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Locals Urged to Pass Rights Resolution
As part of CWA's and the labor movement's continuing drive to bring collective bargaining and organizing rights to all workers, Executive Vice President Larry Cohen has urged locals to pass and act upon their own bargaining rights resolutions similar to those passed earlier this year by CWA and the AFL-CIO. All locals that do so will be recognized in the September CWA News.
Fewer than 9 percent of private sector workers and less than 35 percent of public workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements in the United States. "The collapse of collective bargaining rights in this country is almost a secret," Cohen stressed. "We need every member to have a clear idea of what we face when we go to the bargaining table so that we can begin to return our labor laws to their original purpose - that of promoting collective bargaining."
In April, Local 4310 in Columbus, Ohio, became the first of several CWA locals to compose a bargaining and organizing rights resolution tailored to local needs. The local resolved to:
Implement a member education program on bargaining rights;
Make the connection in the workplace that "our ability to bargain effectively depends largely on the percentage of employees we represent,"
Solicit from elected officials public expressions of their support for bargaining rights;
To, in coalition with central labor councils, Jobs with Justice and other allies, support federal, state or local initiatives in support of collective bargaining rights, and
To participate in actions aimed at bringing attention to the bargaining rights crisis.
To ensure recognition for your local's effort, fax a resolution passed by your executive board by Aug. 8 to the executive vice president's office at (202) 434-1141.
To obtain a sample resolution, send an e-mail to Yvette Herrera, assistant to the executive vice president, at yherrera@cwa-union.org or check the CWA web page at ga.cwa-union.org/issues/.
EXCERPTS FROM SAMPLE RESOLUTION:
• The preamble of the National Labor Relations act refers to collective bargaining as a public good. A public good means that it's more expensive to have clean water than dirty water, but that as a society we have decided that it is worth the price. There is some cost to collective bargaining, but we can't have a democracy without it. You can't have a large middle class without it. Increasingly, you can't have health care coverage or a defined pension without it. Represented workers earn 26 percent more, are 50 percent more likely to have health care coverage and 300 percent more likely to be covered by a defined pension.
• Contracts in this country cannot be for the protection of the rich and famous only, for CEO's and sports players. Individual workers do not have the ability to negotiate labor contracts and must have collective bargaining rights to meet the power of corporations. The Supreme Court understood this in 1937 when it ruled that the National Labor Relations Act was indeed constitutional.
• The collapse of collective bargaining in the United States is almost a secret in this country. It's time to bring this crisis out in the open, shed light on it and initiate a public debate on how to fix it. We must begin in our workplaces with our members.
Fewer than 9 percent of private sector workers and less than 35 percent of public workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements in the United States. "The collapse of collective bargaining rights in this country is almost a secret," Cohen stressed. "We need every member to have a clear idea of what we face when we go to the bargaining table so that we can begin to return our labor laws to their original purpose - that of promoting collective bargaining."
In April, Local 4310 in Columbus, Ohio, became the first of several CWA locals to compose a bargaining and organizing rights resolution tailored to local needs. The local resolved to:
To ensure recognition for your local's effort, fax a resolution passed by your executive board by Aug. 8 to the executive vice president's office at (202) 434-1141.
To obtain a sample resolution, send an e-mail to Yvette Herrera, assistant to the executive vice president, at yherrera@cwa-union.org or check the CWA web page at ga.cwa-union.org/issues/.
EXCERPTS FROM SAMPLE RESOLUTION:
• The preamble of the National Labor Relations act refers to collective bargaining as a public good. A public good means that it's more expensive to have clean water than dirty water, but that as a society we have decided that it is worth the price. There is some cost to collective bargaining, but we can't have a democracy without it. You can't have a large middle class without it. Increasingly, you can't have health care coverage or a defined pension without it. Represented workers earn 26 percent more, are 50 percent more likely to have health care coverage and 300 percent more likely to be covered by a defined pension.
• Contracts in this country cannot be for the protection of the rich and famous only, for CEO's and sports players. Individual workers do not have the ability to negotiate labor contracts and must have collective bargaining rights to meet the power of corporations. The Supreme Court understood this in 1937 when it ruled that the National Labor Relations Act was indeed constitutional.
• The collapse of collective bargaining in the United States is almost a secret in this country. It's time to bring this crisis out in the open, shed light on it and initiate a public debate on how to fix it. We must begin in our workplaces with our members.