Remarks on the Southwest Core Contract
Posted: March 1, 2013 | Author: Patton | Filed under: Announcement, Bargaining | Leave a comment »Brothers and Sisters, as we all know at this point District 6 is declaring that the AT&T Southwest Tentative Agreement has passed. I don’t think anyone should be surprised by this announcement; when our leadership declared that they had a ‘new’ TA which contained only two minor changes, and that they were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars to modify how votes were cast and counted it was very clear that they were attempting to manipulate the vote.
District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings stated that his intent was to make sure that more people voted, as ‘very few’ votes caused the first tentative agreement to fail. At the time of this writing (3/1/2013) District 6 has made a brief announcement that the new agreement passed, but is either unwilling or unable to provide any vote total information. This should come as no surprise; Vice President Cummings has been uncommunicative about vote specifics in the past. This lack of transparency has long been a point of concern. Here at CWA Local 6203, we announce yes and no vote totals to our members whenever there’s a vote; we feel that the members are entitled to this information.
We also make it easy to vote at CWA Local 6203; our Secretary-Treasurer traditionally visits each job site, verifies the identity and membership status of a member and then allows that member to cast a secret ballot. We also make voting available at the union hall, and our officers volunteer a lot of extra time to make sure that everyone interested in casting a ballot has the ability to do so.
Let’s compare that to this new contract. District 6 had ballots mailed out directly to members. Those who did not receive a ballot were instructed to call Scott Boswell of the American Arbitration Association during a three hour window by 2/21/2013. This announcement was posted to Facebook on 2/14/2013, giving members six total opportunities to request a ballot; all of them during regular work hours. I don’t suppose District 6 was intending to pay lost time to members who had no choice but to take time away from their job duties to request a ballot. Keep in mind that the rules stated that the only person who could request a ballot was the member who had not received a ballot; our membership was specifically barred from seeking assistance from our locals on this important matter.
On the one hand, we have a member-friendly approach to voting, one that allows members the choice to either vote before or after work, on a break, or during lunch at their place of employment and also affords members the ability to vote off-site at the local itself. On the other hand, we have mail in ballots which may or may not have been mailed out and an extremely short time frame for requesting a ballot should one not arrive in a timely manner. This is pretty classic vote suppression. It seems like Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and District 6 Vice President Claude Cummings are of the same mind when it comes to voting rights.
Now, a lot of people are talking about what should be done about this. District 6 has recently purged the vast majority of comments from their Facebook page and posted a ‘commenting policy’ to explain it. It’s a sad comment on the state of things that District 6 is more interested in censoring the Facebook comments of its members than it is in bargaining with AT&T Southwest.
Before the great purge, there were several calls to either leave or attempt to decertify the union. Look folks, AT&T Southwest would like nothing more than for us to take these actions. So-called “Right To Work†laws are designed specifically to bankrupt unions so that we have no job protections whatsoever. Decertification of the union would be the end of the contract, and I am sure that AT&T Southwest would lose no time in eliminating pensions, destroying benefits and slashing pay. These are not the answers.
The answer is our leadership. We need leaders with a good grounding in what a union is supposed to be, one who will fight tirelessly for our membership. We need people who understand – truly understand – that generations of workers who came before us literally fought and died for things like an 8 hour work day. Everything we have was paid for in blood, and it’s so easy for uncaring leadership to throw it all away.
National President Larry Cohen often talks about coalition and movement building; we’re often told that we’re just not in quite good enough a position to hang onto everything we have. Wrong. The companies we work for are enjoying year after year of record profits. The CEO’s of America’s companies make more money than every single American Union Worker combined. It shouldn’t be this way.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is reported to have made over $22 million dollars in 2011 – and his healthcare is paid for, too. Does Randall Stephenson deserve a good salary? Absolutely. He runs a great company, and he runs it well. Can Randall Stephenson and AT&T afford to take far, far better care of its employees? Absolutely. Easily. Would executive multi-million dollar pay packages suffer if they did? Probably. If an executive has to make ends meet with a few million less dollars per year so that the people at the bottom can both put food on the table each day and go see a doctor once a year then that’s a fair trade.
Personally, I work for AT&T Mobility and am not directly affected by this contract, but I cannot sit idly by while my fellow members and our community are hurt like this. Offsetting raises with rising healthcare and spiraling retirement hurts the community at large. Solidarity isn’t just a catch phrase; we are literally all in this fight together, from the member who hired on yesterday all the way to the top.
We need leaders who understand and live the union vision and life. Vice President Claude Cummings has proven that he is not such a leader. I’m not sure what would motivate our leadership to endorse this contract, but it’s clear that the good of the members was not on their minds. Let’s make sure that when we have the chance to select our leaders, we select leaders who will consistently put the membership first. In the meantime, there are actions we can take to make sure we are heard on this contract. The CWA Constitution has provisions for filing a complaint against the union or its officers. The rules state that all complaints must be in writing, signed and submitted to the president of the union within sixty days of the time the complainant becomes aware of an alleged violation. I feel that ignoring the voice of the membership and taking steps to force the ratification of an unwanted contract is a violation and that complaints are warranted. If you agree, take the time to file a complaint. Get together with other members of your local and file complaints as a group. Be heard!
If there’s anything I can do to help, please feel free to contact me any time.
In actual solidarity,
Curtis R. Martin
806-786-5192
