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Verizon,
New York City Agree On Proposed Terms Of TV Service
April 29, 2008
By Roger Cheng
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ)
and New York City agreed to proposed terms that would enable the
telephone company to begin offering television service in the city.
While a step in the right direction for the New York
telco, it still needs to gain approval from the city's Franchise and
Concession Review Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on May 20,
before it can offer TV.
Verizon is spending $18 billion to upgrade its network
nationwide with faster fiber-optic lines directly to many of its
customers' homes. The faster lines allow for the delivery of a faster
Internet connection and TV service. In order to provide TV service,
however, the carrier needs to get permission from individual cities.
Verizon's entrance would give New Yorkers another TV
option beyond cable and satellite TV.
"With the introduction of direct competition among cable
companies, prices and service levels would reflect real market forces,
and New York City customers would be the beneficiaries," Deputy Mayor
Robert C. Lieber said in a statement.
Verizon has said it plans to market its television
service, which falls under the FiOS brand, to parts of New York later
this year. FiOS Internet is already available in select neighborhoods.
The agreement calls for the installation of a
fiber-optic system in every street within six years, although options
for an extension are included. The company would be required to cover
30% of the city by the end of the year, and half by the end of 2010.
The presence of another option will pressure Time Warner
Cable Inc. (TWC) and Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC), which are current
cable providers in New York.
Shares of Verizon were recently trading at $38.19, up 24
cents, or 0.6%.
| Get The Facts: CWA
Healthcare For All |
| April
29, 2008 |
|
Healthcare for all
means keeping healthcare costs down in order to provide healthcare
for CWA members and bargaining better
contracts. Today only 16% of American Workers pay no
premium for Employer-based health care. With rising premiums
and co-pays full health coverage is becoming an endangered
species. CWA has a plan and to achieve it we must change
the political landscape. Check out the CWA Health Care for all
plans by clicking the link.
|
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Workers Memorial Day
Highlights Fight for Safe Jobs
April 29, 2008
Unions across the country marked Workers Memorial Day on
April 28, honoring the thousands of workers who are killed and the
millions injured on the job each year.
"More than three decades ago, Congress passed the
Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to
a safe job," the AFL-CIO says. "Unions and our allies have fought hard
to make that promise a reality — winning protections that have saved
hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented millions of workplace
injuries. Nonetheless, the toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and
deaths remains enormous."
In 2006, the most current statistics available, more
than 4.1 million workers were injured and 5,703 workers were killed due
to job hazards. Another 50,000 died due to occupational diseases.
A key worker safety issue for CWA in recent years has
been protecting telecom workers from electric shock. Between CWA and
the IBEW, four Verizon technicians were killed in electrocution
accidents in 2006 and 2007. Others have been injured and many more have
had close calls. Pushed by CWA, Verizon is now training workers
nationwide on electrical safety issues.
The vast majority of worker deaths go unnoticed by the
general public, except in the case of tragedies that make news. One
such events occurred March 15 in New York City when a crane collapse
crushed a building and killed seven people, including four members of
the Operating Engineers.
The New York Times wrote, "Their last moments must have
been horrifying, co-workers said. They said the crane operator (union
member Wayne Bleidner) was most likely trying to spare more lives by
exerting what little control he had from the cab as the crane toppled
over more than a city block."
OSHA is investigating the accident and says about 80
workers a year die in crane-related incidents. The Bureau of National
Affairs reports, however, that OSHA has missed a deadline it set for
new rules on crane and derrick safety.
CWA and AFL-CIO health and safety experts say missed
deadlines for rules to protect workers are nothing new for OSHA under
the Bush administration, which has pushed workplace safety issues to a
back burner.
"At the behest of corporate interests, the
administration has moved to roll back and weaken protections," the
AFL-CIO says. "Voluntary compliance has been favored over issuing new
protective standards and enforcement. Progress has ground to a halt and
may be reversing. Many workers have little or no protection and major
hazards remain unaddressed. Catastrophes in coal mines and factories
continue, with little action to prevent them."
The theme of the 2008 event is "Good Jobs — Safe Jobs
For All." A flier, poster, proclamation and clip art, in English and
Spanish, can be downloaded from http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/.
