October 9, 2014

Want to be in next week's CWA Newsletter? Send your stories and photos to
blog@cwa-union.org or @CWANews. Follow the latest developments at
www.resistancegrowing.org.
You Won't Believe What Verizon Has Done Now
Help Get Out the Vote
Why Doesn't the Supreme Court Want North Carolina Citizens to
Vote?
David Perdue: 'I spent most of my career' outsourcing
GOP Senate Candidate: Equal Pay Laws Are 'Campaign Gimmicks'
Truth Prevails in Iowa
Campaign Finance Reform Comes to South Dakota
Elections Are About Choices: Stop Bad Trade Deals Like the TPP
Amazon Workers Take Security Check Woes to Supreme Court
Movement Building Update
Next CWA Telephone Town Hall Call on Oct. 16
You Won't Believe What Verizon Has Done Now
Share This Article:
You might remember the video hit job that Verizon tried to do on CWA
members, to stop Verizon Wireless workers from getting CWA
representation.
The video, "This is the CWA," showed what Verizon thinks of the thousands
of CWA members who are making this company successful, every day. And
that tactic hasn't succeeded. In May, Verizon Wireless workers at six stores in
Brooklyn voted for CWA representation, despite an intense campaign of
management intimidation and captive audience meetings.
We know how Verizon sees us. This is who verizon is: Watch.
Help Get Out the Vote
Share This Article:
With less than 30 days until Election Day, Nov. 4, CWA and union activists
are joining labor walks, staffing phone banks, rallying for pro-worker
candidates and doing everything possible to help get out the vote for these
very important elections.
Left: Local 1120 member Alf Bjorkman, joined by son Dayton, make calls to union members on behalf of
Cecelia Tkaczyk, candidate for the New York State Senate.
Right: A CWA Local 6222 member makes calls on behalf of Texas Democratic candidate for governor Wendy
Davis and candidate for lieutenant governor Leticia Van De Putte.
Below: In Wisconsin, 27 CWA and IUE-CWA activists from Locals 4603, 4611 and 84811 join the latest round
of labor walks and phone banking. It was the largest turnout from any union.
From Arizona to Michigan to Virginia, CWAers have been working hard to
spread the word about the importance of electing candidates who support
working families. In Texas, CWAers are standing behind Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis and Democrat Leticia Van de Putte,
who is running for Lt. Governor. The lieutenant governor in Texas is
particularly important because the office holder sets the agenda for the State
Senate.
Wisconsin CWAers and labor activists are working hard to support Mary
Burke who is challenging incumbent Republican Scott Walker. Walker and
the Republican-controlled legislature attacked public worker bargaining rights
and other workers' rights.
Want to join an event in your area? Make sure you have the latest on labor
walks in your state and join other CWAers in these last weeks before Election
Day.
Members of Local 6137 sign up co-workers for CWA's Political Action Fund.
How? Make sure you're connected with the CWA Movement Builder app.
Download the app and receive information directly on your phone. Get
download information here.
Once you download the app, make sure you set up your Profile. This enables
you to check in at events, send photos from actions and more.
Why Doesn't the Supreme Court Want North
Carolina Citizens to Vote?
Share This Article:
Yesterday, in the dead of night, the Supreme Court overruled the 4th Circuit
Court of Appeals decision that restored at least some voting protections to
North Carolina citizens.
The appeals court had reinstated same-day voter registration during the early
voting period and said that ballots cast outside a voter's precinct must be
counted. The Supreme Court's decision allows North Carolina's new voting
restrictions to stay in effect for the Nov. 4 elections.
The NAACP, League of Women Voters and other groups challenged the
extreme voting laws adopted by the state legislature last year, pointing out
that the changes were intended to restrict voting among people of color, the
elderly and students. An exasperated 4th Circuit Court of Appeals judge
asked during oral arguments: "Why does the state of North Carolina not want
people to vote?"
The question now seems to be: "Why doesn't the Supreme Court want North
Carolinians to vote?"
David Perdue: 'I spent most of my career'
outsourcing
Share This Article:
In his Senate race against Michelle Nunn in Georgia, Republican David
Perdue has been promoting himself statewide as a tireless and lifelong "job
creator."
He forgot to mention that those jobs were created in Taiwan, Korea, China,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong not in the U.S.
When asked in a 2005 deposition, "Can you describe your experience with
outsourcing," Perdue replied, "Yeah, I spent most of my career doing that."
Then he said, "I dealt with companies from Japan westward, all the way to
Kenya and Lesotho in Africa, Dubai, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Thailand,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, all points west of Japan. Defend it?
