Volume 70, Issue #4 | Winter 2010

After years of delays and all too often inaction on workers? complaints, the National Labor Relations Board has scheduled a hearing for Jan. 18 in Fort Worth to investigate charges that Dish Network managers in Texas repeatedly threatened workers and fired at least one union supporter during an organizing campaign for CWA representation.

CWA locals are taking on Comcast and coming through with good contracts and strong bargaining units. That?s exactly what happened in Detroit and Port Huron, Mich., where members of Locals 4100 and 4008 negotiated and overwhelmingly ratified new contracts.

TNG-CWA members are keeping up the fight for job rights ? and winning: ? A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld $5 million in damages for Chinese Daily News workers who faced harassment, threats and firings while trying to organize with Local 9400 beginning in 2001. The battle led to a lawsuit over unpaid overtime and no breaks. TNG-CWA called the ruling a ?great precedent,? confirming that most reporters are covered by wage and hour law.

Local union leaders and activists in District 6 ? Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas ? have signed up nearly 4,000 new members since the district launched an aggressive, one-on-one organizing initiative in 2010 with a special focus on internal organizing.

T-Mobile and parent company Deutsche Telekom are global operations. So CWA has been pursuing a global strategy to make sure T-Mobile USA workers get the union voice they want.

Good paying jobs, strong contracts, and access to the jobs of the future are big issues for CWAers at CenturyLink, the company formed by the acquisition between CenturyLink and Qwest Communications.