A Labor Day Message from CWA President Chris Shelton

On this Labor Day, CWA members aren't taking it easy. Across our union, we've been mobilizing for fair contracts, organizing new members, fighting back against a bad trade deal, and taking on voter suppression and the obscene amount of money in our political system.

As we bargain this year for 200,000 CWAers, whether at AT&T and Verizon, United and American Airlines, Delphi, public workers in New Jersey, NBC, GE, hospital workers and at many more companies, one thing is clear. CWA members are standing up for each other's fights.

We say "it's our turn," and that means all of us.

CEOs today earn 300, 400 or even 1,000 times as much as frontline workers, who haven't had a real wage increase for more than three decades. These CEOs take the credit and the reward for our productivity and our work. And the 1 percent is doing better than well. From 2009 to 2012, as the economy slowly came out of the Great Recession, the 1 percent captured 95 percent of all income gains.

That's why we're not resting. CWA families deserve a raise. We deserve secure, sustainable jobs and real improvements in our standard of living. And we're going to get it.

We know that one of the biggest advantages any working person has is union membership.

Workers covered by union contracts earn higher wages – 13.6 percent higher – than their non-union counterparts. For African Americans, the union edge is 17.3 percent higher, and for Latinos, 23.1 percent higher. Union members have a voice on the job, and someone to stand with them when management makes unreasonable demands.

However, fewer working people than ever have the chance to join a union. Either they're harassed by companies who use fear, intimidation or harassment to stop them, or they're classified as "contract employees" by corporations who want to farm out their responsibility for fair compensation to subcontractors.

Today, just 6 out of every 100 private sector workers and 35 out of every 100 public workers have bargaining rights. If more workers were organized, workers could bargain better contracts and not be intimidated by employer threats to move jobs offshore or to cut wages to "remain competitive."

More collective bargaining, for more workers, is the way we will make certain that working people get our fair share in today's economy.

Our members and locals are getting the job done, and I couldn't be prouder of our union. I know we're up to this challenge.

On Labor Day, we should be celebrating and thanking those who do the work, not attacking their unions and holding them in contempt. This country was built by and sustained every day by working people and without them, our country could not survive. So on behalf of each and every member, hundreds of thousands of the Communications Workers of America, let me say "Thank You for what you do every day, but especially on your day, Labor Day."