July 10, 2014

Want to be in next week's CWA Newsletter? Send your stories and photos toblog@cwa-union.org or @CWANews. Follow the latest developments atwww.resistancegrowing.org.

North Carolina Pre-season Political Boot Camp

Democracy Update

Reid Vows Senate Rule Revisions to End Gridlock

House Members Push Back Against TPP Negotiators Gutting "BuyAmerican" Policies

House Members Demand the Truth on Trade Data

T-Mobile Is A Two-Faced Union Buster

Union, Community Allies Support SuperShuttle Drivers

Union Plus Scholarship Winners Announced

CWAers Elected to Office

North Carolina Pre-season Political Boot Camp

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As the 2014 midterm elections loom large, members from 16 CWA locals inNorth Carolina gathered in Charlotte this week to participate in an intensiveone-day political training boot camp to prepare.

North Carolina CWAers from 16 locals participate in political training bootcamp. At center is CWA Human Rights Director Chris Kennedy.

Topics covered included learning what's at stake in the Trans-PacificPartnership trade deal that is being negotiated around the world; gettingmoney out of politics; 'Our National Reality: the 40 year Class War'; votingrights; tips for starting a PAF conversation; tips for political organizing; andhow to talk to members about political issues.

Importantly, members also learned about creating the CWA LPAT(Legislative and Political Team) Structure.

In breakout sessions, each of the 16 Locals in attendance at the trainingbegan forming their Local Union Activist Plans and setting clear goals andobjectives for their Local's political agenda.

The atmosphere was energetic and members committed to organize andeducate other members on how to fight back in the political arena.

Democracy Update

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Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Amendment to Get Big MoneyOut of Politics

The Senate moved closer to a vote on getting big money out of politics thisweek as the full Senate Judiciary Committee approved S.J. Res. 19. This isthe Constitutional amendment that would enable Congress and the states tolimit political spending and get big money out of politics. There are 47

cosponsors, including Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) who introduced the measure.

When fully adopted, the Constitutional amendment will repair the damage toour democracy that has occurred as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court'sCitizens United and McCutcheon rulings. Those decisions warped ourpolitical process, giving the richest 0.1 percent the ability to make nearlyunlimited political contributions and drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.

Money isn't speech. This amendment protects free speech and a free press.It will restore the authority of Congress and the states to regulate politicalspending and return our democratic process to the people – where it belongs.

Reid Vows Senate Rule Revisions to End Gridlock

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Despite a little progress in recent months, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reidsays the United States Senate remains dysfunctional, as Republicans stillengage in "obstruction for obstruction's sake" to thwart President Obama'sappointments.

They keep putting up "roadblock after roadblock" and wasting the maximumamount of Senate time in the confirmation of even non-controversialnominees, Sen. Reid (D-NV) said. In 2014 alone, Republicans blocked voteson 23 nominations that they "later voted unanimously to confirm, wastingliterally days of post-cloture time in the process."

"We changed some of the rules," Reid said. "We didn't change that [post-cloture time wasting]...If they're going to continue this, maybe we'll have totake another look at that. It's just outrageous what they've done."

CWA, working with the Fix the Senate Now coalition, was a driving force inwinning the rules changes that broke gridlock to allow some of the president'snominations to receive an up-or-down vote. Reid credited CWA andPresident Cohen for leading the fight to change the Senate rules. In summer2013, 2 million members of Fix the Senate Now organizations mobilized tomake sure the Senate confirmed a full, five-member National Labor RelationsBoard and leaders for top agencies including Richard Cordray to head theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau and Gina McCarthy to lead theEnvironmental Protection Agency.

Later in the year, activists from CWA, Alliance for Justice, Sierra Club,

Common Cause, USAction, Daily Kos, NAACP, UAW, NY Citizen Action,Working Families Party and others again revved up mobilization, with200,000 members of those groups generating calls and emails to theirsenators.

