T, alleging that the company and its advisors breached their fiduciary duty in their selection of Athene. The retirees are asking the court to require AT&T to backstop all the benefits transferred to Athene, ensuring benefits maintain the same guarantees that retirees expected to have through the course of their careers.

“I always believed that when you had a job with the telephone company, you had a job for life,” said CWA Local 4252 President LaNell Piercy, a retiree from Marseilles, Ill. Ms. Piercy retired in 2007 after 31 years of eligible service under the AT&T Pension Benefit Plan. “It took sacrifice and hard work to earn a pension with AT&T, especially for women. As women, we struggled to find safe public transportation to get home at night. For a time, I commuted two hours each way to keep my job and keep vesting in my pension.”

President Claude Cummings Jr. will host a town hall for all AT&T members and retirees on June 5 to share more information on AT&T’s transaction with Athene and the legal complaint. Register at CWA.org/ATTtownhall.

Traveling the world, exotic locales, and financial independence—just a few of the things one might associate with being a Flight Attendant. The reality, as highlighted in a recent survey of Alaska Airlines Flight Attendants, couldn’t be farther from that vision, however.

In that survey, released earlier this month, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) found that well over half of respondents said they don’t have $500 cash during the month after paying bills. Over 70% of respondents reported not having savings equal to three months of living expenses, a typical level for emergency funds.

Due to the high cost of living in “base cities” where Flight Attendants are assigned, “nine percent [of Flight Attendants surveyed] responded that at some point in the past year, they have experienced homelessness, lived in their car, lived in a shelter, or endured some combination of these circumstances. Over 10% of Flight Attendants reported that they live with their parents/families because they cannot afford rent, and 43% replied that they must have multiple roommates to afford housing.”

Members of the AFA-CWA have engaged in several high-profile picketing actions at airports around the globe to raise awareness about substandard wages, as well as an outreach campaign to spur the National Mediation Board to help expedite contract negotiations.

AFA-CWA Alaska will meet with management several times over the next month to push to reach a tentative agreement on a new contract.

The next “Worldwide Day of Action” will take place at more than 30 airports on June 13.

During this month’s CWA District 1 Lobby Day, there was a special focus on tower climbers. Members of CWA’s Tower Climbers United project joined CWA members in Albany for a legislative training, lobby day, and a briefing on newly introduced legislation to set safety standards and increase transparency in the tower climbing industry. Lead sponsors, New York State Senator Rachel May (D) and New York State Assembly Member Dana Levenberg (D), stood alongside tower climbers to educate other legislators about the dangers these workers face and the need for transparency and accountability in the industry.

Since meeting with legislators, the proposed bill has started to secure co-sponsors, and Tower Climbers United members are looking forward to continuing to garner support for their legislation.

When asked what this legislation would mean to him, tower climber Ryan Dupal said, “It'll be a huge step for our industry, brothers and sisters alike. We’ll know that, when we're on these state-owned towers, there are going to be safety protocols in place—knowing that we'll be safe to climb ’em and come down.”

Though extremely dangerous, the work tower climbers do is integral to the availability of cell services, internet, and other critical systems that rely on transmission towers.

During the lobby day, tower climbers also supported CWA District 1 healthcare workers from across New York State who are fighting for safe staffing.

In April, active members of CWA Local 4009 and members of the local’s Retirees Council joined forces to help feed children facing food insecurity. The local, based in the Metro Detroit area, is participating in a regional program designed to aid students who, outside of school, have little to no access to meals.

“For some of these kids,” said CWA Local 4009 Vice President Shawn Banks, “the only meals they’re gonna get are at school. So, during the summer months, they go hungry.”

Though the program is regional, members and retirees of CWA Local 4009 decided to reach out directly to a local school, Beech Elementary, which serves the same area where many members and retirees work and live. Said Banks, “We wanted to work directly with the school because this is where our members’ children and grandchildren live, where our neighbors are struggling.” Retirees are collecting food to deliver to the school, while workers collect food donations at their worksites.

Beech Elementary, headed by Principal Melissa Nickel, will deliver food to students across the district. “The food program,” said Principal Nickel, “has the potential to serve up to 1,500 food insecure children during the summer, both by food delivery and to students enrolled in summer school.” Beech Elementary is in a district with a high percentage of students who are low-income and in need of assistance.

“This is our first year participating in this food program,” continued Nickel, “so we’re very glad for community partners like Local 4009, who are willing to pitch in.”

In any weather, TNG-CWA Local 38061 member Stephen Karlinchak (right) holds the picket line in front of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Union Progress, TNG-CWA 38061)

Name: Stephen Karlinchak
Local: The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, TNG-CWA Local 38061
Workplace: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Title: Librarian
Experience: 33+ years
Strike Time: One year, seven months
Quote: This strike isn't about me; it is about honoring the women and men who came before me who built a strong union and to ensure that those PPG workers who come after me will have decent wages and benefits.
Inspiration: My immigrant grandfathers who were coal miners; my father, my brother, and my uncles were GM employees and UAW members; and my mother belonged to CWA (Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania) and the Retail Clerks Union (A&P).

While the right to organize a union is protected under federal law for private sector workers, state and local public sector workers have no such protections at the federal level. Last week, Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation to remedy this problem. U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) introduced the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act (PSFNA), intended to protect workers looking to create or join a union.

The PSFNA would guarantee workers the right to join a union, engage in collective bargaining, and sue in court to enforce their labor rights. This legislation, if passed, would also allow workers to access dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation or arbitration.

As of 2022, according to a press release from Senator Hirono, there were over 19 million public workers across the U.S.

Without union representation, public sector workers have less power to fight corporations and the politicians who do their bidding when they push to privatize and eliminate public services. This bill will improve public services by enforcing standards for worker safety, pay, and benefits, resulting in improved worker retention, lower training costs, and better communication between workers and their employers.

“The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act will help ensure every public employee has their voice heard in the workplace, protecting their rights to organize for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said Senator Hirono in a press release. “I’m proud to lead this legislation to preserve and strengthen the right to unionize for public sector workers who teach our children, protect our safety, and keep our communities moving forward.”