Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
CWA Helps Quash Georgia 'Paycheck Deception' Act
CWA contributed to the defeat of a bill in Georgia that would have barred unions representing public employees from directly contributing to any political party's or candidate's election campaign or spending to promote or defeat legislation important to working families.
"We've been actively working with District 3 Vice President Noah Savant, our Georgia CWA locals and the AFL-CIO field mobilization department," said David Martin, AFA-CWA Senior Government Affairs Representative, who with Larry Smoot of the CWA Legislative Department, works on state issues.
Said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who heads the union's legislative efforts, "What we can all take from this is that when we all work hard and coordinate our efforts, we can achieve great things. But we can't sit idly with this victory. As we speak, Arizona is attempting the same thing. The assault on workers' rights will not end until we have labor-friendly legislators at both the state and federal levels."
Titled the "Voluntary Contributions Act," Georgia House Bill 153 is the kind of legislation that has earned within the labor movement the nickname of "paycheck deception act." The entire AFL-CIO united to defeat the first such bill, California Proposition 226, in 1998. Right-wingers promoted a rash of similar state bills that year and have been seeking opportunities ever since.
The Georgia bill would have required unions to set up special funds for political purposes, to solicit contributions to those funds separately from union dues and would have imposed prohibitively onerous record-keeping responsibilities on unions.
Working with CWA headquarters, David Pilgrem, executive vice president of Local 3212 and chair of the CWA Georgia Political Council, coordinated locals' efforts to promote participation in a massive e-activist campaign.
The bill was defeated March 11 by a vote of 102-67. "This is the first bill that has been defeated on the floor in the Georgia Assembly," Easterling said.
"We've been actively working with District 3 Vice President Noah Savant, our Georgia CWA locals and the AFL-CIO field mobilization department," said David Martin, AFA-CWA Senior Government Affairs Representative, who with Larry Smoot of the CWA Legislative Department, works on state issues.
Said CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who heads the union's legislative efforts, "What we can all take from this is that when we all work hard and coordinate our efforts, we can achieve great things. But we can't sit idly with this victory. As we speak, Arizona is attempting the same thing. The assault on workers' rights will not end until we have labor-friendly legislators at both the state and federal levels."
Titled the "Voluntary Contributions Act," Georgia House Bill 153 is the kind of legislation that has earned within the labor movement the nickname of "paycheck deception act." The entire AFL-CIO united to defeat the first such bill, California Proposition 226, in 1998. Right-wingers promoted a rash of similar state bills that year and have been seeking opportunities ever since.
The Georgia bill would have required unions to set up special funds for political purposes, to solicit contributions to those funds separately from union dues and would have imposed prohibitively onerous record-keeping responsibilities on unions.
Working with CWA headquarters, David Pilgrem, executive vice president of Local 3212 and chair of the CWA Georgia Political Council, coordinated locals' efforts to promote participation in a massive e-activist campaign.
The bill was defeated March 11 by a vote of 102-67. "This is the first bill that has been defeated on the floor in the Georgia Assembly," Easterling said.