That rule change meant a simple majority vote could confirm executive andmost judicial appointments. Without the arbitrary 60-vote threshold toadvance the nomination, judges are having easier time getting confirmed. InMay, for instance, the Senate confirmed 22 judicial nominees.

But broken Senate rules remain a real block to democracy and to programsthat benefit working families. While the Senate has reduced the judicialbacklog in recent months, 145 nominees remain pending on the Senatecalendar. Too many bills still do not get to the floor for debate despite havingthe support of a majority of senators, like programs to benefit workingfamilies, from extending unemployment insurance to support for veterans to abill to allow students to refinance their crushing student loan debt.

House Members Push Back Against TPP Negotiators Gutting "Buy American"Policies

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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) is focusing attention on another sneaky provisionin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, with negotiations again underway in Ottawa,Canada. This time, negotiators are looking to nullify the "Buy American" and"Buy Local" policies meant to create and keep jobs in the U.S.

"It's the worst trade agreement that you never heard of," Rep. Ellison said in avideo. "Buy American could well be a thing of the past if the Trans-PacificPartnership gets passed in the way that we understand it to be right now. Wehave people on both sides of the aisle who are very concerned about the BuyAmerican provisions and that U.S. government procurement buying powershould benefit U.S. workers."

Watch Ellison's comments here.

CWA Minnesota State Council President Mona Meyer praised Ellison for hisdeep commitment and for being an important ally on this issue. CWAMinnesota has been integral in the fight against the TPP, distributing flyersand holding public rallies, writing letters to the state's Congressionaldelegation questioning why Vietnam, which is notorious for child-labor

violations, is taking part in the negotiations.

"We've learned so much about TPP and have not yet found anything goodcoming out of the TPP negotiations," Meyer said. "CWA Minnesota tells thestory and makes connections with people. What lasts with people is ourstories. Those make the impact. What we have and how we could loseeverything we have with this destructive, horrible TPP free trade deal."

Passed in 1933, the Buy American Act requires the U.S. government toprefer products made in the U.S. in its purchases. Other Federal laws extendthe requirements to third-party purchases that use Federal funds, such ashighway and transit programs.

End runs have been made around the policy in past international trade dealsbut the current round of TPP negotiations, which started on July 3 and isexpected to last until July 12, may do away with the policy entirely because ofthe sheer size of the deal and the number of nations seeking to participate.

Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) have written aletter to President Barack Obama that they are circulating among Housecolleagues for signatures of support asking the president to make sure U.S.trade negotiators do not undermine the policy in negotiations.

They point out in the letter that 70 House members had written the presidentin May 2012 raising concerns about TPP proposals under consideration thatwould greatly limit the Buy American policies, adversely affecting Americanjobs, workers and manufacturers.

"It is our understanding that now, two years later, U.S. TPP negotiators haveagreed to provisions that would require all firms operating in any TPPsignatory country to be treated the same as U.S. firms with respect togranting them U.S. government procurement contracts," they wrote in theirletter. "Effectively, in exchange for procurement opportunities for some U.S.firms to bid on contracts in foreign procurement markets, we would agree totrade away our ability to ensure that billions in U.S. government expendituresare recycled into our economy to create jobs, strengthen our manufacturingsector, and foster our own new cutting-edge industries."

Ellison said U.S. negotiators are going about the TPP deal all wrong,negotiating it in secret with corporations in the room but shutting outCongress while doling out piecemeal information to elected leaders.

"Trade is reality so trade deals should lift labor standards around the world,not just create this race to the bottom," Rep. Ellison said.

House Members Demand the Truth on Trade Data

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Four Members of Congress today demanded the United States TradeRepresentative stop trying to snow the American people and Congress withskewed statistics as he attempts to rationalize a new job-killing internationaltrade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"They're cooking the books to justify this race to the bottom," Rep. BarbaraLee (D-CA) said at a news conference, joined by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT),Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and Paul Tonko (D-NY).

