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CWA, Puerto Rican Union Form Alliance
Concurrent with the purchase of the Puerto Rico Telephone Company by GTE, the 4,800-member Independent Union of Telephone Workers (UIET) has signed an Alliance agreement with CWA that will establish a partnership in community-based coalition building, organizing and collective bargaining.
The two unions have long enjoyed a supportive relationship. Telephone workers in Puerto Rico found CWA a valuable friend this past summer when their industrial strike ballooned into a general strike, shutting down commerce on the island and subjecting workers to violent repression. CWA President Morton Bahr personally intervened to help pave the way for good labor relations between UIET and GTE.
"The warmth with which I was greeted and the enthusiasm for CWA friendship expressed by all eight members of the UIET Executive Board would have made you all proud," Bahr told colleagues, after traveling to Puerto Rico to sign the agreement with UIET President Jose Juan Hernandez.
Bahr credited CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen and District 2 Organizing Coordinator Eduardo Diaz for working to strengthen relations between the two unions prior to the national telephone company's acquisition by GTE. He also noted that TNG-CWA news crews videotaping the action stood shoulder to shoulder with UIET members during the strike and refused to turn over their footage to police.
CWA, UIET and a third union, the 2,000-member Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers, have been parties to a mutual assistance pact since 1991. The agreement signed Dec. 22, 1998 by CWA and UIET provides for:
Joint organizing as "an immediate task," including cable, cellular and long distance;
Community-based coalition building, recognizing GTE's concentration in markets heavily populated by Latin Americans, such as Southern California, Texas, Florida, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
CWA/UIET coordination of bargaining efforts at GTE and Bell Atlantic "and whatever new firm they operate through a merger."
Collaboration to "expand and develop coordinated collective bargaining and organizing through other alliances and international bodies."
The two unions have long enjoyed a supportive relationship. Telephone workers in Puerto Rico found CWA a valuable friend this past summer when their industrial strike ballooned into a general strike, shutting down commerce on the island and subjecting workers to violent repression. CWA President Morton Bahr personally intervened to help pave the way for good labor relations between UIET and GTE.
"The warmth with which I was greeted and the enthusiasm for CWA friendship expressed by all eight members of the UIET Executive Board would have made you all proud," Bahr told colleagues, after traveling to Puerto Rico to sign the agreement with UIET President Jose Juan Hernandez.
Bahr credited CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen and District 2 Organizing Coordinator Eduardo Diaz for working to strengthen relations between the two unions prior to the national telephone company's acquisition by GTE. He also noted that TNG-CWA news crews videotaping the action stood shoulder to shoulder with UIET members during the strike and refused to turn over their footage to police.
CWA, UIET and a third union, the 2,000-member Independent Brotherhood of Telephone Workers, have been parties to a mutual assistance pact since 1991. The agreement signed Dec. 22, 1998 by CWA and UIET provides for: