We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180

More documents

Recommendations

Info

8 J u l y /Au g u s t ’11 C o m m u n i q u e Harold Williams: 40 years at HRA It’s a lot of years and Harold is still smiling. When the official ceremony camera lost its juice and the photograph had to be taken by the Communique photographer, manager Anna Butterfield (pictured) said, “Thank God for the union.” HRW. WOW! What a contract Human Rights Watch contract a breath of life What did they win at Human Rights Watch? Base salaries will rise by three percent each year, and incumbent employees will get four percent each year. Fully paid medical for all employees working 50 percent time (it had been 60 percent), and improved differentials for education, prior work experience, and foreign language fluency. Also, improvements in overtime (double time after 55 hours), on call pay, paid parental leave, meal and FMLA training The negotiating committee: Kyle Knight, Valerie Kirkpatrick, Jake Scobey-Thal, Brittany Mitchell, and Daniela Ramirez. Not in the photo is Adam Coogle. car allowances for late-night work. And agreement on side letters concerning promotions and tightenedup language on job descriptions. There are no givebacks. “It was about mutual respect,” said NYC shop steward Kyle Knight, “on both sides of the table. When there was tension we joked about settling issues by arm wrestling.” The last contract at HRW was con- More than 40 members and shop stewards took part in a Family and Medical Leave Act training on June 4 led by Alan Goldblatt. “FMLA is the place of last resort for people who have self and family illness and no time or leave left,” said Department of Environmental Protection steward Dan Cunningham. Administration for Children’s Services steward Bonnie Sanders added, “With this training I’m better able to help our members at ACS, an agency that doesn’t want to grant FMLA. ACS doesn’t help employees understand the process. They say ‘read the instructions.’ I’ll be able to help people get around the obstacles set up by Personnel.” tentious. Neither side was interested in repeating that history. Even though most of those at the table were not at the agency previously, the power of anecdote was present. Washington, D.C. shop steward Valerie Kirkpatrick said that the last negotiating committee had “created packets for us that were locked in file cabinets for this negotiation” with research and issues they had fought for but not won. Those issues were still alive. Arguing smart Six months prior to negotiations the committee began its research and had data on all the jobs at HRW. “We had completely legitimate demands about working at HRW,” said Knight. “We turned HRW methodology on itself—our demands reflected the reality of work at HRW.” “We did really well,” said Kirkpatrick, “crafting arguments that were hard to say “no” to. We argued smart, always keeping things on target. “Sometimes it was frustrating” she said, “playing the game. I just wanted to walk in and get what we wanted, no haggling. We were frank and honest with each other. We met at a place close to our mutual bottom lines.” Kirkpatrick would do it again: ”The good time together, the camaraderie, the connection with the others, and being proud of the job we did.” –GS photos paGe 8: Gary schoichet
Let’s reclaim our country “ We must all hang together, or assuredly, we shall all hang separately,” Benjamin Franklin said at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Those words are just as relevant today as many of us wonder if our jobs are secure, wonder if pay raises will keep up with rising prices, wonder if our benefits and pensions will remain whole, worry about the prospects for our children, many of whom will graduate but stay home, unable to find affordable housing and unlikely to find a job that offers benefits, a pension, and pays enough to move out. Most New Yorkers and Americans who carry these burdens look at them as private, personal issues rather than as the broad systemic problems they are. Millions of Americans were aggressively sold loans and investments filled with what Elizabeth Warren, President Obama’s choice to run the Consumer Affairs Agency—and Republicans’ nemesis—describes as “tricks and traps.” She pointed T he jobs numbers for May are out, and but for a minor blip in 2011, we have suffered through a steady unemployment rate exceeding 9% for a solid two years. We can rail all we want about how President Barack Obama has not been bold enough, has not led forcefully enough around a progressive agenda, has made needless compromises with the Republicans and the “Republican lights” in his own party on healthcare reform, the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and stimulus. We can realize that this President was never the progressive that some hoped he would be and that his anti-Iraq war stance really meant a pro-Afghanistan war footing. We can criticize him for not using his political muscle to aggressively