CWA Local 9510's News Blog

Extenders' Bill Still Faces Serious Obstacles in the Senate

· The fate of the long discussed American Jobs and Closing Tax
Loopholes Act of 2010, commonly referred to as the 'Extenders' bill, is
completely up in the air as Senators focus on partisan and special
interests while ignoring a struggling economy. The crucial bill works
towards extending crucial unemployment benefits beyond the short run
while providing necessary emergency assistance to those struggling with
the economic downturn. It also closes the Reverse Morris Trust (RMT)
Corporate Tax Loophole. Wall Street tax lawyers created this loophole,
and it has been widely used to the detriment of CWA members through
Verizon's sale of landline assets. We saw its abuse first in New England
through the sale to Fairpoint, and now Verizon continues to act against
its workers in 14 states through the sale to Frontier. It's been bad for
our members and consumers, but good for Verizon as they walked away with
$3.3 billion in tax free profits. CWA says both to Verizon's shady and
detrimental practices as well as to bickering Senate legislators that
enough is enough.

· At the end of last week, the Senate swiftly passed a six-month
Medicare physicians' payment bill, otherwise known as the "doc-fix"
which was previously included in the 'Extenders' bill. By a voice vote,
the Senate thus passed HR 3962 which would prevent a scheduled 21
percent cut in payment rates to doctors who receive Medicare
reimbursements. It will also increase their pay by 2.2 percent. This new
Medicare bill will now go to the House of Representatives, which is
scheduled to reconvene tomorrow, Tuesday, June 22nd.

CWA members need to contact their Senators to urge them to support
H.R. 4213.

· This bill passed in the House of Representatives, marking a
major CWA victory with the first step in closing the RMT corporate tax
loophole completed. Click to see how your representative voted:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2010-324

Senator McCaskill of Missouri Moving against Senate's Secret Hold Rule

· Democratic leaders gave Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri
the green light to push for a major change in Senate rules. The motion
would change the Senate rules governing a single Senator's ability to
block legislation or nominations while remaining anonymous. Changing a
Senate rule requires 67 votes, and Sen. McCaskill claims to have 67
signatures on her legislative letter demanding the rule change. The
senators who have signed the letter include nine Republicans, two
Independents, and 56 Democrats. CWA supports this measure and commends
it as an important step in reforming the Senate's rules.

Senate MUST Pass House FAA Bill with Pro-Union Language

· The Reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration's
(FAA) programs currently faces a deadlock in the Senate due to House
Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar's (D-MN)
insistence on retaining language that makes it easier for FedEx workers
to unionize. FedEx has an egregious history of vigorously suppressing
workers' attempts to unionize. Under the House bill, jurisdiction for
FedEx labor relations would shift from the Railway Labor Act (PL 69-257)
to the National Labor Relations Act (PL 74-198). This would put FedEx
under the same rules as its rival UPS, and would finally give ground
FedEx employees the right to organize locally; they currently are only
permitted to organize nationally, making it very difficult to have their
voices heard.

· The Senate is planning on having a "test vote" on the
legislation including the House pro-union language, hoping to see it
fail. Its failure would thus prove the deadlock this language creates,
and would insist that Oberstar remove his language from the pending
bill. CWA urges members to contact their Senators insisting Oberstar's
language be protected

Important Hearings-

· The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
will hold a hearing titled "Universal Service: Transforming the
High-Cost Fund for the Broadband Era" chaired by Chairman Rockefeller
(D-WV). The hearing will take place on Thursday, June 24th at 10:00 am
in the Russell House Office Building.

· The Senate Rules and Administration Committee chaired by
Senator Schumer (D-NY) will hold a hearing titled "Examining the
Filibuster: Silent Filibusters, Holds, and the Senate Confirmation
Process." The hearing will take place on Wednesday, June 23rd at 10:00
am in the Russell House Office Building. CWA has been following the
discussion of these rule changes closely, and encourages our members to
watch online or on C-SPAN.

