Locals Battling Idearc Get Jump on Employee Free Choice Campaign

A Massachusetts local in the midst of a battle with its yellow-page employer has already submitted Employee Free Choice support postcards from 30 percent of its members and its leader is determined to get 100 percent of them to sign.

As part of the labor movement's "Million Member Mobilization" for Free Choice legislation to restore workers'collective bargaining rights, CWA has launched a campaign to gather cards from 15 percent of its members – about 90,000 people. But all it took to get Local 1301 President George Alcott on board was the initial announcement from CWA President Larry Cohen.

"We got the e-mail saying CWA was going to be undertaking this, so I clicked on, got the form and printed it out," Alcott said. "It happened that we were about to have a membership meeting and everyone there signed the cards."

A couple of hundred people turned out for the meeting, mostly members of Alcott's local, but also members of Local 1302 and CWA retirees. The locals, both in the Boston area, represent members at Idearc, the directory advertising company that was spun off from Verizon in 2006.

About 700 CWA and IBEW members at Idearc in New England and New York have been working without a contract since last June when the company declared a bargaining impasse – illegally, CWA has charged -- and rolled back benefits, job security and sales commission plans.

Both unions have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.  Local leaders and members are also planning to be on hand to speak and leaflet at Idearc's annual shareholder meeting on May 1 in Dallas.

A campaign website, ga.cwa-union.org/idearc, details the company's many bad management decisions that have caused Idearc's stock to plummet by 87 percent in less than a year.

Alcott said his local's struggle shows just how important the Employee Free Choice Act is, and that's why he's committed to getting every one of his members to sign a postcard.

"Look what this company is doing to us, and we have a union," Alcott said. "It's a disgrace what they can get away with. Think what would happen if we didn't have a union at all.  Unions give us strength in numbers and we need to increase that strength."

The AFL-CIO has set a target of gathering 1 million of the postcards along with photographs of the people who sign them for a display in the U.S. Capitol after the November election. The postcards urge Congress and the new president to make the Employee Free Choice Act law, helping level the playing field for workers who have little leverage today against union-busting employers who thwart organizing drives and stall contract talks.

CWA locals representing 40 percent of the union's membership have already signed up to pledge that they will collect signatures from at least 15 percent of their members.  To add your local to the list, click on ga.cwa-union.org/efca/pledgeyourlocal/ and sign up.