Resolution 75A-15-5
It’s our turn. Working families and our communities deserve to share in the productivity gains that our work has produced.
The top one percent is booming. Their lives, their families, their standard of living could not be better. They have more than recovered from the Great Recession that started in 2008. Stock prices continue to rise after crashing seven years ago. From 2009-2012, 95 percent of income gains went to the top one percent.
For the vast majority of workers, real wages have declined or remained stagnant since 1979. That is true for workers with and without a college education.
There is no question that minimum wage workers need a raise. The value of the $7.25 hourly federal minimum wage has eroded drastically and today it equals just about one-third of the U.S. average wage. CWA supports the nationwide campaigns for “$15 and a union” that are being organized and supported by minimum wage workers and many CWA locals.
But raising the minimum wage is not enough. All working families need a raise. Improved wages is how we can end the squeeze on the middle class and improve the standard of living for families. But employers will not raise wages by themselves.
Only through collective bargaining are workers able to gain our share of productivity gains in improved wages and benefits. Today, just 6.6 percent of U.S. private sector workers and 35 percent of public workers are union members. Those rights continue to be attacked by employers who intimidate and harass workers who want union representation and by elected officials looking to strip away decades of rights from workers, with public sector workers on the front lines of the attack.
That is what we are up against as we bargain in 2015. This year we are negotiating more than 180 contracts in every CWA sector, covering 200,000 workers. Bargaining has gotten harder than ever, but we are ready for the fight.
The CEOs of our major employers are doing well. Management compensation has benefited directly from higher share prices with free stock options and other linked bonuses. The average CEO makes almost 400 times as much as a front line worker. We have put all of our employers on notice: It’s our turn. CWA families need a raise. We want secure sustainable jobs, real improvements in our standard of living, and above all, an end to the race to the bottom.
In bargaining this year, we have reached tentative agreements covering 17,500 workers at AT&T Midwest and AT&T Legacy that met our goal of ensuring an overall improvement in workers’ standard of living.
New Jersey is one of the nation’s wealthiest states. The top one percent is doing well. For years, Governor Chris Christie has been on the attack against public workers, looking to strip away bargaining rights over health care and retirement security. This year, we are taking on Christie and his illegal attempt to grab billions earmarked for workers’ pensions. And we are fighting back against the privatization of critical public services that support our communities and good jobs.
At United Airlines, the stock price rose 76.8 percent in 2014, reaching the highest point since the airline emerged from bankruptcy in 2006. When United filed for bankruptcy in 2002, Flight Attendants endured wage cuts, health care cost shifting, work rule changes, and an attack on their pensions. In October 2010 United merged with Continental and Continental Micronesia. Flight Attendants are bargaining for a single contract at the new United that would finally merge the operation and allow all 24,000 Flight Attendants to access the benefits of the merger and share in the airline’s profitability.
US Airways filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and 2004 and American Airlines filed in 2011. CWA passenger service members at US Airways made sacrifices during those bankruptcies to keep their airline operating. Today, wages are still lower than their pre-bankruptcy level. Agents at American Airlines lost jobs, pay, and retirement security as that airline outsourced their work. Home-based agents experienced cuts in wages and benefits. The two airlines merged in 2013, and American posted its biggest profit ever last year, an industry-leading $4.2 billion. Now, American Airlines agents and their US Airways colleagues are negotiating a first contract.
Verizon Communications has posted an increase in corporate profits of 215 percent since 2009. CWA members at Verizon East want to expand and keep good jobs, and gain a fair share of those profits.
At these and every contract fight this year, CWA members will be standing up for fairness.
Resolved: CWA locals, sectors, and districts will continue to support the bargaining fights of members, joining mobilizations and actions to help our brothers and sisters achieve the good contracts we all deserve.
Resolved: CWA districts, sectors, and locals will continue to work to build effective coalitions with our allies to protect and fight for the fundamental right to collective bargaining and to build a movement to move our agenda forward.