April, 2007

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New Stewards Army Online Course: Speed & Public Policy

Friday, April 13th, 2007

April 13, 2007 (from national website)  CWA has launched the first of a series of free online, interactive training courses as part of the effort to build a Stewards Army of activists for grassroots action on key issues and campaigns.

Developed by CWA/NETT’s professional trainers, the course is a user friendly and self-paced look at “The Changing Telecom Industry and Why Speed Matters.”  (It generally takes about 30 minutes to click through and answer short quizzes at the end of each topic, does require creating username and password). Click to continue »

Posted in For Members | No Responses »

Service Anniversaries and Retirements

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

The following members retired in April

Jack Best Qwest C.O. Tech, 40 years
Tom Latta Qwest, CDT 34+ years
Dan Wilson, Qwest C.O. Tech 30 years Click to continue »

Posted in Anniversaries | No Responses »

CWA Retired Members’ Council

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

Who speaks for Retirees? The CWA Retired Members’ Council.

Join the Retired Members’ Council by becoming a life time member. Your membership will help in our fight to protect our retirement security. We in the RMC (Retired Members Council) serve as guardians of the benefits we worked so hard to achieve in negotiations with employers at the bargaining table and through legislation in Congress. Together, the RMC needs to take on those who view retired workers as expendable liabilities. Click to continue »

Posted in For Members, Retirement | No Responses »

H.R. 4, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA)

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

This is in response to an analysis prepared by Bob Patrician, Research Economist at CWA Headquarters giving a brief explanation of the pension legislation adopted in 2006. This information was provided to the locals in January of 07, by Reed Roberts Admin Assistant to the VP for District 7. Click to continue »

Posted in Politics | No Responses »

What is the Employee Free Choice Act?

Sunday, April 1st, 2007
  1. America’s workers want to form unions.
    Research shows Nearly 60 million would form a union tomorrow if given the chance.
  2. Too few ever get that chance because employers routinely block their efforts to form unions-and our current legal system is too broken to stop them. As many as one-quarter of employers illegally fire workers who try to form unions.
  3. The Employee Free Choice Act would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by:
    • Allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation
    • Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes
    • Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
  4. In the 110th Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act has widespread support.
  5. More than three quarters of Americans 77% support strong laws that give employees the freedom to make their own choice about whether to have a union in their workplace without interference from management.
  6. Allowing working people to choose for themselves whether to have a union is the key step toward rebuilding America’s middle class. Union membership brings better wages and benefits and a real voice on the job. It’s no accident that the 25 year decline in workers wages in our country has paralleled a 25 year slide in the size of the America’s unions.
  7. The Employee Free Choice Act would put democracy back into the workplace. Majority sign-up would ensure the decision whether to form a union was made by majority choice, not by the employer unilaterally.
  8. Workers can still vote under the Employee Free Choice Act. At any time, if 30 percent of the workers wan an election, they can have one. And once they have a union, workers also vote to elect their union representatives.
  9. The Employee Free Choice Act has the support of hundreds of respected organizations and individuals-major religious denominations, academics and civil and human rights groups and others.
  10. The AFL-CIO union movement is working in many ways to restore good jobs, health care and retirement security-but passing the Employee Free Choice Act is our top priority because we cannot create balance for working people or rebuild the middle class unless workers genuinely have the freedom to form unions for a better life.

Posted in For Members, Politics | No Responses »

Druthers Process and Local Agreements

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

Several years ago a process was developed by which Network Technicians had a method of moving to crews or work groups within the RCA.  This process was established to provide a means to fill positions from within the RCA first, before posting Job Vacancy Requests, via the upgrade and transfer plan/now known as Post and Bid.

At that time a druthers committee was made up of a union representative appointed by the local and a supervisor appointed by the Area manager.  The committee is charged with reviewing the current druthers list monthly and/or whenever a position is open.  The committee is responsible for determining the most qualified candidate.  If no candidate is qualified, the most senior candidate will be identified.  The committee will contact the supervisor of the candidate and verify the candidate still meets all criteria. Click to continue »

Posted in Corporate, For Members | No Responses »

President’s Corner

Sunday, April 1st, 2007

The summer is fast approaching, and it is a good time to remind members at Qwest, bargaining is but a short 15 months away. It is time to begin putting money away in the event of a work stoppage.  There are a number of agencies available to help those of you that may be overextended on your bills and have trouble putting money away.    Please contact members of our Community Services Committee for help in that regard.  We have trained union counselors.  Check your bulletin boards for names and numbers. Click to continue »

Posted in President's Corner | No Responses »