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Dec. 10 Human Rights Day Actions Growing

AFL-CIO unions and central labor councils are jumping ahead with plans for actions and events for Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, with CWA locals taking the lead in several locations in the campaign to fight for workers' rights.

The AFL-CIO reports that more than 50 events are planned so far, in big communities and small, to remind the public "workers rights are human rights" and to encourage additional members of Congress to support the Employee Free Choice Act.

To date, there are 205 cosponsors of the measure in the House and now 41 in the Senate, with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) signing on most recently.

Jeff Crosby, president of IUE-CWA Local 81201 and the North Shore, Mass., AFL-CIO, is coordinating outreach among CWA officers who also head AFL-CIO central labor councils. CWA leaders are encouraged to plan actions that demonstrate that the right to bargain collectively and freely organize represent a public good and a real benefit to the community.

Among the activities planned for the week of Dec. 5-10 are rallies, prayer breakfasts with local leaders, teach-ins on college campuses, testimony before community workers' rights boards, meetings with members of Congress and state and local legislators, and actions that highlight major campaigns, including CWA's fights at Verizon Wireless and Comcast.

Activists from American Rights at Work, Jobs with Justice, the Interfaith Coalition and many other allies are planning and joining events nationwide.

The AFL-CIO has new materials online to help locals and central labor councils plan their events. The Dec. 10 Toolkit is full of sample fliers, media materials, event planning tips and other resources. The toolkit, plus many other resources are available at aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/d10.cfm.

Local unions and labor councils also can obtain a radio public service announcement recorded by Julian Bond, chairman of the board of the NAACP. The message asks everyone to please join the NAACP and the union movement in the campaign for workers' rights. "Every 23 minutes American workers are punished by corporate employers and the federal government for exercising their workplace rights.... Let's stand together to protect our human rights," Bond says.