Resolution 75A-15-2
There are more than 130,000 public sector workers who are members of the Communications Workers of America. CWA public sector members work at all levels of government providing vital services, including public safety, health care, education, human services, transportation, environmental protection, corrections, and many others.
The 22 million public sector workers in the United States provide essential services to all Americans to improve the lives, well-being, safety, and environment of the communities in which we live.
CWA has led the way over the years in bringing the benefits of union representation to public sector workers, whether in states like New Jersey, New York, and California where we fought hard to win bargaining rights for public workers, or in states like Texas that continue to deny public workers their most basic human right to bargain collectively. CWA is proud to stand united as a union of public and private sector workers, joined together to support and strengthen worker organization everywhere, in every industry and sector of our economy.
In the past four years, corporate America and anti-union elected officials have set their sights on the destruction of public sector collective bargaining. Having reduced private sector union membership to 6.6 percent of the private sector workforce, they are now going after the public sector, where union rates nationally are about 35 percent. In state after state, they are pushing an agenda to eliminate public workers’ collective bargaining rights, fair share (agency) fees, to privatize public services to low-wage contractors, and to cut public budgets and public workers’ pensions, benefits, and wages as the next step in their crusade to reduce the power and living standards of working people.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker spearheaded the campaign to get rid of public workers’ collective bargaining rights, and he openly boasts of his successful assault on public workers, public sector unions, and unions in general. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has followed a similar playbook with his attack on public workers’ right to bargain over health care, his illegal refusal to fund our members’ pensions, and the continuous push for privatization and cuts to public budgets that fund the services our members provide. In Texas, Governors Rick Perry and Greg Abbott have pushed an agenda of budget cuts to essential services, privatization of our members’ jobs, and attacks on payroll deduction designed to weaken our union.
In state after state, city after city, the assault on public investment, public workers’ bargaining rights, and the drive to privatize public workers’ jobs threatens not only workers’ livelihoods but also the quality and accountability of taxpayer-funded public services. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) privatized the work at two of our nation’s nuclear labs, work that for decades was done by CWA-represented University of California employees. These programs deal with some of our nation’s most sensitive security and defense programs. The defense contractors that won the contracts to do this work make large profits at public expense, and use some of those profits to fund substantial political contributions to buy the support of elected officials for their privatization agenda.
Resolved: CWA stands united in opposition to the erosion of public sector collective bargaining rights. CWA will fight vigorously against all attempts to roll back workers’ rights in the public sector, including the elimination of collective bargaining, fair share (agency) fees, reductions in retirement benefits, and the privatization of essential services. CWA will continue to organize to win collective bargaining rights for public workers in those jurisdictions that continue to deny this basic human right.
Resolved: CWA reaffirms our support for adequate investment in public services as the essential foundation for a vibrant economy, healthy and safe communities, strong families, and a thriving democracy.
Resolved: In response to the renewed effort of corporate forces to undermine the financial viability of our unions through “right to work” legislation and court challenges, CWA will redouble efforts to organize non-members into the union.