AFL-CIO Documents Increase in Worker Deaths, Injuries
The nation's workplaces remain unsafe, and current
safety laws and penalties are too weak to protect workers. That's the
conclusion of the AFL-CIO's annual "Death on the Job" report, which
provides grim statistics on how many workers were killed and injured on
the job in the past year, as well as information on penalties assessed
for serious violations and other data.
In 2006, the most recent year for which government
statistics are available, 5,840 workers were killed by job hazards, an
increase of 106 deaths from 2005. Some 4.1 million workers were injured
and an estimated 60,000 died due to occupational disease. On an average
day, 153 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and
disease, and another 11,233 are injured, the AFL-CIO report found. The
full report is available at http://www.aflcio.org/issues/safety/memorial/.
David LeGrande, CWA's occupational safety and health
director, said the increase in the fatality rate was a major concern,
because it demonstrated that our nation's system of safety rules and
enforcement simply wasn't addressing workplace hazards and protecting
workers. He also pointed to the Labor Dept.'s underreporting of
workplace injuries and illnesses, as documented by the report, as more
evidence that workplace safety and health has declined over the past
eight years.
Certain health and safety issues, like job stress and
ergonomics, have received virtually no attention under the Bush
administration, he said. Those topics will be discussed at the District
3 health and safety meeting next month in Jacksonville, Fla., with a
panel of local leaders to discuss ergonomic and job stress issues for
customer service and outside plant workers.
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CWA Battling
Corporate Greed at Shareholder Meetings
April 24, 2008
CWA members will be turning out in force for the
Verizon, Idearc and IBM shareholder meetings next week, taking on
issues that include out-of-control stock options, corporate governance
and executive pay as well as anti-labor policies.
IBM's meeting is Tuesday, April 29, in Charlotte, N.C.
Verizon and Idearc both meet May 1; Verizon in Lincoln, Neb., and
Idearc in Dallas. Idearc, whose CWA and IBEW-represented workers in New
England and New York have been without a contract since last summer, is
a directory-advertising company spun off from Verizon in 2006.
CWA and IBEW activists will deliver thousands of proxy
votes from worker shareholders to the Verizon meeting. The unions are
supporting two shareholder proposals: the first would curb stock
options awarded to senior executives and bar current stock options from
being re-priced; the second would separate the role of CEO and chairman
of the board in the Verizon hierarchy.
Doing so is "fundamental to sound corporate governance,"
the resolution states, asking, "How can the CEO be his own boss?
Directors are responsible for protecting the shareholders' interests –
and they must do so primarily by monitoring and evaluating the CEO's
performance."
CWA and IBEW, which have spent years battling the
company's union-busting at Verizon Wireless and lately at Verizon
Business, are also backing a "no confidence" vote against the election
of the board of directors.
The unions will hold a press briefing immediately before
the shareholders meeting starts, explaining how the company has built a
wall between Verizon's unionized landline operations and its rapidly
growing non-union areas.
The wall blocks union members "from the high-growth,
high-profit segments of the company in Verizon Wireless and its large
accounts acquisition from the former MCI, Verizon Business," the unions
say in a joint statement. "Over the last five years, union membership
has slipped from producing 70 percent of revenues to only 33 percent;
substantially weakening workers bargaining power."
At the Idearc meeting, CWA members from Locals 1301 and
1302 will be joined by supportive CWA members from Dallas Local 6171 to
leaflet outside and raise questions inside the meeting. About 700
CWA and IBEW members at Idearc have been working without a contract
since last June when the company declared a bargaining impasse –
illegally, CWA has charged -- and rolled back benefits, job security
and sales commission plans. Both unions have filed unfair labor
practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
A campaign website, www.cwa-union.org/idearc,
details the company's many bad management decisions that have led the
Idearc's stock to plummet by 87 percent in less than a year.
On Tuesday, members of CWA's
Alliance@IBM will picket and rally outside the company's meeting in
Charlotte, raising worker and retiree concerns about executive pay,
off-shoring of jobs, pay cuts and shrinking pensions.
"While IBM employees face a
decline in their standard of living and retirees see pension checks
evaporate due to lack of cost of living adjustments coupled with
increases in medical retirement co-pay, our executives live the life of
luxury. Executive greed and bloated compensation needs to be
challenged," said IBM employee and Alliance Vice President Earl Mongeon.
