Our plan to fight back.

Be prepared for stepped up mobilization in the coming weeks.

We have all been waiting with increasing frustration for AT&T to move towards us at the bargaining table. Despite enormous profits and a successful second quarter, AT&T wants to weaken our job security, close our stores, and offshore our work. They have a plan to turn good union jobs into unstable, low-wage jobs.

But we have a plan to fight back.

We will discuss this plan with leadership, mobilizers, staff, and all members:

• August 11th – call with National Staff
• August 14th – call with Local Presidents
• August 15th – call with Mobilizers throughout the “Orange” footprint to discuss this plan. Mobilizers will receive an email with more information about the call.
• August 21st – mass Town Hall Call with all members. The call will take place at 8:30pm ET, 7:30pm CT, 6:30pm MT, 5:30pm PT. Text the word MobilityCall to 69866 to RSVP.

On these calls we will update everyone on bargaining, discuss the many Unfair Labor Practice charges we have filed with the Labor Board, give advice on how to lower the risk of unfair discipline during bargaining, and discuss what may happen in the coming weeks.

Bargaining is dragging on for too long. But we would rather get a fair contract than a quick contract. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said “The Arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Brothers and sisters, lets join together to ensure that our fight with AT&T bends us towards justice!

United We Bargain, Divided We Beg!

In solidarity,
Dennis G. Trainor
CWA District 1 Vice President

Good Afternoon,

Retro pay for the AT&T contract is expected on the following dates:

Appendix A and E – September 08, 2017

Appendix D – September 15, 2017

DirecTV (All Titles) – September 22, 2017

In Unity,

Ellen West

Ellen West, Area Director

CWA District 9

CWA District 9’s Vote Count was as follows:
58% Yes Vote
42% No Vote

CWA Local 9003’s Vote Count was as follows:
60% Yes Vote
40% No Vote

Today, members of the Communication Works of America is District 9 (representing workers in California and Nevada) participated in counting the votes on the tentative agreement reached with AT&T West covering more than 17,000 workers.

CWA members ratified the agreement by a margin of 58% to 42%.

Despite overwhelming support from our CWA District 9 Union brothers and sisters, the motion that was brought forward to the CWA Convention floor did not pass.

Pictured above: Local 9003 President Marisa Remski presenting a Constitutional amendment that would change the bargaining process and prevent the whipsawing of CWA Districts by the Company.

The following is a Constitutional change that is being presented today on the CWA Convention floor.  District 9 is bringing this constitutional change forward in an attempt to fix the ongoing problem concerning the different CWA districts getting whipsawed by AT&T every round of bargaining.

2017 PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS:

Article XII- Officers and Their Duties

Section 4-Vice Presidents-District, Telecom and Technology

Telecommunications; Public, Health Care and Education Workers and CWA Sectors

            (No other changes recommended for this Section.)

Section 5—Telecom and Technology Telecommunications Sector Vice President

For those bargaining units of Telecommunications employees other than AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Avaya, AT&T Mobility, Alcatel-Lucent and OFS, Windstream, Frontier, Century Link  and their subsidiaries and affiliates. The Telecom & Technology Telecommunications Sector  Vice President shall be responsible, under the direction of the Executive Board, for coordinating matters of common concern and interest with respect to contracts, wages, hours of employment and other working conditions within the units.

The Telecom & Technology Telecommunications  Vice President shall be responsible for bargaining in those bargaining units. which are system-wide or national in scope as determined by the Executive Board.

 Respectfully submitted:

Marisa Remski, President

CWA 9003

Pam Suniga,  AT&T Bargaining Committee Member

CWA 9505

Art Gonzalez, President

CWA 9511

Anthony Velez, AT&T Bargaining Committee Member

CWA 9413

In 2012-2016, Contract negotiations with AT&T demonstrated that having six separate bargaining unit tables, each with its own authority to bargain and reach a settlement notwithstanding the impact on other units, impeded the union’s ability to achieve the maximum benefits for our members. In fact, it was a divisive round of bargaining for CWA. With separate bargaining units, each with separate authority to accept and recommend a tentative agreement, we experienced cross-district discord when one unit reached a settlement while the others remained left to the fight.

