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Organizing Roundup
CBC Employees Vote to Merge with Canadian Media Guild
Workers at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have voted decisively for representation by the Canadian Media Guild, a local union of The Newspaper Guild/Canada, CWA.
By a 59 percent majority, CBC workers in production, administrative, technical and trades positions consolidated their strength into one union. Previously, the Guild represented about 3,800 workers at the CBC, with another 1,400 represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.
Arnold Amber, director of TNG/Canada, CWA, said the vote produced "one strong union that will be able to better present our views forcefully at the CBC, which is in constant change. At the same time, we'll be even stronger in our fight for public broadcasting in Canada."
CMG President Lise Lareau said employees recognized the Guild's track record at CBC, adding that the vote "gives us good ground to build a bigger and stronger union."
Orlando ALS Unit Joins CWA
AT&T Local Services maintenance workers in Orlando, Fla., are celebrating a card-check victory. Their unit of 74 will join 97 provisioning workers at the same location. Communications and Technologies leaders are bargaining on behalf of both units in Washington, D.C.
"This is a tremendous rebound of CWA at AT&T, with new organizing in Local Services," CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said.
"The key to this is that we never disbanded the maintenance workers' inside committee," said District 3 Organizing Coordinator Liz Roberson. "We met with them on Jan. 8, and they said they were ready to go. We told management on Jan. 9, and three days later, we had the cards."
Roberson credited an excellent inside committee led by Elizabeth Veloskey. "Failure is not an option," was their slogan throughout a campaign organized primarily around job security. Management often threatened to close the facility and move the work to Dayton, Ohio, Roberson said.
Second Intellicoat Victory
Local 3603 has gained 55 members at Intellicoat in Matthews, N.C., CWA's second victory at the global leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of precision-coated substrates for imaging and electronic technologies. Intellicoat workers in South Hadley, Mass., joined the union last September.
During a campaign driven by cutbacks in pay and high cost of medical insurance, the 12-person inside committee stayed in close contact with union activists at the South Hadley plant, organized with IUE-CWA Local 81228.
Organizers say the workers were self-motivating, generating much of their own organizing materials. "They took one of the captive audience meetings and pretty much turned it into a union organizing rally," said Dave Coker, chair of Local 3607's organizing committee who also assisted the workers.
Workers at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. have voted decisively for representation by the Canadian Media Guild, a local union of The Newspaper Guild/Canada, CWA.
By a 59 percent majority, CBC workers in production, administrative, technical and trades positions consolidated their strength into one union. Previously, the Guild represented about 3,800 workers at the CBC, with another 1,400 represented by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.
Arnold Amber, director of TNG/Canada, CWA, said the vote produced "one strong union that will be able to better present our views forcefully at the CBC, which is in constant change. At the same time, we'll be even stronger in our fight for public broadcasting in Canada."
CMG President Lise Lareau said employees recognized the Guild's track record at CBC, adding that the vote "gives us good ground to build a bigger and stronger union."
Orlando ALS Unit Joins CWA
AT&T Local Services maintenance workers in Orlando, Fla., are celebrating a card-check victory. Their unit of 74 will join 97 provisioning workers at the same location. Communications and Technologies leaders are bargaining on behalf of both units in Washington, D.C.
"This is a tremendous rebound of CWA at AT&T, with new organizing in Local Services," CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said.
"The key to this is that we never disbanded the maintenance workers' inside committee," said District 3 Organizing Coordinator Liz Roberson. "We met with them on Jan. 8, and they said they were ready to go. We told management on Jan. 9, and three days later, we had the cards."
Roberson credited an excellent inside committee led by Elizabeth Veloskey. "Failure is not an option," was their slogan throughout a campaign organized primarily around job security. Management often threatened to close the facility and move the work to Dayton, Ohio, Roberson said.
Second Intellicoat Victory
Local 3603 has gained 55 members at Intellicoat in Matthews, N.C., CWA's second victory at the global leader in the development, manufacture and distribution of precision-coated substrates for imaging and electronic technologies. Intellicoat workers in South Hadley, Mass., joined the union last September.
During a campaign driven by cutbacks in pay and high cost of medical insurance, the 12-person inside committee stayed in close contact with union activists at the South Hadley plant, organized with IUE-CWA Local 81228.
Organizers say the workers were self-motivating, generating much of their own organizing materials. "They took one of the captive audience meetings and pretty much turned it into a union organizing rally," said Dave Coker, chair of Local 3607's organizing committee who also assisted the workers.