Lee Conrad, national
coordinator of the Alliance, said members are calling on IBM to halt
the shifting of its U.S. jobs to low-cost countries. "At a time when
the U.S. economy is in recession and unemployment is rising it is
unconscionable to continue to move work offshore," Conrad said. "The
Alliance is urging elected officials, community leaders and citizens to
call on IBM to halt this destruction of U.S. jobs."
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VZ
to File for FiOS Video in NYC
| Apr
21, 2008 |
|
On
April 15, after months of negotiations, Verizon announced it would file
an application with the city's Department of Information Technology and
Telecommunications to offer video service throughout the city. Follow
the link for the whole story: Vz Files for Video in
NYC
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CWA
Local 1101 is offering a Special Needs Planning Workshop
CWA Local 1101 is offering a Special Needs Planning
Workshop to all Members who are parents of children with disabilities.
This Seminar will take place on Thursday, May 29th at 6PM in the
Union's Conference Room at 275 7th Ave.
Please call and let us know if you will be attending so we
can reserve the seat in your name. The Speakers will discuss how
to best provide for your child through Government benefits,
guardianships, wills and supplemental needs and trusts.
For information about the speakers or resources for
families of special needs, contact Heather Forster at 631-592-2062.
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CWA
News
April 10, 2008
- Conference Sets Stage for Historic Election, Employee
Free Choice
- Clinton, Obama Pledge Support on Key CWA Issues
- CWA and AFL-CIO Ramp Up Fight Against Colombia Trade
Deal
- Civil Rights and Equity: 'A Movement ... Not a
Moment'
Conference Sets
Stage for Historic Election, Employee Free Choice
While the rest of the country speculates on who will get
the Democratic nomination for president, CWA members at the union's
annual Legislative-Political Conference focused on the bigger picture:
Ensuring that the November election brings sweeping change that will
rapidly usher in the Employee Free Choice Act and a pro-worker agenda.
 |
 |
| Democratic
presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama, left, and Sen. Hillary
Clinton, right, said enactment of the Employee Free Choice
Act is critical to restoring America's middle class. |
The CWA audience cheered both Democratic presidential
contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and a parade of other
speakers who made it clear that workers' rights, health care reform,
fair trade and retirement security will be top priorities for a
Democratic president and worker-friendly House and Senate.
"You can feel the excitement as we imagine the change we
can bring about in the next 12 months," CWA President Larry Cohen told
the crowd of 700 members that filled a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom
to capacity.
As participants registered for the four-day conference,
April 6-9, they filled out postcards urging what will be the new
Congress and new president to take immediate action to pass the
Employee Free Choice Act. The labor movement is gathering 1
million postcards and will submit them with photos of many of the
signers so that they can be displayed in the Capitol after the November
election, putting both names and faces to the fight. CWA has committed
to getting 15 percent of its membership, about 90,000 people to sign
cards.
CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach said the
key to all of it – to passing Employee Free Choice, enacting health
care reform and more – is victory Nov. 4. "It's all riding on the
election," he said. "For the next six months, that's our focus."
Participants heard from lawmakers and other leaders in
the mornings and spent the rest of the day on Capitol Hill meeting with
representatives, senators and their staffs to discuss CWA's key issues.
In meetings and in speeches, leaders expressed strong
support for the Employee Free Choice Act, grave concern about the state
of the U.S. economy and anger that the world's wealthiest nation isn't
providing health care for tens of millions of its citizens. They also
focused on another top CWA priority: high-speed Internet access for
every American. Right now, the United States lags far behind other
developed countries in both access and upload and download speeds.
"If we want to compete in the global economy, we need to
be investing in universal high-speed broadband access," said Rep. Chris
Van Hollen (D-Md.)
He and other speakers urged what they praised as an
already tireless union to get even more involved over the next six
months, ensuring that working families across the country understand
the issues, know what's at stake and will turn out on Election Day.
"We cannot turn the tide without your help," said Rep.
Andre Carson (D-Ind.), who was elected in March with labor's support to
fill the seat of his late grandmother, Julia Carson. Reps. David Obey
(D-Wis.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) also spoke, as did West Virginia Gov.
Joe Manchin, a Democrat who is credited with bringing new, living-wage
jobs to his state and enacting tough worker safety laws.