promote labor law reform through the Employee Free Choice Act We can do all those things, sit on the sidelines and sulk about the great disappointment that has thus far been the hallmark of the Obama out that consumers have more legal protections when buying a toaster than they do a financial product like a student loan, credit card, or mortgage. We must organize How did this happen? Our corporate masters have hijacked our political process and are dismantling our democracy. Over the last 30 years, they told us to be good consumers. Forget about being good citizens. Business rules. What’s good for us is good for you. We’re rich and know what’s good for you. They told us the freedom to shop is our most important freedom, that presidency and sit on our hands, undermining his chances for a second term. But we would be wrong. Instead, we ought to be putting forward our own working-class agenda. Local 1180 has led among unions in the labor movement advocating for such things as peace and a Medicare-for-all single payer health care system. And this is not to advocate that we should abandon those important principles. But if we cannot successfully push this president and the Democrats to do something meaningful and dramatic about the jobs crisis, we open the doors for more Scott Walkers, C o m m u n i q u e president’s column by Arthur cheliotes acheliotes@cwa1180.org It is foolish to think that we can all engage in our individual fights and survive for long. shopping is patriotic. So get government off our backs! Liberate the banks and Wall Street so they are free to make more loans. Cut taxes and government spending; private industry can do it cheaper. After 2008 most of us now understand that they are frauds and criminals. The freedom to shop is servitude to impulse and selfishness. Yet we remain a divided nation unable to understand the common struggles we all face because we are manipulated by the media they control, which creates phony issues that diverts our attention from the tremendous burden the elite rich have placed on our nation and society. Let’s make Barack Obama all that he can be 2 nd vice president’s column by Bill Henning bhenning@cwa1180.org Putting people to work should be lawmakers’ top priority. John Boehners, and Chris Christies to dominate the political discourse in 2012 and beyond. Protecting the already dangerously fraying safety nets of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid looms as our immediate priority. Fortunately, the Democrats got a view of how winning a strategy that can be with the upset by their candidate Kathy Hochul in the special election in the seemingly safe Republican enclave of the 26th Congressional District in upstate New York. Fighting cuts and crippling privatization of these most successful and popular government programs can launch the defense of a new New Deal. J u l y /Au g u s t ’11 9 We cannot fight the rich as individuals. We must organize. Nor can individual unions fight alone. We must come together as a labor movement to rebuild our nation, to rebuild the middle class, and reclaim our democracy. We are not servile consumers. We are citizens who can shape the course of our city, state, and nation when we stand together. Like Ben Franklin and the signers of the Declaration of Independence understood in 1776 and the people of Wisconsin understand now, when working people are organized, we have power. When private sector workers locked arms with public sector workers to fight for collective bargaining in Wisconsin, the journey back to government by and for the people started once again. The labor movement in New York must do the same. It is foolish to think that we can all engage in our individual fights and survive for long. It is not just about our wages, benefits, and pensions. It is about our democracy. How much more effective might it be if we prod these lawmakers to make putting people to work their top priority. Not only will it be a welcome relief to those unemployed, many of whom have been jobless for more than six months, but the spending generated would further stimulate the private sector jobs activity. The federal deficit be damned. It is not important. We need an immediate jump start from the federal government to states and localities that are lashed to budgets which cannot legally be in deficit (unlike the federal government). Preventing further job erosion in the government sector will go a long way toward turning this jobless ship around. And maybe—just maybe—we can see if our movement can be galvanized to make Obama the leader of hope and change in 2012 that we hoped would surface earlier. But we’ll never do it as spectators or armchair critics.
Page 1 and 2: Communique July/August 2011 A union
Page 3 and 4: By Lorraine Gamble-Lofton In 2008 w
Page 5 and 6: The American Taliban war on women B
Page 7: ers and then engage in actions to b
Page 11 and 12: Local 1180 elections coming this fa

We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?