The most important
work we do at CWA is at the bargaining table, gaining better wages,
working conditions and terms of employment for our members. But again
and again, we see how many advances made at the bargaining table can be
lost through a single action of Congress or a state legislature.
Virtually every day Congress and state legislatures across the country
make decisions that vitally affect us-regarding telecommunicationspolicy, taxes, social
security, safety and health, the budget, pensions, our children's
schools. The list is endless.
The concerns of
working families are every bit as valid as those of corporate interests.
Union members know that working families have the right to be heard in
the American political process. Without their voice, there would be no
employer-provided health care, no minimum wage, no overtime pay, no job
safety protections, and no retirement or job security.
The
Employee Free Choice Act with Video
The
right of workers to organize and bargain collectively is a longstanding
American value. It has so helped build a strong middle class and a
strong nation, that it is a now principle enshrined in international
agreements. It is a core standard that the United States uses to measure
adherence to democratic norms throughout the world.
Yet across America, workers are being stripped of
this basic freedom.
Each year, more than 20,000 workers are illegally
fired or discriminated against for exercising attempting to organize.
Many employers make an art of it - hiring union busting "consultants" to
help defeat organizing drives. And even if employees overcome all the
odds, in one-third of all union election victories, workers still do not
have a collective bargaining agreement two years after the election.
42 million workers who are not in a union have
say they would like to be represented by one. 42 million workers - more
than three times the number of workers presently represented by unions
in the United States. 42 million workers who are unable to exercise
their rights. More about
The Employee Free Choice Act.....
Please watch the video concerning The Employee Free Choice Act by
clicking on the picture below:
Last
year, forces from anti-union coalitions introduced and filed to put
"Right to Work for Less" on the Colorado Ballot. These out of state
sponsors have had a Colorado Legislator introduce it periodically in the
State Legislature without success. Once that Initiative was introduced,
workers from Colorado decided to fight back. CWA has been a major
stakeholder and is committed to fighting back anywhere workplace justice
is in danger.
When the Colorado AFL-CIO needed someone to be a proponent for an
initiative regarding Corporate Crime, they called upon CWA because of
it's ties with some of the worst corporate criminals in
telecommunications history. Lew Ellingson is a Staff Representative for
the Communications Workers of America and a Qwest retiree and agreed to
be one of the 2 proponents of this measure. This initiative has gotten a
lot of attention because it appears that some businesses believe that
holding corporate criminals accountable for their crimes hurts the
economy in some way. Below is an article about this Colorado struggle:
By DAN FROSCH,
DENVER — For 30
years, Lew Ellingson loved being a telephone man.
His
job splicing phone cables was one that he says gave him “a true sense of
accomplishment,” first for Northwestern Bell, then US West and finallyQwest Communications International.
But by the time Mr. Ellingson retired from Qwest last year at 52, he had
grown angry. An insider trading scandal had damaged the company’s
reputation, and the life savings of former colleagues had evaporated in
the face of Qwest’s stock troubles.
“It was a good place,” he said wistfully. “And then something like this
happened.”
Now, Mr. Ellingson is the public face of a proposed ballot measure in
Colorado that seeks to create what supporters hope will be the nation’s
toughest corporate fraud law.
Buttressed by local advocacy groups and criticized by a Colorado
business organization, the measure would make business executives
criminally responsible if their companies run afoul of the law. It would
also permit any Colorado resident to sue the executives under such
circumstances. Proceeds from successful suits would go to the state.
If passed by voters in November, the proposal would leave top business
officers having unprecedented individual accountability, said Mr.
Ellingson, a member of Protect Colorado’s Future, a coalition of
advocacy groups that supports the initiative.
“If nothing else, these folks in charge of the corporations and
companies will think twice about cutting corners to make themselves look
more profitable than they really are,” he said.
The plight of Mr. Ellingson’s former employer, Qwest, based in Denver,
was a motivation for the proposal, said Jess Knox, executive director of
Protect Colorado’s Future.
Last April, a jury in Denver convicted Qwest’s former chief executive,
Joseph P. Nacchio, of 19 of 42 counts of insider trading. Mr. Nacchio
was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $19
million and forfeit $52 million in money he earned from stock sales in
2001.