Vol. 1, Issue 152

June 25, 2010

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Whitman Targets Nurses, Rejects Request for Open Forum
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Protest Carly Fiorina at GOP Retreat in Napa
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Join Transit Workers and Rev. Jesse Jackson to “Save Our Ride”
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Upcoming Trainings and Workshops
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APALA Women’s Organizing Institute: August 6 - 8
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UC Berkeley Labor Center Media Skills Workshop: July 21 – 22
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This Week on “Labor’s Edge”

Whitman Targets Nurses, Rejects Request for Open Forum

Last week, GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg “Wall Street” Whitman arrogantly asked the California Nurses Association to turn over all of its members’ home addresses and contact information, so her campaign inundate their mailboxes with her flashy mailers. CNA refused to give up its members’ private info, and instead invited Whitman to talk to the nurses face-to-face. When Whitman declined to appear at a forum with her opponent Jerry Brown, the nurses offered a solo forum for her, moderated by non-partisan journalists, but she again declined, and instead proceeded with her onslaught of campaign propaganda on them.

"She's calling us at our homes with push polls, putting out false information to the media, posting deceitful Web sites, and we expect mail to arrive from her soon,” said CNA co-president Geri Jenkins, RN. “THIS is why we didn't want to give Whitman our personal information, but we feel like she went ahead and violated our privacy anyway."

Learn more at http://www.calnurses.org.

Protest Carly Fiorina at GOP Retreat in Napa

This weekend, the Republican National Committee is holding a swanky retreat at one of Napa’s most luxurious resorts, where donors will reportedly be shelling out more than $60,000 a couple to hobnob with notorious GOP figures, including failed CEO and Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.

While the retreat attendees play golf, drink fine wines and smoke expensive cigars, workers in the Napa area will be coming out to protest Fiorina and the GOP’s effort to buy California’s senate seat. Join the protest on Saturday, June 26 at 11:30am at Napa Valley College (1088 College Ave in St. Helena).

For more information, call (707) 758-1699.

Join Transit Workers and Rev. Jesse Jackson to “Save Our Ride”

In the face of major cuts to public transit services across the country, transit workers and community supporters have formed the national “Save Our Ride” alliance, to advocate for federal legislation to address the nationwide transit crisis.

“Save Our Ride” is holding massive rallies at cities across the country, and next week the coalition will be holding two events with Rev. Jesse Jackson in San Francisco and Sacramento. The San Francisco rally will take place June 29 at noon at the Federal Building (450 Golden Gate), and the Sacramento event will take place July 1 at noon at the Robert Matsui Federal Courthouse (501 I Street).

Learn more at http://www.ourride.org, or text OURRIDE to 69866.

Upcoming Trainings and Workshops

APALA Women’s Organizing Institute: August 6 - 8

Asian Pacific American women represent almost half of all Asian Pacific American unionized workers. However, there are limited opportunities to train Asian Pacific Americans, and Asian Pacific American women in particular, to become union organizers.

That’s why the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and the Orange County Labor Federation are hosting the first-ever APALA Women's Organizing Institute from August 6-8, 2010 in Orange. This unique program will feature trainings from some of the most seasoned Asian Pacific American women union organizers in the country.

For more information and to apply, visit http://bit.ly/9Wm9PF.

UC Berkeley Labor Center Media Skills Workshop: July 21 – 22

The annual two-day Media Skills Workshop at the UC Berkeley Labor Center is designed to help union and community members, organizers and staff improve and maximize media coverage for their campaigns.

The workshop will cover a wide variety of communications tactics, and will teach participants about creating a communications strategy, developing and practicing effective media messages, learning the nuts and bolts of public relations and integrating social media into field campaigns.

For more information and to apply, visit http://bit.ly/bZmmvM

This Week on “Labor’s Edge”

Chloe Osmer of the CLEAN carwash campaign blogged on LAUSD’s resolution to use CLEAN carwashes for its vehicle fleet. http://bit.ly/90KeV2

The AFL-CIO’s James Parks reported from the Raite Aid rally at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. http://bit.ly/dmmzLw

Shum Preston of the California Nurses Association lambasted Meg Whitman’s attack on nurses. http://bit.ly/aOhUQB

We posted our weekly Rants & Raves http://bit.ly/b92X9z

Email blog submissions to info@calaborfed.org

Subscribe to our blog via RSS at http://bit.ly/9lKlv3

Hi all,

It's the end of another week over at "Labor's Edge". Special thanks to the CLEAN carwash campaign and the California Nurses Association for contributing to the blog this week.

