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2004 Resolutions Focus on Leadership Changes, Economy, Workers' Rights
In addition to heartily supporting the Kerry-Edwards ticket for the White House, delegates to the 66th annual CWA convention committed to fight for economic security and health care for all Americans and urged passage of card check and neutrality legislation to end workers' struggles to organize and bargain, among other resolutions.
In endorsing John Kerry and John Edwards, members approved a resolution calling the candidates "leaders who will fight for working families, create good jobs, reform health care, support workers' collective bargaining rights, preserve Social Security and Medicare, enact fair tax, budget and trade policies, and strengthen our alliances with other countries in the global war against terrorism."
Delegates also gave their full support to the Employee Free Choice Act, approving a resolution that detailed the problems CWA members have had organizing and bargaining contracts at companies that include Lucent, Comcast and the Chinese Daily News.
Passage of the bill, pending in the House and Senate, "will sent a clear message to all employers that workers are to be respected and that labor laws are to be obeyed," the resolution stated.
Scores of CWA members headed to the convention floor's microphones to support the resolution to make the United States more secure. It calls for repairing the diplomatic damage the Bush administration has done to America's reputation throughout the world, and for adequate funding to tighten port, railroad and air security at home and properly train and equip first responders, including police, firefighters and flight attendants.
Delegates spoke to the minimal, if any, training provided now, despite the administration's claims. Bill Hemby of Local 9111 said 95 percent of California's 60,000 law enforcement officers "have not received any modern anti-terrorist training, nor have they received any protective gear… That is the real tragedy this administration is foisting on the American people."
Delegate Bill Henning, second vice president of Local 1180, offered an amendment to the resolution, accepted by delegates, that said CWA "demands that the president abandon this failed policy in Iraq, which has made our nation less, not more, secure, and support our troops and their families by bringing our troops home safely now, by providing adequate veterans' benefits and promoting domestic policies that prioritize the needs of working people who make up the bulk of the military."
The other resolutions called for:
In endorsing John Kerry and John Edwards, members approved a resolution calling the candidates "leaders who will fight for working families, create good jobs, reform health care, support workers' collective bargaining rights, preserve Social Security and Medicare, enact fair tax, budget and trade policies, and strengthen our alliances with other countries in the global war against terrorism."
Delegates also gave their full support to the Employee Free Choice Act, approving a resolution that detailed the problems CWA members have had organizing and bargaining contracts at companies that include Lucent, Comcast and the Chinese Daily News.
Passage of the bill, pending in the House and Senate, "will sent a clear message to all employers that workers are to be respected and that labor laws are to be obeyed," the resolution stated.
Scores of CWA members headed to the convention floor's microphones to support the resolution to make the United States more secure. It calls for repairing the diplomatic damage the Bush administration has done to America's reputation throughout the world, and for adequate funding to tighten port, railroad and air security at home and properly train and equip first responders, including police, firefighters and flight attendants.
Delegates spoke to the minimal, if any, training provided now, despite the administration's claims. Bill Hemby of Local 9111 said 95 percent of California's 60,000 law enforcement officers "have not received any modern anti-terrorist training, nor have they received any protective gear… That is the real tragedy this administration is foisting on the American people."
Delegate Bill Henning, second vice president of Local 1180, offered an amendment to the resolution, accepted by delegates, that said CWA "demands that the president abandon this failed policy in Iraq, which has made our nation less, not more, secure, and support our troops and their families by bringing our troops home safely now, by providing adequate veterans' benefits and promoting domestic policies that prioritize the needs of working people who make up the bulk of the military."
The other resolutions called for:
- Taking part in Health Care Action Week Oct. 3-9 to call attention to the soaring numbers of people without health insurance, a figure that jumped by 2.4 million last year to a total of nearly 44 million.
- Fighting for economic fairness by demanding that Congress address outsourcing, pass a consumer-right-to-know bill forcing companies to reveal when they've taken American call center jobs overseas; enact trade policies that stem the tide of job loss and uphold worker and human rights; and change tax policies that hurt working families by forcing cuts in vital public services, including jobs represented by CWA.
- Ensuring economic equality for all workers by supporting their right to civil marriage, recognizing that civil unions and domestic partner protections do not provide gay couples with the same financial protections and benefits as legally married spouses.
- Supporting and promoting the services of union-friendly Cingular Wireless while helping workers struggling to organize at Verizon Wireless, known as the "Wal-Mart of wireless" for its relentless anti-union tactics.
- Supporting the CWA/NETT Academy and making sure members know about its online training courses, provided at the lowest possible cost.
- Supporting the "Unthinkable! Undrinkable!" campaign directed at Coca-Cola for its Colombian bottlers' campaign of torture and murder of the country's trade union leaders. The resolution, brought from the floor by Local 1183 President Richard Wagner, said unless Coca-Cola and investor SunTrust Bank settle a lawsuit by Oct. 15 to protect the rights and safety of union members, CWA will support the Columbian union's divestment and boycott campaign against SunTrust.