In March, however, a federal appeals court panel reversed the conviction
on the grounds that a judge had improperly excluded expert defense
testimony.
The panel ordered that Mr. Nacchio receive a new trial in front of a
different judge.
“The reality is that for years, not just in Colorado but in many states,
citizen taxpayers have paid the price for C.E.O.’s and companies who
break the rules in order to get ahead,” Mr. Knox said.
Ultimately, the proposal would extend criminal and civil liability to
executives who knew about corporate fraud and did nothing to stop it,
but who were not necessarily involved in it, said Mark Grueskin, a
lawyer for Protect Colorado’s Future.
Not surprisingly, the proposal, and subsequent versions with alternative
language that have been suggested by Protect Colorado’s Future, has
generated sharp opposition from Colorado’s business community.
If the measure is approved, some fear that the courts will become
overwhelmed with frivolous lawsuits. Those lawsuits, in turn, could
bankrupt small and midsize companies and make it more difficult for
legitimate lawsuits to succeed, said Joe Blake, president and chief
executive of the Denver Metro
Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re very concerned that any number of people could crowd the docket
and frustrate the court system with suits that are perhaps
well-intentioned but highly frivolous,” he said. “We’re going to have
chaos out here.”
Mr. Grueskin countered that the measure would parallel current state law
and require plaintiffs to pay for their lawsuits if a court ruled that
they were frivolous.
“There is an inherent disincentive to use this as a means for a gadfly
to act as a corporate obstructionist,” he said. “I would be surprised if
there would be many responsible companies that would have a problems
with this.”
Legal fees aside, Dean Krehmeyer, executive director of the Business
Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics at the University of Virginia,
which conducts ethics training for executives and directors, says the
litigious nature of the measure could create a chasm between businesses
and their communities.
“Leading business organizations and communities can create value by
working in partnership, not necessarily by using the courts as a first
option,” he said.
The measure, whose language was already approved by a state title board,
must receive 76,000 signatures in support within six months to be placed
on the November ballot. Protect Colorado’s Future said it planned to
start a signature campaign.
A lawyer for the chamber of commerce, Doug Friednash, said the business
group would file a challenge to the proposal in Colorado Supreme Court
on Tuesday. He said the language could mislead voters into thinking they
were supporting a measure that simply cracked down on crooked
executives, as opposed to one that left business owners and other
employees susceptible to lawsuits.
But Protect Colorado’s Future has already drafted a modified version,
cleared by the review board, that limits the initiative to executive
officials, its true intention, the group said. The chamber of commerce,
has asked the board to reconsider its decision on that version at a
hearing on Wednesday.
Regardless of which version of the measure is put to voters, Mr.
Ellingson predicts that Coloradoans, with the fallout from Qwest still
fresh, will back the proposal in overwhelming numbers.
“I don’t know who can oppose this. This is common sense,” he said. “We
need businesses to survive, but we don’t need criminals running them.”
Spurred on by President Cohen’s
call to action, CWA Local 7019's
officers and members with support from IBEW and AFSCME, met at Senator
John McCain’s Phoenix office to ask the Senator to support the Employee
Free Choice Act.
The Senator was unavailable to
meet with his constituents, to address our concerns or allow us the
opportunity to ask for his support. The Senator was out of the office
drumming up support for his current campaign As of May 31st,
Senator McCain has not lent his support to this important
legislation.
As employees
represented by CWA, we have not seen the fight that others see when
trying to form a union. We don’t see how companies intimidate
employees with their jobs if they’re even caught talking to a union
representative. The Employee Free Choice Act is supported by many
Legislators and will ensure that workers can form a union without the
fear of retaliation. However, Senator John McCain (R) has not seen fit
to make his position known on this very important issue. CWA took it to
his office and the streets.
Last
year, forces from anti-union coalitions introduced and filed to put
"Right to Work for Less" on the Colorado Ballot. These out of state
sponsors have had a Colorado Legislator introduce it periodically in the
State Legislature without success. Once that Initiative was introduced,
workers from Colorado decided to fight back. CWA has been a major
stakeholder and is committed to fighting back anywhere workplace justice
is in danger. 
His
job splicing phone cables was one that he says gave him “a true sense of
accomplishment,” first for Northwestern Bell, then US West and finally
