CWA e-Newsletter: July 2, 2015

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Send tips to blog@cwa-union.org or @CWANews. Follow the latest developments at www.resistancegrowing.org.

• Bargaining Update
• AFL-CIO Ends Ban on Campaign Donations
• Supreme Court Rules Ban on Same-sex Marriage Unconstitutional
• The Fight to Restore Voting Rights
• Obama Administration Proposes New Rules on Overtime Pay
• Supreme Court Takes Up Case Attacking Bargaining Rights
• Organizing Update

Bargaining Update

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Newspaper Guild Members Rally, Win Agreement in Philadelphia

Members of The Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, CWA Local 38010, rallied for a fair contract outside the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News last week. Their solidarity paid off with a tentative two-year agreement that has rejected management demands for health care cost shifting and furloughs, and restores "added responsibility" pay for weekend work, provides for increased severance pay and the first-ever wage scale for Philly.com employees.

The workers will vote next week, July 7-8, on the new contract.

Journalists and staff at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com pushed back hard against demands that could have quadrupled their health care costs and stripped their seniority rights. More than 300 members and allies came out for an informational picket last Thursday ahead of the expiration of their contract.

Joining TNG-CWA members at the rally, Bernie Lunzer, President of the NewsGuild, said, "They promised health care, and you deserve your health care paid for. We're going to fight for that, and we're going to fight the hold back on the seniority, which is a crazy request. It just is extreme."

CWA District 2-13 Vice President Ed Mooney told workers: "There'll be no more givebacks, there'll be a contract that respects worker's rights and respects seniority."

Labor union allies joined Guild members at the picket, which drew up to 400 people. "You are not alone, we will fight and we will fight with you," said Jerry Jordan of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

With just a day until contract expiration, TNG-CWA negotiators, working with a federal mediator, reached a tentative agreement.

Read more here.
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National Red Cross Bargaining

For the first time, unions representing Red Cross workers are bargaining nationally for new contracts covering 5,000 health care workers in 24 states. The American Red Cross Union Coalition includes CWA, American Federation of Teachers, AFSCME, Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU, Steelworkers, Teamsters and the UAW.

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Stand Up to Verizon

Verizon members in D1 and D2-13 are mobilizing as contract negotiations continue. Keep up with the latest here.

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AT&T Southeast Bargaining

As negotiations continued, CWA's bargaining team called on CWA AT&T members in D3 to "show our solidarity in order to remind the company that it's our turn."

AFL-CIO Ends Ban on Campaign Donations

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The AFL-CIO Executive Council voted to discontinue the ban on PAC donations to members of Congress. The Council voted unanimously to continue the ban on all PAC donations to those who voted against us on Fast Track authority.

CWA will follow suit.

Below is a list of Senators who voted wrong:

And the list of House members:

Supreme Court Rules Ban on Same-sex Marriage Unconstitutional

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Read CWA's Statement on the Ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. Hodges.

"Last week the Supreme Court issued a historic ruling in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, permitting same-sex marriage in all 50 states.

LGBTQ activists and their allies fought for years to gain the right for LGTBQ couples to marry. These couples and families were not asking for special rights, or different rights. They were simply asking for the same rights afforded to all other couples.

Today, the Supreme Court enshrined that right. Same-sex couples are now treated equally under the law and CWA is proud to stand behind our brothers and sisters who worked so hard to achieve equality.

As a union, CWA is proud to join this fight for equal rights in the workplace and in society. Today, we can finally celebrate, knowing that we are one step closer to achieving equality and opportunity for all."

The Fight to Restore Voting Rights

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Last week's rally in Roanoke, Va., marked the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act. Hundreds of activists from these Democracy Initiative partners turned out:

AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Alliance for Justice, Amalgamated Transit Union, America Votes, American Postal Workers Union, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Campaignfor America's Future, Common Cause, CWA, Demos, Every Voice, Greenpeace, Jobs With Justice, Lawyers' Committee, League of Conservation Voters, National Action Network, NAACP, National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, National LGBTQ Task Force, National People's Action, People for the American Way, Project Vote, Public Citizen, ReThink Media, SEIU, Sierra Club, and United States Student Association.

Watch some of the media coverage here.

Obama Administration Proposes New Rules on Overtime Pay

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The Obama administration's proposed rules to update the requirements for determining workers' overtime pay are an important first step toward improving the lives of millions of working families. When finalized, the new rules will mean a pay increase for at least 5 million workers who now work more than 40 hours a week but are denied overtime pay.

Currently under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-hourly workers who earn less than $23,660 a year are paid a time and a half if they work more than 40 hours per week. This limit is way out of date; in 1975, 62 percent of the workforce qualified for overtime but today it's fewer than 12 percent. The new threshold would be $50,440 a year or about $970 a week.

In addition, too many workers are subject to employers' efforts to intentionally misclassify them as "professionals" to deprive them of the overtime pay they have earned, or use other means to force workers to put in extra hours without compensation.

CWA will continue to advocate for full and effective bargaining rights for workers as the most effective way for working families to improve incomes and their standard of living.

Supreme Court Takes Up Case Attacking Bargaining Rights

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Read CWA's statement on the Supreme Court Agreeing to Hear Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association.

"Today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association shows how extreme the assault on workers' bargaining rights has become. The Friedrichs case is an attack on public sector workers, financed by anti-worker and corporate education supporters. These groups have been working for years to stifle the voices of teachers and other public servants in the workplace and strip them of their rights.

Labor law requires that a union must represent all workers in the bargaining unit. That's why the "fair share" system makes sense. Workers who choose not to join the union that the majority has approved still benefit from union representation. Under fair share, these workers who choose not to join may be required to pay their fair share of the costs of the representation from which they benefit. Friedrichs seeks to encourage free-riding by outlawing the fair share system for the public sector workforce, thereby making union representation more difficult to sustain.

The public sector workforce is predominantly female and benefits from the ability to bargain collectively. The wealthy special interests behind this lawsuit want to make it harder for public workers to sustain union representation.

We hope that the Supreme Court sees through this attack on workers' rights and deals with the issues in the Friedrichs case fairly and promptly."

Organizing Update

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AT&T Mobility South Carolina Workers Join CWA

The 71 AT&T Mobility (formerly Alltel) retail store employees in South Carolina now have CWA representation, with a majority indicating that they want a CWA voice in the workplace and bargaining rights. CWA Local 3716 President Jason LaPorte and Local 3719 President Phillip Williams played a big role in the organizing effort.

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