The conference included a panel of national political
directors and advisers who detailed what seats are open and which are
vulnerable in the House, Senate and in governor's offices across the
country -- all campaigns that CWA locals and their members will be
working on in addition to ensuring that John McCain does not become
president.
Panelists were Paul Dioguardi of the Democratic
Governors' Association; Martha McKenna of the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee; John Vogel of the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee; and Parag Mehta of the Democratic National Committee.
On the conference's final morning, DNC Chairman Howard
Dean spoke, emphasizing that the party has two extraordinary candidates
and that one of them can, and must, beat John McCain.
He noted what he termed McCain's "Let them eat cake"
speech recently in which he ignored Wall Street's and the
administration's role in the free-falling economy and suggested instead
that people struggling to pay their mortgages get second jobs and cut
back on other spending. "He is completely disconnected from the
struggles of working-class people," Dean said.
Speaking at her final CWA legislative conference before
her retirement at June's convention, Secretary-Treasurer Barbara
Easterling honored McCain's military service but condemned his terrible
record on working-family issues.
Calling this the "the greatest election opportunity of
our lifetime," Easterling said, "We are here on a mission, a mission to
build a political movement to restore bargaining rights in America. And
if we do our jobs and work as never before, come Election Day we will
win and we will usher in a powerful new movement to change America for
generations to come."
Clinton, Obama Pledge Support on Key CWA Issues
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had CWA members jumping
to their feet, cheering and clapping wildly Tuesday morning during
speeches in which both candidates pledged support for the Employee Free
Choice Act, health care reform, universal broadband and other key CWA
issues.
The back-to-back appearances at the
Legislative-Political Conference by the two remaining Democratic
candidates for U.S. president drew dozens of reporters and crews from
every major TV network.
Clinton, who spoke first, took note of all the union
members she encounters or benefits from in a given day – from the crew
staffing her plane to hotel and restaurant employees to workers who
built the cars her campaign uses.
"The reason we have been such a rich and successful
country is because of the American labor movement," Clinton said. "For
far too long we've had a president and a vice president who don't
appreciate what you do."
Like Clinton, Obama pledged to fight for and sign the
Employee Free Choice Act. Listing some of the many assaults on workers
and working families over the past seven years, he said, "It's time we
had a president who didn't choke saying the word 'union.' We need to
strengthen our unions by letting them do what they do best – organize.
If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union. It's
that simple."
Both candidates drew loud cheers when they blasted the
Bush administration's proposed free trade deal with Colombia and vowed
to make sure that trade policies in the future protect American jobs.
Clinton said she's angry that the administration and
those in Congress who are hostile to unions have "taken to
questioning the patriotism of those who want to organize workers."
Both candidates pledged to restore the mission of
protecting workers to the Department of Labor and the National Labor
Relations Board, a mission crushed by corporate interests during the
Bush administration. "It's not the Department of Management, it's the
Department of Labor, and we are here to take it back," Obama said.
The nose-diving economy means unions are more important
than ever, Clinton said. "We need unions not just in good times but in
hard times, too - - especially in hard times because you know what it's
like to fight for the underdog."
Obama recalled turning down a job offer on Wall Street
as a young man to work as a community organizer in Chicago
neighborhoods struggling after steel plants closed. Between job
training and other aid, he said, "Block by block, we turned those
neighborhoods around. And it taught me the most valuable lesson of my
life – that ordinary people can do extraordinary things so long as
they're organized and mobilized."
Both candidates said they're committed to the goal of
CWA's Speed Matters campaign to ensure that telecom companies extend
affordable, high-speed internet access to all Americans, bringing the
United States out of the technological basement among developed nations.
The candidates drew major distinctions between
themselves and Republican John McCain on health care, corporate
welfare, trade and more.
The conference's other speakers made the same point,
emphasizing that the working families have two "extraordinary"
candidates to choose between.
CWA and AFL-CIO Ramp Up Fight Against Colombia Trade
Deal
The battle for fair trade vs. free trade accelerated
this week as President Bush sent his Colombia Free Trade Agreement to
Congress, two Democratic candidates for president blasted the deal at
CWA's Legislative-Political Conference and the AFL-CIO launched a
telephone and e-mail campaign to convince lawmakers to reject the deal.