I'm proud of it." Now he can't run away from his record fast enough.
Perdue was much sought after by businesses looking to ship jobs offshore.
He was a partner at Kurt Salmon Associates, a management consulting
company that specialized in offshoring for apparel companies.
His work for Reebok brought him to the attention of the failed North Carolina
textile manufacturer Pillowtex Corp. There, Perdue oversaw the demise of
that company and the loss of 7,600 American jobs.
Michelle Nunn said Perdue's record has caused a lot of pain for American
workers.
"He would be the only senator that from his own words has built a career
around outsourcing American jobs," Nunn said during a senate debate with
Perdue this week. "That's not the experience we need in Washington...David
in his deposition talked about 16 countries...but not once did he talk about
creating jobs in the United States."
Perdue also isn't talking about the millions of dollars he made helping
companies offshore U.S. jobs the millions that he is using to run for the U.S.
Senate.
Volunteer to get out the vote this elections season.
GOP Senate Candidate: Equal Pay Laws Are
'Campaign Gimmicks'
Share This Article:
North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis, the GOP nominee running
against Democratic Senator Kay Hagan, is making sorry excuses for his
opposition to equal pay laws.
This week, in his second debate against Hagan, Tillis struggled to explain
why he blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act in North Carolina's state
legislature.
He said, "Let's enforce the laws that are on the books versus some of the
campaign gimmicks that are going to put more regulations and make it more
difficult."
That's the language candidates use when they don't want to address
measures like equal pay, wage and hour laws, workers' rights and other
issues. In April, Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would have
helped restore pay fairness for women; Kay Hagan was a co-sponsor of the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and a strong supporter of the Paycheck Fairness
Act.
Hagan responded: "Speaker Tillis, I think you need to read reports. Women in
North Carolina earn 82 cents on the dollar. I didn't raise my two daughters to
think that they were worth 82 cents on the dollar."
CWA activists are talking to co-workers and working to get out the vote. But
we need more volunteers. Contact your local.
Truth Prevails in Iowa
Share This Article:
Republican Joni Ernst has been struggling to keep a new Democratic ad off
the air, arguing that it's "demonstrably false." The only problem? It's
completely accurate.
An Iowa television station has decided to continue running the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee ad, "Gone." It holds Ernst, a GOP state
senator who is running for U.S. Senate, accountable for supporting tax
breaks for corporations that ship American jobs overseas. Today, more than
20,000 Iowa jobs have been lost to outsourcing.
"Joni Ernst even signed a pledge to protect their special tax breaks," the
narrator says, "instead of protecting us."
Ernst is running against Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley to replace retiring
Senator Tom Harkin. Braley opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
and other bad trade deals that send jobs out of the country.
If you're in Iowa, volunteer to get the word out on the differences between
these candidates.
Campaign Finance Reform Comes to South
Dakota
Share This Article:
Campaign finance reformers are coming to the aid of Democrat Rick Weiland
in his South Dakota Senate race.
A new ad released by Mayday PAC, a group founded by Harvard professor
Lawrence Lessig to prove that voters care about getting big money out of
politics, says, "Rick Weiland is running for U.S. Senate to take our country
back from the big money that controls our democracy. He believes all of us
farmers, ranchers, workers, families deserve a fair shake. Instead of tax
breaks for millionaires and sweetheart deals for special interests, he'll raise
the minimum wage, invest in education, and protect and expand social
security."
The Huffington Post reports:
"Rick Weiland understands that as long as our representatives are held
hostage to their funders and not the people the system will not work
for Americans of either political party," Lessig, a native of Rapid City,
South Dakota, said in a statement on Tuesday. "It's up to us to take our
government back, and that is Rick Weiland's central campaign
message."
The $1 million expenditure is part of planned $2 million campaign by a
coalition of groups that includes Mayday, Communications Workers of
America, Every Voice Action, Democracy for America and Progressive
Campaign Change Committee. The multi-million dollar advertising
contribution may have a big impact on a race that has been largely
ignored by the two major political parties and major donors.
Read more here.
Elections Are About Choices: Stop Bad Trade
Deals Like the TPP
Share This Article:
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman is doing a hard sell on the Trans-
Pacific Partnership, but ordinary Americans aren't buying.
A survey by the Pew Research Center spotlights Americans' skepticism about
free trade. Just 17 percent of Americans believe more trade leads to higher
wages and just 20 percent think trade creates jobs. The majority of
Americans know that trade is destroying U.S. jobs.
