Members Keep the Heat on Senators in Fight for EFCA

Eleven senators who have been on the fence about the Employee Free Choice Act and many more deserving of a "thank you" for favoring it received thousands of phone calls, as well as e-mails, postcards and letters, from CWA members and their families during the union's "week of action," May 14-18.

The bill, critical to restoring workers' badly eroded rights to organize unions and bargain collectively, was passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House in March and is pending in the Senate.

"Last week, thousands of CWAers called their senators to urge support for the Employee Free Choice Act and get it on the Senate floor for a vote," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "This week, all union presidents committed to continuing calls to all supporting senators to demand a vote in June. We must continue making calls and talking to our members about our top priority."

CWA members and retirees are being asked to make personal visits to senators' home offices next week while they are out of Washington, D.C., on their Memorial Day break.

CWA and the AFL-CIO have singled out 11 senators who have shown interest in the bill but haven't signed on as supporters. They are Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas,  Ken Salazar of Colorado and Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, John Voinovich of Ohio, Gordon Smith of Oregon and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

As local leaders spurred members to make calls last week, they also served as Employee Free Choice Act educators. Through meetings and flyers, they helped union members and others understand the bill and why it matters.

"We really tried to show people what's at stake," said Chris Lane, president of CWA Local 2201 in Richmond, Va., who put his 145-member Stewards Army to work. Each was tasked with making 10 phone calls and getting 10 other people to call. They reached out not just to U.S. senators but state legislators as well, and Lane said several wrote back to thank the union for its efforts. The local also worked with Jobs with Justice, sent out press releases and had a story published in a local newspaper.

Across the country in southern California, officers of Local 9510 took advantage of a half-dozen tailgate meetings with technicians at AT&T facilities, asking them to take a couple of minutes on their break to make calls. "The meetings were already scheduled and we thought it was a great opportunity to bring up the Employee Free Choice Act," Local President Joseph Venegas said.

It was especially advantageous, he said, because the technicians they met with are relatively new members of the local who are installing AT&T's new high-speed U-verse lines. "We were able to help them understand that if it wasn't for organizing rights in the past, we wouldn't have the benefits we have today," he said.