In 2013, some measures were implemented by the Bargaining Council to avoid this kind of negative experience and we jointly committed to closely coordinate AT&T negotiations.  The reality is that the separate authority vested in each Vice President to direct the negotiations at their own bargaining tables undermined our ability to maintain a unified front. The need for greater and more effective communications and coordination within CWA on behalf of our members in the telecommunications industry is apparent.

Section 3—Bargaining Councils in Telecom

(c) The bargaining councils will designate certain issues as “National Issues.” To be so designated, an issue must affect CWA-represented workers in multiple CWA Districts/Sectors.

(d) The bargaining resolution of a National Issue requires the agreement of all District/Sector Vice Presidents of CWA Districts/Sectors with at least one constituent local with a representative on the bargaining council.

(e) National Issues shall remain so designated unless all the District/Sector Vice Presidents of all CWA Districts/Sectors with at least one constituent local with a representative on the bargaining council decide otherwise.

(f) No District/Sector Vice President may unilaterally accept, change and/or delete any proposal, issue, and/or agenda items designated a National Issue by the bargaining council unless all District/Sector Vice Presidents so agree or the President of the Union overrules the Vice Presidents and so agrees.

(g) District/Sector Vice Presidents may not authorize or approve a collective bargaining agreement containing a National Issue if the resolution of that National Issue has not been agreed to by all the District/Sector Vice Presidents with at least one constituent local with a representative on the bargaining council.

(h) If the relevant District/Sector Vice Presidents are unable to reach agreement on the resolution of a National Issue, only the President of CWA can end the impasse and decide how to deal with the issue.

 We should elect one Vice President for Telecommunications Sector and go further by establishing and empowering a new, stronger and unified Telecommunications Sector within CWA.  The new authority of the Telecom Vice President should include all the bargaining and representational responsibilities currently held by the T&T, Telecommunications and District Vice Presidents with respect to representation of telecommunications industry employees.  Therefore, those eligible for voting for this new Vice President should include not only those delegates representing the T&T and Telecommunications bargaining units of today, but also all other delegates who represent telecommunications employees, including employees at Verizon, AT&T Core, AT&T Mobility, Quest, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and OFS, Windstream,Frontier, Century Link and their subsidiaries.

This scope of authority means the new Telecommunications Vice President would have responsibility to direct bargaining for all units of AT&T, AT&T Mobility, Verizon, Quest, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and OFS, Windstream, Frontier, Century Link and their subsidiaries and affiliates.  Under the direction of the Executive Board, the new Telecommunications Vice President would be responsible for coordinating matters of common concern and interest with respect to contracts, wages, hours of employment and other working conditions for these bargaining units.  This office could also provide a needed focus for guiding negotiations with rural telecom, cable and satellite television, wireless and other employers in the telecommunications industry.

Once the Telecommunication Sector is established, the Executive Board should re-assign from the T &T, Telecommunications and District offices all the appropriate financial administrative and personnel resources to the Telecommunications Sector, enabling the new Telecommunications Vice President to successfully carry out the duties of this new office.

The change in responsibilities would not require a wholesale change in our current District operations.  In fact, in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, it is anticipated that the traditional bargaining processes would continue.  That is, bargaining decision for a unit wholely contained within a single Local’s jurisdiction would be deferred to the Local and bargaining decision for units shared by more than one Local would be deferred to the District.  What would be new, is that where a contract covers more than one District, or when simultaneous negotiations occur for multiple contracts with the same employer, the Telecommunications Sector Vice President would retain jurisdiction and coordinate decision making.

Districts must play an increasingly key role in the administration of the various contracts that fall within District boundaries as well as the mobilization and education of the membership in all aspects of the CWA Triangle.  Their responsibilities do not change because of this proposal. The value added is that during contract negotiations, the new Telecommunication Sector will facilitate CWA’s ability to speak with a single voice when dealing with the multi-state and global companies of today and in the future.