This week on "Labor's Edge":

*
Chloe Osmer of the CLEAN carwash campaign blogged on LAUSD’s resolution to use CLEAN carwashes for its vehicle fleet. http://bit.ly/90KeV2
*
The AFL-CIO’s James Parks reported from the Rite Aid rally at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. http://bit.ly/dmmzLw
*
Shum Preston of the California Nurses Association lambasted Meg Whitman’s attack on nurses. http://bit.ly/aOhUQB
*
We posted our weekly Rants & Raves http://bit.ly/b92X9z

As always, we greatly appreciate your submissions -- keep 'em coming!

On the anti-Whitman front, we're currently gearing up for a series of press events with California veterans in late July -- our goal is to draw attention to Whitman's atrocious voting record by contrasting her disregard for the democratic process with veterans who have made tremendous sacrifices in service to our country.

We're working on identifying union veterans (both leaders and rank and file) from across the state who would be willing to sign onto a letter, participate in a press event, etc around these actions, and we're asking all affiliates to help us build a list of those who might be interesting in getting involved. Please don't hesitate to email those contacts over to us, and if you have any questions, you can always contact me or Steve Smith (ssmith@calaborfed.org).

Have a great weekend!

Rebecca Greenberg
Communications Organizer
California Labor Federation
600 Grand Avenue, Suite 410
Oakland, CA 94610
Phone: (510) 663-4051
Fax: (510) 663-4099
www.CaliforniaLabor.org

AT&T Mobility Workers in Puerto Rico Join CWA

Another 186 AT&T Mobility network workers in Puerto Rico now are members of CWA Local 3010, joining CWA through majority sign-up.
The former Centennial Wireless Network Department employees work in six different locations across the island.

Local 3010 President Rafael Castro-Torres credited Local 3010 organizer Javier Sepulveda and the internal organizing committee for building strong support for the union, as well as support from District 3.
"The campaign got underway in April 2010 and our training and strategic planning paid off, with the committee signing up more than half of the network workers in just about a month," Castro-Torres said.

The internal committee included Jorge Roldan, Wilfredo Guivas, Angel Cabrera, Francisco Madera, David Guadalupe, Botcheller Seda, and Demetrio Luciano.
Local 3010 also is continuing to build majority support among AT&T Mobility's 414 retail store workers and 175 call center workers, Castro-Torres said.

The proposed merger between cable TV giant Comcast and NBC-Universal (NBCU) would lead to job cuts, reduce competition in the cable industry and restrict consumer access to online video content, a senior leader of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) told lawmakers.

On top of all that, Comcast has a long record of violating workers’ rights, CWA Vice President James Weitkamp told a field hearing of the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. After its last big merger, with AT&T Broadband in 2002, Comcast immediately set about crushing AT&T’s unions, he said. Comcast also pays its workers about a third less in wages and benefits than unionized telecom companies.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!

Don’t fall prey to the Company’s attempt to take away GOOD Union jobs and replace you with contractors.

The Company and the Union are currently negotiating ISP Enhancements.

The Company is holding the negotiations HOSTAGE by DEMANDING that they can replace any job of any person or persons that take ISP with a contractor.

They also want language that we can’t grieve or arbitrate.

CWA will NOT sell YOU out on this issue, so just say NO to this obvious effort to destroy the VERIZON Bargaining Unit.

More details to come….President, Kenny Williams

Important Information: Effect of Frontier Transaction on Verizon Savings Plans

The Frontier transaction is expected to close July 1, 2010, and will result in Verizon share owners, including the savings plans, receiving shares of Frontier common stock.

If you have a balance in the Verizon Stock Fund in the Savings Plan, your account will receive units in a new Frontier Stock Fund. Since it is not intended to be a long-term investment option in the Savings Plan, the value of the Frontier Stock Fund will be automatically transferred to other investment options as the Fund is liquidated over time. You can also choose to transfer your remaining account value in the Frontier Stock Fund to other Savings Plan investment options at any time. There will be restrictions on certain Savings Plan transactions on July 2, 2010, in order to establish the Frontier Stock Fund and complete related actions.

This document contains important information about the Savings Plan, and should be kept with your Summary Plan Description. Your plan benefits will be determined by the terms of the official plan document. If there is a discrepancy between the SPD as supplemented by this document and the official plan document, the official plan document will govern. Copies of the plan document are available upon written request to the plan administrator at the address provided in the SPD.

Just got the new contract in paper form and hopefully will get the digital copy to post later.