Tough Bargaining Continues

Across every CWA sector, union bargaining committees are facing tough fights.

• NABET-CWA members are in tough negotiations with Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC, and now are bargaining with federal mediator Timothy Germany, a commissioner with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The previous contract expired in early 2011, and NABET-CWA members have voted to authorize a strike if a fair contract isn't reached. NABET-CWA represents about 1,500 workers at ABC.
• US Airways Flight Attendants voted against a tentative agreement to combine the contracts of pre-merger America West and US Airways. "For too long, Flight Attendants have subsidized the cost of the merger and management has failed to adequately address these concerns," said Deborah Volpe, AFA pre-merger America West President and Roger Holmin, AFA pre-merger US Airways President.
• CWA members at AT&T Southeast voted down a three-year contract covering more than 22,000 workers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Meanwhile, separate negotiations covering 18,000 CWAers at AT&T West and 3,200 CWA members at AT&T East in Connecticut are continuing.
• CWA Local 31003, the Newspaper Guild of New York, is in tough talks with the New York Times, fighting back against management demands on health care, wages and retirement security. The bargaining covers about 1,000 TNG-CWA members and another 30 members of the Printing, Publishing and Media Workers Sector.

What makes bargaining so tough? A big factor is that employers in every sector can and do send jobs offshore, plus less than 7 percent of private sector workers have bargaining rights and public sector rights are increasingly under attack. CWA members continue to stand up and fight back, but are also focused on building a broad political and social movement that can win real change, not just for union workers, but for working families everywhere.