CWA Pushes Economic Recovery Plan for American Families

CWA is proposing a bold plan for the country's economic recovery that is built on creating 21st century jobs, restoring bargaining rights for U.S. workers through the Employee Free Choice Act and reforming a broken health care system.

"This Economic Recovery Plan for American Workers is exactly what working and middle income families need in this time of economic crisis, and we'll be working with members of Congress to make sure workers are included in plans for economic recovery," said CWA President Larry Cohen following adoption of the plan by the Executive Board.  (See full text of the plan at CWA's homepage, ga.cwa-union.org.)

CWA is joining with other unions, civil rights, community and faith-based groups, student and senior organizations, and others to build support for a recovery plan that addresses the current and longterm needs of American families, Cohen said.

"We've seen an enormous handout for Wall Street, now we need real attention to Main Street. That means the creation of quality jobs by developing alternate energy sources, necessary repairs to our highways, bridges, schools and communities and especially important, investment in the global economic engine for the 21st century, the buildout of high speed Internet networks," he said.

The only way for workers to restore their bargaining power and for our country to rebuild the middle class is through the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen said. "We're through listening only to the organized voices of bankers, brokers and billionaires. Real bargaining rights are the best economic stimulus for restoring our middle class and our standard of living," he said. 

Real health care reform is the third critical element of the plan. The U.S. must move from a system that is in effect a "tax" on quality jobs, in which employers who provide quality benefits are at a competitive disadvantage to those who do not, and in which workers who leave or lose their jobs find themselves in the growing ranks of the uninsured, Cohen said. The U.S. is virtually alone among the world's global democracies in failing to establish a health care system that works. Now is the time to move forward so that American families can have the world class health care they deserve.