C.W.A. District 7 Conference
Denver,
April 24 to 27, 2005
Bargaining –
As one can imagine, this year’s conference was very full,
very busy with the QWEST/CWA bargaining agenda occupying one and a half days of
the session. I will give a short and not so sweet synopsis of what can possibly
be expected during CWA/QWEST bargaining this year.
First – A C.W.A. Bargaining Committee Introduction:
- Leroy Chirstensen – Asst to the V.P., Dist 7
- Reed Roberts – Administrative Asst., Dist 7
- Scott Hogue – Local 7500
- Kathy Reck – Local 7201
- Suzie Miller – Local 7777
- Malachy Sreenen – Local 7800
CWA preparatory bargaining work has already begun with the actual
face to face, CWA/QWEST, scheduled to commence June 22.
During the QWEST bargaining portion of the conference the nearly
115 Local delegates went over, discussed, argued about, amended, and voted for
or against every proposal submitted by each local in QWEST. These 185 proposals
covered all Articles and Addendums in the present contract.
One thing that was carefully pointed out by the committee members
and by various speakers that covered QWEST finances both present and projected,
was that there is going to be only so much money in the bargaining pot and that
this available funding will have to be carefully distributed.
Everyone needs to understand that for every dollar allocated for a
proposal, that same dollar will be removed from somewhere else. Not all
proposals are of a dollar consideration but giving it a myopic QWEST view, I am
sure, QWEST will imagine the dollar value of any proposals, if extended out,
would be huge because of managing considerations.
The four main bargaining issues as agreed on by all attendees
were: wages, medical, pensions (both present and future), and contract
successorship for any type of QWEST sell off, partial or whole.
We all agree that CWA gave their pound of flesh, so to speak, at
the last bargaining go around but since then things haven’t changed all
that much:
- QWEST continues to hover at the bottom of the telecom profit
picture with only MCI and Alltel below us.
- Overall revenues have QWEST at the bottom.
- QWEST’S debt picture has improved; we are in the middle of
the pack. The pack by the way is Verizon, SBC, BellSouth, QWEST, Sprint, MCI,
Alltell.
- Access lines and local services are down
- Wall Street puts QWEST at the bottom of the “worth”
list at $7 billion.
The above should, at least, point out that even though QWEST is
surviving, it is surviving by the skin of it’s teeth and the membership
needs to realize that QWEST is kind of like Old Mother Hubbard or The Old Woman
Who Lived in the Shoe, I.E. we are surviving but not thriving. So if many of
the proposals fail to make it to the table, be cognizant of one thing –
they could have been sacrificed so as not to impact the big four.
All delegates were aware that Notebaert and his team received
what we as unionists consider rather substantial income incentives in 2004:
- Notebaert – CEO - $2,900,000 +
- Oren Shaffer – CFO - $1,680.000 +
- Barry Allen – Exc. V.P. – $1,109.110 +
- Richard Baer – Exc V.P. - $900,000 +
- Paula Kruger – Exc V.P. – $362,112 +
These raises undoubtedly sent a wrong message concerning the QWEST
money status especially with contract talks just around the corner, but on the
other hand it needs to be realize that Notebaert and his little band of
intrepid warriors did save many jobs and pensions (Nacchio already got our
401’s) by saving QWEST from bankruptcy and these workers of smoke and
mirrors don’t come cheap.
All that the CWA Dist 7 leadership, your bargaining committee, and
local officers ask is that our membership be patient, be organized, show a
united front, and understand that all of your best interests are what is going
to be most important at the bargaining table. There will be gives and takes
with a lot of “if I do this for you- this is what we want in
exchange”. That’s the way it works.
No one feels QWEST wants or could handle it. To help with future
corporate stability a longer duration contract might be pursued by QWEST. 4
– 5 years is always a possibility but whatever, we as CWA’ers need to
stand tall – stand tough – stand pat.
Dennis Garrett V.P.
Tribute
CWA would like to hold a special tribute to our CWA members at the
67th Annual Convention. They would like to honor our members or their
dependents who are serving or have served our country in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Please provide us with the following information:
- Member’s name and Local Union number.
- Their rank and Armed Forces Unit (e.g., 1st Calvary).
- Date they served or whether they are currently serving.
- Location they are serving or have served (e.g., Mosul).
- A picture of our heroine or hero would be great.
Please contact Randy Grams, Local 7804 Secretary Treasurer, at one
of the contact numbers on the front of this newsletter.
National Food Drive
Each year since 1993, the National Association of Letter Carriers
along with millions of United States Postal Service customers perform a
valuable community function through it's National Food Drive. This year's
drive is scheduled for Saturday, May 14, 2005. Donations will be collected in
participating communities by letter carriers along their mail routes.
This is the single largest one-day collection of food in the
nation. With a record collection of 70.9 million pounds of food last year, the
total for the first 12 years has been pushed to well over a half BILLION pounds
of food. This drive comes at time when many of the banks and pantries are
running dangerously low after the surge in giving associated with the
Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
Your participation is as simple as leaving a bag of non-perishable
food either at your mailbox or the Post Office in your neighborhood on May 14,
2005. Each of you are encouraged to support the Letter Carriers in this
important effort.
Workers Freedom Bill
Joined by CWA workers and others, lawmakers of both major parties
on April 19 announced they were reintroducing in the 109th Congress a bill to
protect workers' freedom to form unions and stop employers from interfering
with that basic right.
The principal sponsors of the new bill, S.842 in the Senate and
H.R. 1696 in the House, were joined at a Capitol Hill news briefing by AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney, CWA President Morton Bahr and six workers who presented
their stories and met with senators and representatives from their home states
to tell them about employer opposition they faced in their quests for union
representation.
Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), and
Representatives George Miller (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) appeared
together, demonstrating strong bipartisan support for the new legislation. The
Employee Free Choice Act would ensure that when a majority of employees in a
workplace decide to form a union, they can do so without the debilitating
obstacles employers now use to block workers' free choice.
CWA's Bahr applauded the courage of John Pezzana, a CWA headend
technician at Comcast in the Pittsburgh area, whose formerly AT&T Broadband
unit -- after winning three representation elections -- is still fighting for a
contract; Clyde Rucker, a senior customer service representative fired from
Verizon Wireless in Laurel, Md., for attempting to organize, and other workers
who told of numerous captive audience meetings, threats by management to close
their work locations and other forms of union-busting intimidation.
Rucker told how Verizon Wireless violated Verizon's neutrality
agreement with CWA by holding captive audience meetings and launching an
anti-union website. Though other workers became afraid, Rucker continued to
speak out.
"Unions built America. People have died for that," he said. He was
fired for being away from his station during a period of inactivity, when
similar behavior by workers who were not union advocates was tolerated or even
ignored.
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers to choose to form
a union by showing majority support through card check. It would provide that
if an employer and a union are engaged in bargaining for a first contract and
do not reach agreement within 90 days, either party may refer the dispute to
the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; if mediation is unsuccessful
after 30 days, the FMCS may refer the dispute to binding arbitration.
It would provide for mandatory court injunctions against employers
for firings, intimidation or other interference with workers' right to organize
or while bargaining a first contract. |