AT&T Mobility Conference Focuses on Movement Building, Organizing

CWA President Larry Cohen speaks at the AT&T Mobility Leadership conference in District 6.

Movement building, upcoming AT&T Mobility bargaining talks in District 6, and extending CWA representation to unorganized wireless workers were key issues for 150 CWAers attending the union's AT&T Mobility Leadership conference in Detroit this month.

In opening remarks, Assistant to Vice President/Telecommunications Director Bill Bates linked labor's struggles in the past to the current assault on workers and said CWA and other unions need to build alliances with like-minded groups to continue the fight for economic and social justice.

CWA President Larry Cohen and United Auto Workers President Bob King, keynote speakers at the three-day conference, discussed the many challenges workers face in the current political environment. They urged union members to engage in movement building to restore the nation's broken democracy, and in organizing to negotiate stronger contracts.

Cohen said organizing workers at Verizon Wireless and other non-union wireless companies is vital to protecting good-paying union jobs at AT&T Mobility. Currently, CWA is working with a group of Verizon Wireless retail workers in Illinois who organized to build support for a union, District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said.

In addition to movement building and bargaining, workshops focused on reaching out to young workers about unions and on grievance handling and preparing for arbitration hearings. Participants held separate unit meetings to talk about issues facing AT&T Mobility technicians and call center and retail workers.

CWA bargaining at AT&T Mobility in District 6 begins at the end of January 2012, with the current contract expiring Feb. 24. District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings said that mobilization will be extremely important in the fight for a new, fair contract.