Local Leaders Attend "Fighting for the Future" Training

In 2006 the CWA Convention approved the use of part of the Members Relief Fund for Strategic Industry Funds (SIF) to finance “large-scale campaigns to increase our bargaining power.” In light of challenges facing us at the “new” Frontier, we have recently received approval for a two-year SIF project to work to unite legacy Frontier and “Spinco” (ex-Verizon) units and to develop strategies to improve our bargaining position for our upcoming contracts. One part of that project is to train stewards, activists and other members who want to be involved in building this fight.

On March 4, just prior to the Telecommunications and Technologies Leadership Conference, more than 20 representatives from CWA Frontier locals gathered in Jacksonville, Florida. Some were from legacy Frontier and some originally from Verizon. They came from states as diverse as New York, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota. Our purpose was to try out the newly developed “Fighting for our Future at Frontier” SIF training which will be rolled out to all of the locals in the coming months.

A major focus of the training was get this group of leaders talking together about changes that have taken place and how they think it will affect them in bargaining. Participants not only looked closely at Frontier itself — its particular financial situation and business strategy — but also how the general economic climate, the state of Union power and other regulatory and political realities affect our ability to win fair contracts.

We also looked at information that was provided on differences between our contracts and the importance of working together to make sure we fight to bring all of them up to the same level.

As a group we talked about the tactics Frontier has used in the past during bargaining talks to try to weaken our union power and solidarity. Attention then turned to past Union mobilization campaigns, what worked and how we will build our ability to fight going forward. At the end of the training, every participant was asked to write down what they will do to help organize their locals and co-workers in the coming months.

The training was an overall success that left members with new tools and, hopefully, a renewed sense of confidence heading into the upcoming bargaining sessions. Also, by testing the training on this group of local leaders first, we can incorporate their suggestions into the next version.

“We plan to roll out the revised, improved training to members in Frontier locals across the country in the near future,” said CWA Representative Laura Unger. “Our purpose goes beyond training. It is to build a large group of activists who will have all the knowledge and tools they need to be leaders in the tough fights ahead.”

Source: Frontier Frontline Newsletter, April 2011