• Job Security Gained in Tentative Agreement at AT&T Legacy
• Tentative IUE-CWA Pact at GM Improves Retirees' Health Care, Pensions
• CWA District 9 Members Ratify AT&T West Contract
• CWA-COPE Fall Fundraising Drive Kicks Off Sept. 14
• 'Labor in the Pulpits' To Reach 1,000+ Congregations On Weekend
• Online Workers Join TNG-CWA Through Majority Sign Up
• Pentagon Bows to Pressure from TNG to Stop Screening Reporters
• One-Third of Young Workers Struggling to Pay the Bills

Job Security Gained in Tentative Agreement at AT&T Legacy

Bargaining continues for 65,000 members at AT&T including these CWA Local 1298 members who demonstrated for a fair contract last weekend at the AT&T-sponsored Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament in New Haven, Conn.

The tentative three-year agreement CWA reached with AT&T Legacy on Aug. 28 achieves strong employment security protections, maintains workers' standard of living and preserves quality health care. Some 8,000 CWA-represented workers nationwide are covered by the pact.

"This agreement achieves our members' key goal, which was to improve employment security and safeguard jobs," said CWA Communications and Technologies Vice President Ralph Maly, adding, "It also maintains workers' standard of living and safeguards quality health care. In such extremely difficult economic times, these are tremendous achievements," he stated.

In the area of employment security, the settlement sets a "watermark" below which the number of bargaining unit jobs cannot fall, and bars any layoffs until after April 1, 2010. After that date, approximately 80 percent of the Legacy T workforce is protected from involuntary layoffs.

The settlement increases pay about 9 percent over term, including cost of living adjustments, and provides pension band increases of 2 percent in each year. The health care plan now provides for fully-funded preventive care and it establishes new company-funded health reimbursement accounts that can be used toward eligible health care expenses. Both of these gains, along with wage increases and other improvements, will serve to offset some cost changes in the health plan.

The CWA bargaining team unanimously supports the agreement and is recommending ratification by the membership. A contract explanation meeting was held for local presidents on Sept. 2, to kick off the ratification process.

Bargaining continues for about 65,000 CWA-represented members at AT&T. These include AT&T East (CWA Local 1298), Southeast (District 3) and Southwest (District 6). CWA members at AT&T Midwest (CWA District 4) and AT&T West (CWA District 9) overwhelmingly ratified new three-year agreements on Aug. 7 and Sept. 1 respectively.

Tentative IUE-CWA Pact at GM Improves Retirees' Health Care, Pensions

IUE-CWA reached a tentative agreement Sept. 1 with the new General Motors that provides baseline security for retirees facing health care, life insurance, and pension losses after GM's bankruptcy.

Under the agreement, pre-65 retirees and their dependents covered by GM health plans will be eligible for health coverage funded by $467 million from GM until they are Medicare eligible. Retirees 65 and older who are set to lose health care benefits on Jan. 1, 2010 will retain a $1 billion health benefits claim against old GM, now known as Motors Liquidation Co. IUE-CWA remains on the unsecured creditors' committee to maximize recovery for those retirees. All retirees, regardless of age, will receive a $10,000 life insurance policy.

The IUE-CWA secured an agreement from GM that insures that the pensions of Delphi retirees will remain at the same level after its takeover by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Some stood to lose half of their retirement income because the PBGC places some limits on payouts from plans it takes over.

The agreement marks a dramatic turnaround. GM had sought to terminate medical and life insurance coverage for all retirees and their dependents. It also had refused to honor its commitment to protect the pensions of Delphi employees who were former GM employees.

"We were faced with very difficult decisions," said IUE-CWA President Jim Clark. "Every day we hear from severely ill retirees who would literally face a death sentence with the loss of health care, and from retirees who would face bankruptcy if their pensions were slashed.

"Though this package falls short of what our retirees worked years to gain, under these circumstances with two major employers in bankruptcy we are pleased in what we were able to accomplish," he said.

CWA District 9 Members Ratify AT&T West Contract

CWA members at AT&T West overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year agreement at the company by a 3-to-1 margin. The settlement, reached Aug. 9, covers 22,000 CWA-represented workers in California, Nevada and Hawaii.

The agreement achieved members' key goals going into bargaining – maintaining workers' standard of living, safeguarding quality health care for workers and retirees, and enhancing employment security.

The contract will increase pay by about 9 percent over the term, including cost of living adjustments, and provide pension band increases of 2 percent in each year of the agreement, also with cost of living adjustments. Improvements for Prem Techs include wage increases, employment security gains and new work-rule protections.

The health care plan provides for fully-funded preventive care and company-funded health reimbursement accounts that can be used toward any eligible health care expense. The agreement also includes new transfer rights for workers and provides additional employment security improvements.

CWA-COPE Fall Fundraising Drive Kicks Off Sept. 14

With tough battles continuing over health care reform and Employee Free Choice, CWAers are being urged to step up their voluntary contributions to CWA-COPE when the program's fundraising drive kicks off Sept. 14.

