NEW CWA MEMBERS AT CINGULAR: 8,000 AND COUNTING—Some 1,800 workers at several Cingular Wireless call centers and retail stores won union representation with the Communications Workers of America in the last two weeks. The workers are among more than 8,100 who have joined CWA under an agreement reached by CWA and Cingular after the Cingular/AT&T merger. The company agreed to honor the workers’ freedom to form a union when a majority signs authorization cards. In California, 1,600 workers at three call centers and 84 retail sales associates at several Nevada sites won a voice at work Oct. 13 when their choice of CWA representation was certified. In Utah, 88 Cingular retail sales workers chose CWA.
WASHINGTON WORKERS CHOOSE OPEIU—More than 900 workers in Washington State recently won a voice at work with the Office and Professional Employees. At Senior Life Resources in Kennewick, 425 home care workers voted to join OPEIU. In Vancouver, 150 home care workers at CDM Services joined OPEIU after an election win, as did 200 employees at Community Health Center La Clinica, which operates several health centers in the state. Also, 200 workers at Visiting Nurse Personal Services have a voice at work with OPEIU after a majority signed authorization cards indicating they wanted to join the union and the employer recognized their choice.
NAVY WORKERS LAND A UNION—LB&B Corp. employees working under a multiyear, multimillion dollar contract with the U.S. Navy voted overwhelmingly Oct. 19 to join Operating Engineers Local 99. The more than 65 workers are responsible for operations, maintenance and hazardous waste management at eight Navy installations in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
GOOD COLLEGE BOARD SCORE—Thirty-two clerical and professional employees of the Illinois Community College Board won a union with the Illinois Federation of Teachers after signing union authorization cards and gaining recognition.
TAKING AIM AT WORKING FAMILY PRIORITIES—Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives want to make even deeper cuts in vital working family programs than the $50 billion they sought last week—while refusing to forgo $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy. “What we have done is raised our sights beyond the $50 billion...to a higher number,” said Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), acting as majority leader after Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was forced out of the post because of his recent indictments on money laundering and conspiracy charges in Texas. The House is expected to vote this week on the huge cuts to food stamps, low-income energy assistance, education and unemployment compensation that are part of a Bush administration-backed budget that also includes the $70 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy. Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to vote on a $35 billion package of spending cuts this week. Call your members of Congress toll free at 1-800-393-1082 and tell them not to cut programs desperately needed by working families, including hurricane survivors, and low-income Americans or to give more tax breaks to the wealthy.
MINIMUM WAGE RAISE KILLED—For the second time this year, Senate Republicans voted against giving the nation’s lowest-paid workers a pay raise, killing a proposal by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Oct. 19 to boost the minimum wage to $6.25 an hour. Yet members of Congress could give themselves their eighth pay raise since the last minimum wage increase in 1997, when they vote on the fiscal year 2006 Treasury/Transportation appropriations. Senators voted to pass up the pay raise, but the House has not acted on the pay raise and both houses must agree for the salaries to be frozen. The new pay raise for Congress would mean the salaries of senators and representatives have gone up by $31,600 since 1997, while minimum wage workers still earn only $10,700 a year. Senate Democrats also successfully beat back a second proposal by Sen. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), which included draconian provisions to exempt millions of workers from the minimum wage, cut overtime pay and weaken job safety and health protection. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/.
COURT UPHOLDS LIVING WAGE—A New Jersey appeals court threw out a suit by a Hudson County contractor that challenged the county’s 2003 living wage ordinance. The ordinance requires contractors to pay workers at least 150 percent of the federal minimum wage and provide health care benefits or pay a wage supplement. “The decision reaffirms that local governments can do what is necessary to ensure that those who work under public-sector contracts will not remain in poverty,” said Ken Zimmerman of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. More than 100 cities and counties have living wage laws. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/.
