Mobilization Training Underway for Independent Telecom Activists

The T&T office prepared a Strategic Industry Fund called “Building Strength and Unity at Independent Telecom.”  A workbook was created to train local activists focusing on bargaining, the state of the Telecom industry and mobilizing the membership.  Three Local leaders came to Washington to meet with Laura Unger, Lois Grimes and Ruth Marriott to be the key Mobilization Coordinators and Trainers for this project.  Steve Kotel from Local 4671 represents CenturyLink, Carson Turnquist from Local 7270 represents Frontier and Jon Douglass from Local 6171 represents Windstream.

So far training has been held in Iowa with Locals 7172 (Windstream) and Local 7171 (Frontier).  Steve Kotel reported on the training that was recently held in Virginia:

The Virginia group, CWA Local 2204, has completed the Mobilization training. Their local consists of 42 CenturyLink members. I trained 7 of them. We went through the training material and recent CTL agreements. The training was held in Fieldale, VA at the Fire Hall. Being able to discuss past agreements was a big plus for Local President Chuck Simpson. We were able to talk about the positives and negatives that have been seen in bargaining across the country and provided Local 2204 with some language that was a big win for 4671, regarding vacations. Hopefully this training gives Local 2204 and their bargaining team a leg up fighting for a fair contract with CenturyLink.

More training sessions are planned for North Carolina and Tennessee. We’ve also ordered small (1 ¼ inch) CWA buttons to use for the membership.

If Locals would like to schedule training or order buttons, please contact Ruth Marriott at rmarriott@cwa-union.org.