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CWA Helps Launch Union at University of Virginia
About 50 staffers at the University of Virginia have formed a union and affiliated with CWA. Their potential for organizing is enormous, with 8,000 eligible administrative and technical university employees.
More than 100 members and supporters of SUUVA — the Staff Union at the University of Virginia — crammed into a small room on the Charlottesville campus on Feb. 6 to celebrate a tradition of activism, witness the signing of the affiliation agreement and be welcomed by two CWA vice presidents.
“We are going to work shoulder to shoulder with you in your struggle for decent wages, fair treatment, job security and a voice in what really counts in determining the employment conditions under which you work,” said Brooks Sunkett, CWA vice president for Public, Health Care and Education Workers.
While there is no collective bargaining law in Virgnia, a right-to-work-for-less state, Sunkett pointed out that CWA has helped public and university workers win better pay and better treatment on the job under similar conditions in Indiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Oregon and Oklahoma.
“We have made great advances in every one of these states. Working together, we are going to do it in Virginia, too, right here at UVA,” Sunkett said.
CWA District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci pointed to the favorable relationship CWA has with Virginia’s new governor and told SUUVA-CWA members they will be able to take advantage of the political strength CWA has built in the state.
“We played a leading role in getting Gov. Warner elected. He is a friend,” said Catucci, quoted in Charlottesville’s The Daily Progress. The event also drew Associated Press and local TV news coverage.
SUUVA-CWA President Jan Cornell said the new union emerged from the Labor Action Group, a broader coalition of UVA staff, students, faculty and members of the Charlottesville community.
Formed in the summer of 1997, LAG that year held a “Teach-In with the Labor Movement" at UVA, featuring such speakers as civil rights leader Julian Bond, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and consumer activist Ralph Nader.
LAG is best known for its successful living-wage campaign, begun in the spring of 1998. Through a letter-writing campaign, petition drive, march on campus and other activities, LAG succeeded in raising hourly wages for university employees from $6.13 to more than $8.
“LAG covers a lot of issues that aren’t relevant to the staff,” Cornell told The Daily Progress. “We felt it was necessary to break away from LAG to pursue the staff issues.”
SUUVA wants to address inadequate funding for the state’s merit pay plan for classified employees, higher health plan premiums while wages for many university workers are frozen, and perceived racial discrimination in promotions.
LAG activists came to CWA through an existing connection to attorney Jody Calemine, a former UVA undergrad who graduated UVA Law School in 1999 and is a LAG member.
“I stayed in touch with the people at LAG and provided them with assistance whenever I could, including speaking at meetings about employees’ legal rights,” said Calemine, now an attorney at CWA headquarters. “When the staff in LAG started talking union, CWA seemed like the perfect fit, and I put the UVA folks and our organizers in touch with each other.”
In December, District 2 Organizing Coordinator Ron Collins, CWA Representative Richard Verlander and Public Sector representatives made a presentation to an enthusiastic SUUVA membership.
“We’re going to be on campus, helping them build this organization,” Verlander said. “We’ve got 50 members now, with a goal of 500 by the end of this year.”
More than 100 members and supporters of SUUVA — the Staff Union at the University of Virginia — crammed into a small room on the Charlottesville campus on Feb. 6 to celebrate a tradition of activism, witness the signing of the affiliation agreement and be welcomed by two CWA vice presidents.
“We are going to work shoulder to shoulder with you in your struggle for decent wages, fair treatment, job security and a voice in what really counts in determining the employment conditions under which you work,” said Brooks Sunkett, CWA vice president for Public, Health Care and Education Workers.
While there is no collective bargaining law in Virgnia, a right-to-work-for-less state, Sunkett pointed out that CWA has helped public and university workers win better pay and better treatment on the job under similar conditions in Indiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, Texas, Oregon and Oklahoma.
“We have made great advances in every one of these states. Working together, we are going to do it in Virginia, too, right here at UVA,” Sunkett said.
CWA District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci pointed to the favorable relationship CWA has with Virginia’s new governor and told SUUVA-CWA members they will be able to take advantage of the political strength CWA has built in the state.
“We played a leading role in getting Gov. Warner elected. He is a friend,” said Catucci, quoted in Charlottesville’s The Daily Progress. The event also drew Associated Press and local TV news coverage.
SUUVA-CWA President Jan Cornell said the new union emerged from the Labor Action Group, a broader coalition of UVA staff, students, faculty and members of the Charlottesville community.
Formed in the summer of 1997, LAG that year held a “Teach-In with the Labor Movement" at UVA, featuring such speakers as civil rights leader Julian Bond, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and consumer activist Ralph Nader.
LAG is best known for its successful living-wage campaign, begun in the spring of 1998. Through a letter-writing campaign, petition drive, march on campus and other activities, LAG succeeded in raising hourly wages for university employees from $6.13 to more than $8.
“LAG covers a lot of issues that aren’t relevant to the staff,” Cornell told The Daily Progress. “We felt it was necessary to break away from LAG to pursue the staff issues.”
SUUVA wants to address inadequate funding for the state’s merit pay plan for classified employees, higher health plan premiums while wages for many university workers are frozen, and perceived racial discrimination in promotions.
LAG activists came to CWA through an existing connection to attorney Jody Calemine, a former UVA undergrad who graduated UVA Law School in 1999 and is a LAG member.
“I stayed in touch with the people at LAG and provided them with assistance whenever I could, including speaking at meetings about employees’ legal rights,” said Calemine, now an attorney at CWA headquarters. “When the staff in LAG started talking union, CWA seemed like the perfect fit, and I put the UVA folks and our organizers in touch with each other.”
In December, District 2 Organizing Coordinator Ron Collins, CWA Representative Richard Verlander and Public Sector representatives made a presentation to an enthusiastic SUUVA membership.
“We’re going to be on campus, helping them build this organization,” Verlander said. “We’ve got 50 members now, with a goal of 500 by the end of this year.”