Congressional staffers holding charts reflecting true NAFTA data that showjob losses and trade deficits flank Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (CA), RosaDeLauro (Conn.), Paul Tonko (NY), and Marcy Kaptur (OH).

With the U.S. Capitol as backdrop, the four announced that they and tenother colleagues signed a letter to Ambassador Michael Froman, the U.S.Trade Representative, demanding that the agency stop counting foreign-made goods that pass through the United States on their way to anothercountry as American imports.

Read the letter here.

A true view of trade data shows that USTR claims that the United States hasrun trade surpluses with our North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)partners over the last 20 years are nonsense and should be disregarded asthe U.S. negotiates the new Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.

"Cargo being unloaded at the Port of Oakland and trucked to Mexico are notU.S. exports," Rep. Lee said. "What this shows is that they are playing with

the numbers to make it look better."

The letter further expresses the Members of Congress' concern that theincorrect and skewed data "might paint a rosier picture of the impact of freetrade agreements than reality suggests."

"Isn't it interesting that we are arguing about goods, not jobs," Rep. Kaptursaid. "The United States Trade Representative does not count people."

Rep. Tonko said his district in Upstate New York has lost thousands ofmanufacturing jobs since NAFTA was signed 20 years ago, and workingAmericans should demand the truth about job impacts from their governmentwhen it negotiates new trade agreements.

"Re-exports do not support American production jobs," Rep. Tonko said.

T-Mobile Is A Two-Faced Union Buster

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There are two sides to T-Mobile.

On one side in Germany, it's the American subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, aGerman communications company that respects its workers and hasenshrined collective bargaining rights in its social charter. Deutsche Telekomhas endorsed the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,also commonly known as the "Ruggie Principles."

On the other side in the United States, Deutsche Telekom fosters anatmosphere of fear and intimidation in its U.S. workplaces – conditionsunacceptable in Germany. T-Mobile workers who want to form a union areharassed, bullied and put under surveillance. And given the chance tosupport a shareholder proposal urging T-Mobile to disclose how it assesseshuman rights risks in its operations and supply chain, Deutsche Telekom,which owns 67 percent of T-Mobile's outstanding shares, voted in opposition.

Lothar Schröder, leader of the German union ver.di, exposed this two-facedcorporate governance two years ago in a presentation to the DeutscheTelekom board of directors. He pointed out that U.S. T-Mobile managersoften "pressure workers to pursue dishonest sales strategies" and"sometimes managers make unauthorized charges after the sale." Schröderalso told the board that some call center workers have been forced to wear

dunce caps for not meeting "unreachable expectations" and write essaysabout their failures at work.

T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom did nothing.

But workers are at last getting justice. Recently the National Labor RelationsBoard has taken the extraordinary step of consolidating the cases broughtagainst the company. Consolidation will allow the NLRB to issue moreeffective remedies to finally stop T-Mobile's outrageous conduct, as itrequires one hearing officer to hear all complaints, witnesses and evidence.The company will need to defend its systemic anti-union behavior in oneproceeding, and the NLRB will be able to order broad relief for employees atevery T-Mobile store and call center.

In a few months, the NLRB will hold a hearing in Albuquerque, N.M., where atleast two T-Mobile workers were unjustly disciplined after being identified asunion activists, then fired after they made their support public.

Union, Community Allies Support SuperShuttle Drivers

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SuperShuttle drivers, members of CWA Local 7777, recently launched aseries of public demonstrations to raise awareness about the company'sunmerited proposal to cut their pay by 30 percent.

SuperShuttle drivers, members of CWA Local 7777, and supporters from theDenver community and labor movement, hold a silent protest in Denver

International Airport over a 30 percent cut the company implemented.