SPRINT AWAY FROM SPRINT NEXTEL—Union members in Florida, Indiana, North Carolina and Tennessee can show their support for striking Sprint Nextel workers in those states who have refused company demands for massive contract concessions by hanging up on Sprint Nextel and switching to unionized Cingular for wireless service and to AT&T for long distance. The nearly 1,000 Sprint workers represented by CWA in the four states went on strike Oct. 10 at local Sprint telephone operations. Strike issues include a proposal that would allow Sprint Nextel to shift up to 100 percent of its health costs to workers and eliminate current limits on transferring work and jobs to outside contractors. Also at issue: Sprint’s contributions to employees’ 401(k) pension plan, elimination of some overtime pay and a reduction in vacations, holidays and sick leave. AFL-CIO union members in those four states can take advantage of a 5 percent discount on Cingular service if they sign up at a Cingular retail store and show their union card and mention “FAN” number 113662. Visit www.att.com/ to research and sign up for long distance calling plans. For more information, visit www.cwa-union.org/.
CWA, IBT WORKERS ALLY—CWA members and unaffiliated Teamsters members approved the establishment of a new Airline Customer Service Employee Association that will represent passenger service agents at the merged US Airways and America West Airlines. Members from both unions backed the alliance by a better than 80 percent margin. CWA represents 6,000 passenger agents at US Airways and IBT represents 3,500 agents at America West. The employees work as reservations, ticket and gate agents and also staff hospitality clubs at airports and assist handicapped passengers.
HURRICANE RELIEF KEEPS GROWING—The AFL-CIO Union Community Fund’s Hurricane Relief Fund has collected more than $569,000 from more than 3,800 generous individuals, local unions and other allied organizations. Donations still are coming in to help hurricane survivors and can be made online at www.aflcio.org/hurricane.
HELPING AROUND THE WORLD—The Solidarity Center and community partners are reaching out to help Pakistani and Indian victims of the recent deadly earthquake and Guatemalan survivors of Hurricane Stan. In the Himalayas, more than 51,000 people have been confirmed dead as a result of the Oct. 8 quake and officials expect the toll to climb. Most buildings were destroyed and more than 2 million people are homeless as winter approaches. In Guatemala, deadly landslides and floods caused by Hurricane Stan in early October reportedly killed more than 2,000 people and left many thousands homeless. Visit www.solidaritycenter.org/ for more information.
JUDGE LETS WAL-MART WORKERS SUE—U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway ruled Oct. 7 that a group of undocumented immigrants, most of whom worked for a cleaning contractor, could proceed with their lawsuit charging Wal-Mart with violating federal wage laws and false imprisonment. The immigrants’ complaint alleges Wal-Mart required them to work up to 70 hours a week without overtime pay and locked store doors while they worked so they could not leave unless a Wal-Mart manager unlocked the doors.
CELL PHONES FOR SOLDIERS—AFGE expanded nationwide its Cell Phones for Soldiers program with a National Day of Collection Oct. 12. The initiative asks people to drop off used cell phones with attached batteries at designated sites. The phones are then recycled for cash. The funds are used to purchase prepaid calling cards for soldiers who cannot afford to make international long-distance phone calls to relatives and loved ones in the United States. For more information, visit www.afge.org.
WHAT SKILLS GAP?—The conventional wisdom that there is a growing gap between the skills U.S. workers possess and the skills employers need is at best questionable and may even be false, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The study’s author, Michael Handel, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, shows the skills of American workers are not as weak nor job requirements changing as rapidly as published accounts suggest. For copies of the study, Worker Skills and Job Requirements, visit www.epi.org/content.cfm/book_worker_skills.
LETTER CARRIER HEROES—The Letter Carriers honored David Heald as its 2005 National Hero of the Year and Juan G. Cordero as Humanitarian of the Year during ceremonies last month in Washington, D.C. Heald, from Kennebunk, Maine, used skills he learned in the Navy to save the life of a motorcyclist who was badly injured in a traffic accident. Cordero, from Selma, Calif., turned his garage into a repair shop where he refurbished more than 60 bicycles as Christmas gifts for low-income workers on his route
