Resolutions Take On Economic Policies, Immigration, Health Care

Retirement security, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, economic fairness, immigration policies and fundraising for worker-friendly politics were among the issues addressed in resolutions at CWA’s 64th annual convention.

Delegates resolved to do the following:

• Endorse a new formula for CWA-COPE fundraising designed to give locals a larger share of the money raised based on the percentage of members who participate in the program, which supports pro-worker candidates and issues in local, state and national elections. A subsequent resolution designated September as CWA-COPE Month, when locals nationwide will make a concerted effort to get members involved.
  
  
• Step up the fight for economic justice, from fair tax policies and fair trade to corporate responsibility, pension security, access to health care for all and training, education, housing and other aid to lift families out of poverty. Toward that end, delegates resolved to work with the AFL-CIO and other allies to campaign for a welfare reauthorization bill.
  
  
• Work to enact a Medicare drug benefit while pressing for initiatives to rein in the cost of prescription drugs for all patients — for instance, closing loopholes that may make generic drugs unavailable. Delegates further resolved to fight for adequate funding for Medicare so cost constraints don’t threaten quality care. CWA will also work with the AFL-CIO and other advocacy groups to back legislation to include contraceptives in health care plans.
  
  
• Seek legislative sponsors to repeal the H-1B program that allows U.S. companies to bring in highly skilled foreign workers for domestic jobs, taking jobs away from American workers. Corporations are fighting to raise the H-1B limits to allow them to hire even more foreign workers. The result is lower community wages, more profits for already rich companies, the ability to break unions by using H-1B workers during strikes and to prevent high-tech unions from forming at all. CWA fought for funds in the original legislation to better train American workers to fill the jobs; the proposed 2003 federal budget calls for eliminating all such funds. Delegates resolved to fight to continue the grants.
  
  
• Support a living wage for all workers and forge alliances with organizations such as the Universal Living Wage Coalition. Delegates called on Congress to support the idea of available housing for all workers based on a living wage formula. The formula and more information are available at www.universallivingwage.com.
  
  
• Endorse the concept of the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, dedicated to innovation, experimentation and research in using cutting-edge telecommunications technologies in the broadest possible ways to deliver information and educate people. CWA will call on Congress to enact legislation to make the trust a reality and believes it has “potential to transform education, training and learning in this country.”
  
  
• Call on Congress to deny new funds for the Colombian military until the military ends all ties with a right-wing paramilitary group that has killed and tortured union members. The resolution says funds must be withheld until the killers are brought to justice and until Colombians are granted true workers’ rights as spelled out by the International Labor Organization. Since 1985, 3,800 trade unionists have been killed in Colombia. In 2001, 169 union workers were assassinated and 79 disappeared. The resolution further calls for CWA to urge the AFL-CIO to continue offering relief and sanctuary in the United States to threatened Colombian trade unionists and calls upon all American union members to support demonstrations of solidarity with their Colombian brothers and sisters.
  
  
• Support public policies that promote quality journalism and protect media workers’ jobs in the wake of growing consolidation of media enterprises in the United States and Canada. Six multinational corporations control the majority of the U.S. media and two corporations dominate in Canada, where newspapers are losing their independent voice as they are forced to run national editorials. The resolution calls for CWA to develop an education and mobilization program to help its media sectors and locals develop strategies to ensure job security, workers’ rights and the diversity of editorial voices that is essential to a democracy.
  
  
• Continue to fight for retirement security by lobbying for a strengthened Social Security system and a Senate bill, S. 1992, that would give workers new rights over their 401(k) accounts, including full disclosure if corporate executives sell their holdings and warnings if workers’ accounts become overloaded with company stock. The resolution calls for CWA to urge lawmakers to reject H.R. 3762, a so-called pension security bill passed by the House and supported by the Bush administration that offers no remedies for workers against the type of corporate abuses that surfaced in the Enron and Global Crossing cases.
  
  
• Urge CWA whenever possible to use union-represented service providers to administer joint training and education programs serving members. The resolution specifically addresses the Alliance for Employee Growth and Development, developed 15 years ago by CWA and AT&T during bargaining. The unionized company has trained more than 150,000 CWA members in eight companies for high-skill jobs and is trying to expand its reach both inside and outside the telecommunications industry.