"We are not interested in better symbolism around labor, environmental and
consumer standards while corporate interests are on the fast track," said
CWA President Larry Cohen.
TPP is the latest in a string of trade deals that would allow corporations to
challenge the laws and regulations that our elected representatives have
enacted. How? Foreign investors simply have to show that future profits may
be affected by a country's environmental standards, or public health laws or
even a "Buy American" program. Then, the corporations can bypass a
country's courts and directly sue national governments in international UN or
World Bank tribunals. Three private attorneys sit on the tribunal and get to
determine whether the country must compensate a corporation for losses in
profits. These attorneys are not accountable to the citizens of any country.
There is no outside appeal. This process makes a mockery of our
democracy.
More than $430 million in compensation has already been paid out to
corporations in cases brought by provisions in trade deals. Another $38 billion
is pending in 19 more claims, all related to public health, the environment and
other non-trade issues.
When we vote on Nov. 4, we need to make sure that we're voting for
Representatives and Senators who stand with working families and against
bad deals like the TPP.
Amazon Workers Take Security Check Woes to
Supreme Court
Share This Article:
Every day, at the end of their shifts, Amazon warehouse workers line up for
an airport-style security check that screens them for stolen goods. It can take
as long as 25 minutes. And they don't get paid a single cent for the wait.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court grappled with whether or not workers
should be compensated for this mandatory activity.
SCOTUS Blog reported:
When the warehouse workers' lawyer, Reno attorney Mark R.
Thierman, took the lectern, he made an effort to simplify the issues. The
Court should start, he said, with the question "Is this work?" If the
answer to that is yes, then ask: "Is it for the employer's benefit?" If the
answer to that is yes, that's as far as the Court needs to go: the task is
deserving of extra pay. It would never be necessary to answer whether
the added task was closely enough tied to the worker's "primary
activity," he said.
Thierman's argument seemed to grow stronger the longer it went, and
he made what might be a telling point in noting that, in this case, the
workers actually had punched out for the day before the screening
began.
Amazon warehouse workers in Germany, with the support of the 2-million member union ver.di, protest for
bargaining rights.
"Employers," he said, "make people do all kinds of things that don't
make sense," and that should be a part of the legal understanding
about paying for what one demands. "If an employer tells you to stay at
work until 8 o'clock at night, you stay," he said, but you are entitled to
pay for the added time, even if you aren't doing a thing.
The court will now begin deliberating on a decision. If the workers win,
"Amazon and various staffing agencies it uses could be required to pay as
many as 400,000 workers back wages amounting to $100 million or more,"
according to Bloomberg news reports.
In February, CWAers and other activists rallied outside Amazon's worldwide
headquarters in Seattle to show their solidarity with German Amazon workers
who have been carrying out rolling strikes since May 2013 to push Amazon to
negotiate with ver.di.
Movement Building Update
Share This Article:
CWA Local 13000 members are standing strong with the American Postal
Workers Union's boycott of Staples office products.
The APWU is fighting to stop a shady agreement between the U.S. Post
Office and Staples that jeopardizes local post offices and thousands of good
union jobs. The deal has set up postal counters inside 82 of the office supply
stores staffed with Staples employees. Staples and the USPS now plan to
expand the program to Staples' 1,500 locations nationwide.
It's time to say, "The U.S. mail is not for sale!"
Sign the online petition here.
In Philadelphia, CWA Local 13000 President Jim Gardler and CWA members join postal workers and
other supporters in protesting USPS contracting out and Staples stores.
Next CWA Telephone Town Hall Call on Oct. 16
Share This Article:
Sign up now for the next CWA town hall call, on Thursday, Oct. 16, starting at
7:30 pm ET. The call will last half an hour.
With less than a month until the Nov. 4 elections, we'll hear from Jim
Hightower, a national radio commentator who supports turning Texas blue
and a Texas CWA activist who will report on what Texas union members are
doing to make that happen.
We'll also hear from Steve Abbott, president of the CWA Iowa State Council,
who will report on the Iowa Senate race and the campaign for the seat held
by retiring Senator Tom Harkin, who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee. And we'll hear from CWA President Larry Cohen.
Register at http://cwa-union.org/cwacall and pick up the phone when you get
the call.
CWA
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
www.cwa-union.org
Follow CWA on:
Text CWAACTION to 69866 to Join Our Rapid Response Text List
Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. All Rights Reserved.
You have received this message through your subscription to a Communications Workers of America e-mail list.
If you did not subscribe or would like to unsubscribe click here.