CWA 2008 Legislative Political Conference/Building A Political Movement Labor2008 

CWA has embarked upon a campaign to achieve national health care reform.  We need to begin now by building a movement needed to elect the President and members of Congress who will move our agenda and champion our causes.  The first step in building that movement will be enacting the Employee Free Choice Act.  That legislation is central to rebuilding the labor movement, and we need a revitalized labor movement to press for national health Care.  

1. Employee Free Choice Act contains three components aimed at strengthening the rights of workers who want union representation. 

• First, the bill provides for certification of a union if the NLRB finds that a majority of workers have signed forms designating the union as their Collective bargaining representative. Known as Card Check.

• Second, it mandates first contract mediation and arbitration. The bill specifies that if no agreement on a first contract has been reached after 90 days of bargaining, then either the workers or the employer can request the intervention of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.  If the FMCS is unable to bring the parties to an agreement after 30 days of mediation then the dispute may be referred to binding arbitration and the results of the arbitration will be binding on the parties for two years.

• Third, the EFCA sets forth meaningful remedies against employers when workers are attempting to organize of are seeking a first contract.   The bill increases the monetary penalty for illegal discrimination (including discharge) against workers when they are exercising their legal right to engage in union activity. 

 For too long the National Labor Relations Act has stood as a broken promise to America’s workers. 

    2. Health Care 

Health care has been the most contentious issue which plagues our bargaining and which threatens our standard of living.  For years health care costs have been rising two to three times faster than worker wage increases.  Since 2001, premiums for family health coverage have increased 78 % while average wages have risen only 19 percent, according to a 2008 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation.  As health cost increase, employers that offer coverage are finding it harder to compete domestically with non-union employers that do not offer benefits and globally with companies in countries that have nation health insurance.  

The Current health care system isn’t working for workers, for retirees, for the uninsured or for the employers.  The problems of the health care system are too large to solve at our individual bargaining tables.  As a result, we need to look to legislative and political process to solve our health care problems.  We need national legislation that will deliver health care we can count on.

     3.    Jobs/Fair Trade 

The Bush Administration has negotiated agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.  All are pending Congressional approval The Bush Administration is pushing for consideration of the Colombia Agreement and businesses and the Colombian government are spending millions of dollars to build support for it.  CWA is opposed.  At the legislative conference President Cohen discussed his travels to Colombia.  He discussed the fact that union members have been brutally murdered in Colombia and little has been done to bring the murderers to justice.  At this time it appears that we will have to fight against the Colombia “free” trade agreement at some point this year.  CWA will be on the offense in attempting to pass H.R. 2942, the Ryan Hunter Currency Bill.

The Panama and the South Korean agreements are not likely to be considered this year.  CWA has not taken a formal position on these two agreements and there has been little discussion in Congress regarding consideration of these agreements. More from President Larry Cohen

 4. Retirement Security  

Recent industry-wide bankruptcies have left no doubt that American workers are in desperate need of comprehensive bankruptcy reform legislation to protect their interest.  Seven major airlines along with Delphi, all major employers of CWA members, are among the many companies that have used bankruptcy to drastically reduce labor costs and eliminate pension and health care obligations.  At the same time these companies enhance management compensation, bonuses and equity grants.  On Sept. 25, 2007 Senator Dick Durbin and Rep. John Conyers introduced a bill, the “Protecting Employees and Retirees in Business Bankruptcies Act” (S.292/H.R. 3652).  Under the Durbin/Conyers bill, compensation t corporate “insiders (officers, directors and other persons in control of the debtor), which must be disclosed in a re-org plan, would be subject to approval by the court under a reasonable standard. This legislation will protect workers by:a.     Increasing the Value of workers claims in bankruptcyb.    Reduce the loss of wages and benefitsc.     Increase the parity of worker and executive claims 

 ACTION ITEM:  Call your state representatives and Senators and please ask them to protect the livelihoods and benefits of workers whose futures are threatened by corporate misuse of the bankruptcy code. FIND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE