• Stop the Tax on Health Care! Join the Fight Now! 
• CWA: U.S. Telecom Policy Should Promote Open Internet and Investment
• UPTE One-Day Strike Gets Support of Thousands Across UC System
• Health Care: $100 a Month in Canada vs. $1,100 a Month in the U.S.
• Two CWAers Elected Co-Presidents of Pride at Work
• Vermont AT&T Mobility Retail Workers Join CWA

Stop the Tax on Health Care! Join the Fight Now!

CWAers are making sure that our senators get the message: Don't tax our health care.

The bill produced so far by the Senate Finance Committee is a disaster for working families and retirees.

Here's the worst of it: a 40 percent tax on employer health plans that cost $8,000 or more for individual plans and $21,000 or more for family coverage. This bad idea will hit active and retired CWAers hard. It also will hurt workers and families in rural communities, where a single private insurance company has just about cornered the market, and workers in high-risk occupations. It's bad public policy. 

CWA's research department figured out exactly what this means: Over 10 years, on average, the tax would cost $21,400 per worker with family coverage, $8,500 per worker with single coverage and $23,800 for a pre-Medicare retiree.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that companies are not going to pay this tax, they're going to cut benefits. This will make our country's health care crisis worse, not better.

CWA and the labor movement are fighting back and everyone needs to stand up for what's right. Here's what you can do right now:

Call your senators. Give your name, city and state. Tell him or her that we need health care reform, but taxing health care is the wrong way to go. What's better: all employers should provide health care and the wealthy, individuals who earn more than $280,000 and families earning $350,000, should pay their fair share too.

More on the campaign at www.healthcarevoices.org.

CWA: Telecom Policy Should Promote Open Internet, Investment

CWA reaffirmed the need for U.S. telecom policy to combine the goals of ensuring an open Internet with encouraging investment in a 21st century broadband system, in response to a new initiative announced by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

CWA supports Genachowski's proposal to develop rules to protect an open Internet, but also called on the FCC to move forward in setting rules and policies that will encourage investment, ensure reasonable network management, safeguard transparency, promote media diversity and lead to the growth of good jobs in the telecommunications industry.

That's the only way the United States can regain its standing among industrial nations as a leader in broadband technology, CWA said. 

In the past, the U.S. missed several opportunities to promote the build out of broadband networks. This is more important than ever, if the U.S. is going to encourage investment in next-generation networks and boost our lagging economy. Get more info at www.speedmatters.org.

Currently the U.S. ranks 15th in the world in terms of broadband penetration and 28th in terms of broadband speed. CWA's Speed Matters campaign will continue to focus public attention on what the U.S. must do to ensure that all Americans have access to the promise of high speed Internet.     

UPTE One-Day Strike Gets Support of Thousands Across UC System

Thousands of workers, students and faculty support UPTE-CWA Local 9119 members in unfair labor practice strike at UC campuses.

UPTE-CWA members at the University of California held a one-day unfair labor practice strike that turned into a huge day of action, with thousands of students and faculty members supporting the fight against devastating budget cuts on campuses statewide.

"The administration may have never seen a coalition of students, faculty and staff as strong as ours," UPTE leaders said. "With a united voice we sent a clear message to UC President Mark Yudof, the UC regents and ultimately the governor that their policies are not acceptable."

UC management has threatened CWA members with temporary layoffs, unilaterally increased health care costs, cut other benefits and has refused to bargain fairly over core issues, CWA Local 9119 officers said. The local has filed unfair labor practices charges against UC to force it bargain fairly.

The UC system was hit hard by cuts in state funding, but Yudof has mismanaged those reductions by implementing "illegal, unilateral cuts to the university's core research and educational functions" while giving UC executives raises of up to 30 percent, or $52,000 a year, said CWA Local 9119 President Jelger Kalmijn.

The strike was supported by the University of California Students Association, the Coalition of University Employees and other unions representing UC workers, and faculty and graduate student groups. CWA Local 9119 represents 9,000 technical and research workers.

Health Care: $100 a Month in Canada vs. $1,100 a Month in the U.S.

It's a tale of two CWA members, a father of two working for ABC in the United States, a father of three working for the CBC in Canada.

Chip Catherine, a member of NABET-CWA Local 52031, pays $1,100 a month for health insurance that only covers him. Colin Preston, a TNG Canada member, pays a monthly tax of $108 to cover his entire family. It's deducted from his check just like Social Security is here. He never worries about co-pays or deductibles and never fears losing his coverage because of a pre-existing condition.

These and other CWA members are featured in the Sept.-Oct. issue of the CWA News in mailboxes soon and online at www.cwa-union.org.

Chip and Colin's families, employers and salaries are remarkably similar. But as a daily hire at ABC, Chip isn't eligible for benefits. He struggles to pay his huge insurance bill and isn't even sure it will pay off, because he had a heart attack in 2008 and fears the insurance company will use his "pre-existing condition" to deny coverage when he needs it most. Chip's family is covered by his wife's policy through her hotel job, a policy that won't cover him because of the heart attack.

In Canada, for just about $100 a month, Colin and his family gets excellent health care. He and other CWA members in Canada say their system isn't perfect, but it's far better than living with the fear and potential financial ruin that American workers face.

Two CWAers Elected Co-Presidents of Pride at Work

Two CWAers are the new co-presidents of the national Pride at Work organization, an AFL-CIO group that fights for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The new co-presidents are Stan Kiino, a representative for AFA-CWA's United Airlines Council 11 in San Francisco and a graduate of CWA's Minority Leadership Institute, and Donna Cartwright, a Baltimore-based writer who was a member of The Newspaper Guild-CWA until her retirement from the New York Times. Cartwright is among the first transgender officers of a national LGBT organization.

Delegates to the AFL-CIO convention last week issued a bold call for full inclusion and participation of LGBT workers in American society and union movement by unanimously passing a resolution calling for "A Diverse and Democratic Labor Movement." 

Vermont AT&T Mobility Retail Workers Join CWA

The more than 300 workers at AT&T Mobility who have chosen a CWA voice just in the four weeks are more proof that workers want the Employee Free Choice Act. 

Most recently, in Vermont, 78 percent of 81 AT&T Mobility retail store workers chose CWA representation and Local 1400 through majority sign up. The workers were assisted by local activist Darlene Stone and Ralph Montefusco, a local organizer with the Alliance@IBM/CWA.

Since Aug. 21, 230 workers gained CWA representation through majority sign up at AT&T Mobility in Washington State, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Idaho, and at the online website, truthout.org, which operates in five states and Washington, D.C.