On Monday, more than 30 activists marched through Denver InternationalAirport. CWA, IAM, Denver Area Labor Federation, Jobs with Justice andFRESC members joined SuperShuttle drivers in their silent demonstration,wearing bright yellow t-shirts reading, "SUPPORT SUPERSHUTTLEDRIVERS." Four international transportation groups also sent letters ofsupport on the day of action.

"They knew doing this would be a big deal, so they wanted to say, 'Eventhough we're across the ocean, we stand with you guys.' That was reallyawesome," District 7 Organizing Coordinator Al Kogler said.

Members of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) andaffiliated unions from around the world show their solidarity with SuperShuttledrivers. SuperShuttle is owned by the French firm Veolia.

Read more at The Denver Post.

Drivers also rallied their union brothers and sisters at NEA's annualconvention in Denver last weekend. NEA President Dennis van Roekel talkedabout the drivers' struggles from the podium. He urged delegates to sign apetition and palm cards asking management "to return to the bargainingtable" because "every worker deserves a voice on the job and the protectionof a contract." At the end of convention, departing NEA members requestedblue van service to the airport and decorated their bags with bright yellowluggage tags reading, "Standing with Denver SuperShuttle Drivers."

And last month, Jobs with Justice helped drivers hold a Workers' RightsBoard, a public forum for workers to bring complaints against employers forviolating their human and legal rights. The Boulder Weekly reported:

Noureddine Berezqi came from Morocco and began with SuperShuttlein 1997.

"Drivers were able to work comfortable schedules in order to fulfill their

personal financial needs," he said.

After the French multinational Veolia purchased SuperShuttle in 2002,drivers in Denver saw their income fall when SuperShuttle begancontracting with more franchisees, which reduced opportunities forfares. Drivers now put in 60-hour weeks, working six to seven dayseach week.

CWAers distribute luggage tags and materials to members of the NationalEducation Association who were meeting in Denver. At the airport, NEAersshowed their support for the drivers' fight for a fair contract.

"Exhausting schedules left workers no time for bathroom breaks whileworking 10- to 12-hour shifts," Berezqi said. "There were harsh newdisciplinary actions with no justification. The company began firing andsuspending drivers without cause or for minor infractions."

Berezqi said there was verbal abuse with racial and religious slurs. Themajority of Denver SuperShuttle drivers are black African immigrants.Many are Muslims. There was a supervisor who joked about the highturnover of drivers by saying "Muhammed comes, Muhammed goes"and "Monkey comes, monkey goes."

Stand up with the SuperShuttle drivers. Click here to send a message toSuperShuttle management. And like them on Facebook.

Union Plus Scholarship Winners Announced

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The daughter of Lisette Castillo, a member of CWA Local 1032, has beenawarded a $2,000 Union Plus scholarship.

Gabilis Castillo of Yonkers, N.Y., graduated first in her class. Her maternalgrandparents came to America from the Dominican Republic "to advancetheir way of life and to seek a future for their children," Gabilis said. Hermother was able to attain economic security and opportunity through hardwork and her more than 20 years of union membership.

Gabilis plans to study business management at college and plans to becomea psychiatrist.

For 2014, Union Plus awarded $150,000 in scholarships to 116 studentsrepresenting 39 unions. Union Plus Scholarship awards are granted tostudents attending a two-year college, four-year college, graduate school or arecognized technical or trade school. Since starting the program in 1991,Union Plus has awarded more than $3.6 million in educational funding tomore than 2,400 union members, spouses and dependent children.

Learn more at www.UnionPlus.org/Education.

CWAers Elected to Office

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Lizette Parker, a member of CWA Local 1031, was sworn in this week asmayor of Teaneck, NJ.

CWA Local 1031 member Lizette Parker was sworn in as Mayor of Teaneck,NJ.

She was first elected as council woman on the Teaneck Township Council in2006 and had been re-elected in May 2014. She was unanimously voted asmayor by the township council, becoming the first African American woman toserve as mayor in Teaneck and Bergen County, N.J.

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