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CWA Operators Look to the Future
Nearly 200 operators from across the nation convened in Washington, D.C. for CWA's 17th Annual National Operators Conference, Oct. 17-21, focusing on the theme: "Operator Services, Determining Our Future in the New World of Telecommunications."
CWA President Morton Bahr praised operators past and present for their hard work in helping build CWA and urged them to turn out in force to vote on Nov. 3, and to take that message back to their home locals.
"This election is absolutely critical because voter turnout is expected to be very low," Bahr stressed. "The labor vote can have a determining effect on the outcome of many races."
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who began her career as an operator at Ohio Bell, underscored the tremendous contribution operators have made to CWA. "No group has been more instrumental in building and growing the union, in developing and maintaining our six decades of solidarity, in making CWA the force that it is today," Easterling said.
She also cited the courage of operators who throughout those years have faced the same management-induced stress as today, "whether it's over supervision, or insensitivity to child care and family pressures, or excessive monitoring, or call completion requirements."
Following the Work
Despite continuing and widespread news of operator service center closings, CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen stressed, "This is not a job that is becoming extinct. There are, for example, 5,000 directory assistance operators in wireless. When people make a phone call from their car, they don't have a phone book. They call information. We've got to explore ways to leverage our existing relationships with these companies so we gain access to this work."
Dina Beaumont, executive assistant to President Bahr and a former operator for Pacific Bell, predicted that as the technological competition between companies levels off, "Those businesses that are going to thrive will be those that give quality service to their customers."
She predicted that in the not-too-distant future, companies will be differentiated by those that provide a friendly voice on the phone and those that do not. She challenged operators to look for new ways they can be helpful to customers, such as providing directions to locations or advising of services in the community, then to leverage that at bargaining time by forcing companies to recognize the value of union, quality work.
Beaumont stressed that operators' service skills are valuable in any job and urged conferees to think about "'operator' being at the entry level and being able to move up the ladder" within their companies.
After participating in several workshops, the operators unanimously passed resolutions to:
Improve enforcement of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Keep pressure on employers to keep operator jobs in the communities they serve.
Seek out all unorganized operators and inform them of the benefits of unionization.
Fight deceptive monitoring and harassment through "test calls."
Mobilize and regularly display signs of solidarity, such as all wearing red or some other color of choice to show management that operators are united in solidarity 365 days a year.
Conferees also heard from Vice President Jim Irvine, of CWA's communications and technologies bargaining unit and attorney Patricia Shea, of CWA's legal department, as well as AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council President Joslyn Williams and Mayor Marion Barry of Washington, D.C.
CWA Vice President Pete Catucci, of host District 2, praised the hard work of host Local 2300's President Willie Leggett and executive board for putting on a "very, very fine conference."
CWA President Morton Bahr praised operators past and present for their hard work in helping build CWA and urged them to turn out in force to vote on Nov. 3, and to take that message back to their home locals.
"This election is absolutely critical because voter turnout is expected to be very low," Bahr stressed. "The labor vote can have a determining effect on the outcome of many races."
CWA Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling, who began her career as an operator at Ohio Bell, underscored the tremendous contribution operators have made to CWA. "No group has been more instrumental in building and growing the union, in developing and maintaining our six decades of solidarity, in making CWA the force that it is today," Easterling said.
She also cited the courage of operators who throughout those years have faced the same management-induced stress as today, "whether it's over supervision, or insensitivity to child care and family pressures, or excessive monitoring, or call completion requirements."
Following the Work
Despite continuing and widespread news of operator service center closings, CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen stressed, "This is not a job that is becoming extinct. There are, for example, 5,000 directory assistance operators in wireless. When people make a phone call from their car, they don't have a phone book. They call information. We've got to explore ways to leverage our existing relationships with these companies so we gain access to this work."
Dina Beaumont, executive assistant to President Bahr and a former operator for Pacific Bell, predicted that as the technological competition between companies levels off, "Those businesses that are going to thrive will be those that give quality service to their customers."
She predicted that in the not-too-distant future, companies will be differentiated by those that provide a friendly voice on the phone and those that do not. She challenged operators to look for new ways they can be helpful to customers, such as providing directions to locations or advising of services in the community, then to leverage that at bargaining time by forcing companies to recognize the value of union, quality work.
Beaumont stressed that operators' service skills are valuable in any job and urged conferees to think about "'operator' being at the entry level and being able to move up the ladder" within their companies.
After participating in several workshops, the operators unanimously passed resolutions to:
Conferees also heard from Vice President Jim Irvine, of CWA's communications and technologies bargaining unit and attorney Patricia Shea, of CWA's legal department, as well as AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council President Joslyn Williams and Mayor Marion Barry of Washington, D.C.
CWA Vice President Pete Catucci, of host District 2, praised the hard work of host Local 2300's President Willie Leggett and executive board for putting on a "very, very fine conference."