Executive Vice President Annie Hill is urging locals and members to raise the bar higher in CWA-COPE giving to support the continuing campaigns to pass health care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act, and other urgent programs.

"As we all know, having dollars in our CWA political action committee allows us to do the important legislative and political work that is so important to the labor movement and the members we represent," said Hill. "We see that fight every day on health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, trade, and more," she said, and "have to build our structure and have it be more active."

Hill said contributing more now will be difficult, as membership is dropping in many key bargaining units. "But, we know it can be done. All we have to do is look at the results many are producing in spite of the downsizing that is occurring," she said. "We need to continue to educate our members about the importance of health care reform and Employee Free Choice."

As part of the campaign which runs through Oct. 23, CWA will be putting together additional resources and the e-Activist network to make this year's fall campaign successful. There will be a contest with prizes and everyone will be able to participate both on a local basis and by district and sector.  Click here for rules and prize information.

Members can make voluntary contributions at the CWA-COPE website http://www.cwa-cope.org/contribute/.

'Labor in the Pulpits' To Reach 1,000+ Congregations On Weekend

More than 1,000 congregations across the country are inviting union members to speak this weekend as part of the annual Labor Day "Labor in the Pulpits" program. Over the years, "Labor in the Pulpits" has helped thousands of churches, temples and other congregations focus their Labor Day weekend services on injustice in the workplace and how religious communities can help workers fight for a living wage, health care and the freedom to form unions.

CWA President Larry Cohen urged members who aren't already scheduled to speak this weekend to ask their church leader for a few minutes to address the congregation. "The faith community shares our values of compassion and justice, but many people in the pews may not fully understand why the Employee Free Choice Act and health care reform are so important," he said. "Your experiences can personalize these issues in a meaningful way."

The CWA communications office wants to know if your local is participating in Labor in the Pulpits. Please e-mail details to news@cwa-union.org by Tuesday, Sept. 8, so we can include them in next week's newsletter. Please send photographs, too.

Allies to Lobby for Employee Free Choice Sept. 10. Supporters of the Employee Free Choice Act from outside the labor movement will be meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Sept. 10. Labor's allies from social justice groups, environmental organizations, faith communities and more will make their pitch for Employee Free Choice. An estimated 250 people from 15 states will make the trip, which is being coordinated by American Rights at Work.

ARAW will mark Labor Day by releasing issuing its fifth annual report, "Labor Day List: Partnerships That Work," on companies that support workers' right to organize. The report will be avaliable at www.araw.org.

Online Workers Join TNG-CWA Through Majority Sign Up

Workers at the progressive website, Truthout.org, joined TNG-CWA in the Guild's first organizing campaign conducted through majority sign up. The 19 workers, scattered across the country, were assisted by Local 36047 in St. Louis.

The organizing campaign was also probably the first to be decided by workers over the Internet. Since all employees as well as the board of directors work at locations from coast to coast, the parties agreed to conduct majority sign up online. Seventeen of the nineteen eligible workers signed cards.

The workers are located in California, Oregon, Illinois, Florida, Washington, D.C. and New York, and most have never met one another. Local 36047 administrative officer Shannon Duffy credits the organizing committee who organized and communicated by telephone, e-mail, and regular mail.

Pentagon Bows to Pressure from TNG to Stop Screening Reporters

Pressure from The Newspaper Guild-CWA and other media organizations has led the Pentagon to back off from its policy of vetting journalists to determine if they are sympathetic to U.S. policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Pentagon had hired a public relations firm to screen journalists who ask to travel with U.S. troops, rating their past coverage as "positive," "neutral" or "negative." Stars and Stripes, the independent voice for U.S. Armed Forces, revealed the Pentagon's $1.5 million contract with the firm last week. The Guild, the International Federation of Journalists and AFTRA immediately called for the program to stop. Stars and Stripes is funded by the Pentagon but remains editorially independent.

"Despite the Pentagon's efforts to portray this as an innocuous exercise, we believe Stars and Stripes convincingly documented that the military was trying to shape coverage of an increasingly unpopular war," Guild President Bernie Lunzer said. "It's ironic that we'd be sending American soldiers to die on behalf of democracy while undercutting the democratic role of a free press, so we're pleased that this error in judgment has been corrected."

One-Third of Young Workers Struggling to Pay the Bills

One-third of workers aged 18 to 35 live at home with their parents and are significantly less likely to have health care or economic security than their counterparts a decade ago, according to a national survey. Labor leaders say the report reinforces the urgency of reaching out to young workers.

Only 31 percent of young workers said they earn enough to cover their bills and put some money aside. Ten years ago, more than half said they earned enough. Now 24 percent say they can't even cover their monthly bills.

Nearly a third of the workers said they have no health insurance, up from 24 percent when the survey was last done in 1999. The vast majority of these, 79 percent, said it is because they can't afford health insurance or because it is not offered by their employers.

The survey, conducted in late July by Hart Research for the AFL-CIO and affiliate Working America, also found that four out of 10 young workers have no sick days and one-third have no paid vacation. Click here for full survey results.