In The News

13-Week Strike Ends with New Contract at VIS
Verizon Information Services workers in New York have ratified a new contract that provides good raises, maintains affordable health care and retirement security and improves grievance and arbitration procedures.

Members of CWA Locals 1105, 1118 and 1122 approved the agreement by a greater than 2 to 1 margin, ending a 13-week strike. CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton said the members "should be proud for standing up for themselves and their brothers and sisters in a way that management never expected we would." Among the highlights:

• For non-sales workers, the agreement provides for a 9.5 percent wage increase over the contract term, plus performance bonus payouts. Employees earning above the top rate will receive lump sum payments.
• For sales employees, the contract establishes a greatly improved pay plan with new earnings assurances and other changes.
• The current level of benefits will be continued under the company medical and dental plans, with increases in employee contributions capped.

More details are available at ga.cwa-union.org/verizon.

Raises for Workers, Indictments for Bosses
The last contract at the Gary Newspaper Guild came after five bitter years at the bargaining table and was a major disappointment, resulting in a merit-based system of pay raises and other losses.

This time, in what Guild leaders hail as an historical bargaining comeback, the union fought back and won.

The 58 Guild members in the newsroom at the Post Tribune, which covers northwest Indiana, wore shirts and buttons of solidarity and held informational pickets. But perhaps their most effective strategy was contacting the new president of their newspaper chain, the Hollinger Sun-Times Group. "We bombarded John Cruickshank with e-mails for months," TNG-CWA Local 34014 President Lori Caldwell said.

Cruickshank replaced a strident anti-union executive, David Radler, who, with former Hollinger International CEO Conrad Black, has been the target of a vast federal fraud investigation. Radler has pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and is cooperating in the case against Black.

With Radler gone, TNG-CWA Representative Bruce Nelson said there was a new attitude at the bargaining table. "They didn't give the store away, but in terms of indicating that they want to treat workers with respect, they seemed to do that," he said.

The tentative four-year contract, which members will vote on Feb. 26, is retroactive to April 2005. It ends the merit pay system and instead will give workers 2 percent raises each year, among other gains.

600 Utah Government Workers Join CWA
Already lobbying for wages and benefits and with hope for a collective bargaining law to cover its largest unit, the 600-member Utah Association of Government Employees voted Feb. 9 to affiliate with CWA.

CWA Local 7704 President Kent Anderson approached UAGE Executive Director Kevin Scofield last September after learning of the group's interest . CWA's District 7, the Public, Health Care and Education Workers sector and the National Coalition of Public Safety Officers worked together to make the affiliation possible.

With a collective bargaining bill in the works for introduction in the Salt Lake County Council, the group had already explored merger with either the Teachers or the Service Employees. Instead, UAGE will become CWA Local 7776.

"We're very excited about this affiliation and its possibilities," Scofield said. "We've been very impressed with everyone we've met in CWA."

Anderson called UAGE "a very well run organization. I'm very confident they're going to double or triple their organization within a couple of years."