Under "fast track" rules, the House must vote the
agreement up or down without amendment within 60 days. The Senate has
90 days in which to act.
"No free trade with Colombia while violence against
trade unions continues," Sen. Hillary Clinton told CWA conference
participants. "I will vote against it and I will do everything I can to
get Congress to reject it," she added.
Sen. Barrack Obama also condemned the agreement. He
applauded CWA President Larry Cohen "for the role he has played in
making sure the whole world knows about the tragedy of how workers in
Colombia are treated."
Accompanied by representatives of the AFL-CIO and the
Steelworkers, Cohen last week briefed Senate staffers on Capitol Hill,
telling them of the nearly 2,600 murders of unionists in Colombia over
the last 20 years, calling for collective bargaining and organizing
rights in any trade deal and demanding that it begin to address the
United States' $725 billion trade deficit.
In an op-ed piece for USA Today this week, AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney also condemned the Colombia FTA.
"Globalization is here," Sweeney noted. "What is left to
decide is how globalization will impact ordinary people around the
world. We have a choice. The test of trade should not be how much
profit it generates. Trade should lift workers out of poverty and
strengthen democracy. It should take place with countries that have the
capacity to enforce human rights and environmental standards."
Thousands of CWA members have lost manufacturing jobs
due to the international trade imbalance. You can tell your
representative to vote "no" on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement by
calling toll free (866) 338-5720 or by sending an e-mail from the
website at www.unionvoice.org/campaign/no_colombia_trade_deal.
Civil Rights and Equity: 'A Movement ... Not a Moment'
CWA's National Civil Rights and Equity Conference, held
in conjunction with the legislative-political conference, had just
gotten underway the evening of April 9 as the newsletter went to press.
Some 200 participants looked forward over the next three days to
hearing from prominent civil rights activists and participating in
panel discussions and workshops challenging them to more fully
integrate civil rights issues with the union's core work of organizing,
political activism and representation.
In his opening address Wednesday night, CWA President
Larry Cohen noted that just a week ago the nation marked the fortieth
anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in
Memphis, Tenn. "King was a visionary, one of the first who saw the
connection between the civil rights movement and the labor movement,
that both were fighting for social justice and a more equitable
society," Cohen said.
"We've made a great deal of progress," he said, noting
that four seats have been added to the CWA Executive Board which have
been filled by persons of color and women. Alluding to the conference
theme, A Movement .. Not a Moment, "we have to keep this energy going,"
he added, urging participants to work to elect friends of working
families to the White House and Congress in November and to help CWA
achieve passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, health care for all,
jobs and fair trade and retirement security.
"The Employee Free Choice Act is the most important
piece of civil rights legislation we've seen in generations," said CWA
Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach, stressing the importance of
the AFL-CIO's "Million-Member Mobilization" to present one million
cards to the new president and Congress in January urging passage of
EFCA.
Welcomed to Washington, D.C., by Ron Collins, assistant
to District 2 Vice President Pete Catucci and by host Local 2336
President Jim Pappas, the participants were scheduled to hear from
AFL-CIO EVP Arlene Holt-Baker, the first person of color to serve in
one of the federation's top three offices, as well as legendary civil
rights activist Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).
Their agenda included a review of the history of
CWA's civil rights program and presentation of the Mays-Carroll Award
to honor members who over the past year made outstanding contributions
to civil rights and minority practices. The award, named for Eugene
Mays, the first African-American CWA officer and staff member, who
served as assistant to the vice president of District 1 from 1969 until
his death in 1973, and Mary Mays-Carroll, who headed CWA's Civil Rights
and Fair Practices office from 1989 until her retirement in 1999, is to
be presented to Local 6310 member Keith Robinson, Local 1298 member
Tonya Hodges and to Local 1180.
The conference was organized by CWA's National Committee
on Equity: Chair and Local 9421 Executive Vice President Lupe Mercado;
Local 1180 Secretary-Treasurer Gloria Middleton; Local 2300 President
Daisy Brown; Local 3204 Job Steward Sheila Williams; Local 4309
President Pam Wynn; Local 6215 member Michele Flood Luce; Local 37082
President Yoko Kuramoto-Eidsmoe; and Local 13101 member Simone Harris;
along with Leslie Jackson, CWA representative for Civil Rights and Fair
Practices.
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