Only minor amendments to our Constitution are required to establish a Telecommunications sector with a single Vice President just as other Sectors are now described in our Constitution.  A supporting resolution will further clarify the intent of these constitutional changes and guide the Executive Board in the establishment of the new Telecommunications Sector.

A new Telecommunications Sector with a Vice President focused solely on the members working in the industry that founded this great union is what is called for, now more than ever.

At the July Membership meeting, I believed that a motion was made to suspend the normal order of business so we could discuss the Tentative Agreement.  I have since been told that the maker of the motion also intended to “move the July meeting to August.”  Had I understood that to be the intent, I would have had to rule it “out of order” for two reasons. First, a motion to suspend the regular order of business can only apply to the agenda of a meeting that has already begun. Second, the bylaws have very specific guidelines for calling a special meeting which is what an unscheduled Membership meeting in August would be. Therefore, only the primary goal of the motion was proper or valid and could be adhered to.

Since we did suspend the regular order of the July meeting and spent the rest of that meeting discussing the tentative agreement with AT&T, our next regularly scheduled Membership meeting will be on Wednesday, September 20.   Our August meeting will be a Steward meeting and will take place on Wednesday, August 16 at 6:30 pm.

Marisa

Democrats’ plan for a better deal on trade and jobs outlines real policies to help working families fight back against corporations that want to shift more jobs overseas and cut wages and benefits for working Americans.

Lawmakers are recognizing the impact of the tens of thousands of U.S. customer service jobs that have disappeared over past years, as corporations ship good call center jobs to Mexico, India, the Philippines and other countries.

CWA has been pressing Congress to stop this flood of jobs overseas. Corporations are boosting their profits and enriching their investors at the expense of working Americans, and communities are devastated when these good service jobs disappear. And as more jobs are sent offshore, more pressure is brought to bear on U.S. workers to accept lower wages and benefits as the price for keeping any job at all.

The Democratic “Better Deal” plan includes crucial legislation introduced by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) that would help restrict call center offshoring and reverse the loss of thousands of good customer service jobs in the U.S. It also would provide important consumer safeguards.

Overall, the “Better Deal” plan will give working people a long overdue voice in what happens to their jobs and their communities. It ends the tax incentives and other rewards that corporations now get for sending jobs overseas; encourages companies to bring jobs back to the U.S. with financial incentives; fully restores “Buy America” requirements for all taxpayer-funded projects, and makes improving U.S. wages and good jobs a key objective of our trade policy.

The “Better Deal” plan would require companies that handle sensitive U.S. consumer data abroad, including call centers, to disclose to customers in what country they are physically located and the level of data protection in that country.

U.S. trade deals should benefit working families, consumers and communities, not just investors and big corporations. The “Better Deal” plan provides real solutions to do just that.

The AT&T Core and DirecTV Bargaining Q&A has been updated with more information:

The CWA and AT&T bargainers met this week via phone conference. Among the many issues we discussed was the new Leave Link process which has caused chaos with our members who need to access FMLA, Short Term Disability, and ADA accommodations to name a few. CWA has added failure to bargain the effects of this change to our long list of labor law violations and we have filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

This week we all saw AT&T’s latest earnings report which shows the company has billions of cash on hand. If AT&T cared about its employees and customers, they would get serious about a new contract instead of moving our work to vendor call centers and Authorized Retailers which is a recipe for disaster for employees, customers, and ultimately the shareholders as AT&T leads the race to the bottom.

This bargaining will be recessed as of today and will pick up again on August 14th , in order for CWA to conduct the business of the Union at the National Convention of CWA delegates, beginning next week.

Remember, the terms of our contract remain in place as we bargain for a new Agreement. Keep up the mobilization. When we fight, we WIN!

In Solidarity,

Mike Baxter, Local 1101                             Frank Oliva, Local 1298

Deb Casey, Local 2204                             Jeff Reamer, Local 13000

Julie Daloisio, Local 13500                       Holly Sorey, Local 4202

Glen Skeen, Local 4320                           Hector Capote, Local 7250

Debbie Goulet, Local 7803                       Joe Sison, Local 9412            

Brandon Beck, Local 9511                        Pat Telesco, District 1, Chair

Tonya Moore, District 1