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Five Free Tools for Running Online Campaigns
3:45pm-5:00pm
Online actions e-mail and social media can help you expand the reach of your campaigns within your local membership and in your community. In this workshop, you'll learn about free tools that you can use to set up effective online actions, send bulk e-mail, create great looking websites, make amazing graphics and find out just how well your social media posts are working.
Global Threats to US Aviation Workers
3:45pm-5:00pm
This panel discussion will explore the trends in global aviation policy and their impact on aviation workers. The panel will examine the emergence of an aviation “flag of convenience” scheme, complications of State Owned Enterprise (SOE) subsidies on Open Skies Agreements and the impacts these policies on domestic aviation.
Citizens United Opened the Floodgates. We can stem the Tide.
2:15pm-3:30pm
This panel will focus on money’s influence in the 2016 election cycle and reforms that actually work at the state and local level. Particular focus will be on the Government by the People Act, and the successful campaign for small donor public match in Maine.
James Crow, Esquire: The Pernicious Effort to Suppress the Vote and How we Fight Back
3:45pm-5:00pm
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Shelby, a rash of suppressive voting laws were introduced in legislatures across the country. This panel will take a look at these efforts, as well has how we can act to expand voting rights. With the back drop of the 2016 elections, what proactive opportunities are there to win on these issues?
Toward an Economy for All: How Family Friendly Policies Help All Working Americans
2:15pm-3:30pm
This panel will be on how family friendly policies, such as flexible, predictable schedules, universal paid family and medical leave, and paid sick days, would have a dramatic positive impact on the economic well-being of working families across the country.
Telecom Policy Issues
2:15pm-3:30pm
CWA is re-launching its Speed Matters campaign to focus on Digital Equality for All. Our fight against economic inequality must include building alliances to close the digital divide. How can CWA promote good union jobs, investment, consumer protections, and equitable access to high-speed broadband networks? This workshop will discuss the challenges we face in the rapidly changing telecommunications industry and CWA strategies to address those challenges. We will highlight policies to close the persistent digital divide, encourage investment by union employers in next-generation networks, protect jobs and consumers in the transition to Internet Protocol (IP) networks, and how to build alliances with progressive groups around these issues.
People Power: A Guide to Effective Lobbying
2:15pm-3:30pm
Lobbying is an important part of any legislative or political strategy - but not in the way you think. While corporations use their profits to spend billions on armies of former Congress members and an army of former Congressional staff, we have to rely on our greatest strength: our members and the collective power of a unified message. In this workshop we'll talk about effective grassroots lobbying strategies, including how to network and build a successful coalition, organize lobbying materials and hear directly from Congressional staff on what we can do to be as effective as possible in getting Members of Congress to support our issues.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: It's worse than we thought
2:15pm-3:30pm, repeated at 3:45pm-5:00pm
For several years, top secret negotiations on the details of the TPP trade agreement have been ongoing between the US and 11 other countries. Last year, the agreement was finally reached and the text finally made public. Now that we have finally been able to see all the language, what was included and what was not included, we know why they kept it secret for so long. This workshop will focus on explaining the worst aspects of the TPP and give attendees an overview of the agreement.
Holding Democrats Accountable
2:15pm-3:30pm
For as long as unions have engaged in politics, we have faced the problem of candidates who promise one thing during campaign season and do another once elected to office. How do we ensure that elected officials who betray us pay a price? In recent years, progressive organizations like the Working Families Party, People’s Action, Democracy for America (DFA) and MoveOn.org have developed infrastructure and tactics that can hold elected officials accountable-most importantly, by building the capacity to take out sitting politicians. We will hear from representatives of these organizations and have a discussion about what local CWA activists can do to make sure the candidates we support stand by us once elected.
Continuing the Fight: Following the Stall of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation and the Executive Orders on Deportation Relief, Where Do We Go From Here?
3:45pm-5:00pm
A broken immigration system continues to leave millions of workers in the shadows, harming our democracy. By 2007 the undocumented population reached 11 million and was followed by a steep increase in deportations – tearing families apart. A mass movement of immigrant, labor and activist groups mobilized to demand comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). This overwhelming pressure led to the executive order granting temporary deportation relief for some qualified youth in 2012; S.744, a CIR bill which passed the Senate but failed in the House in 2013; and, another executive order to expand temporary deportation relief for qualified youth and their parents in 2014.
CIR continues to elude 11 million immigrants and the 2014 deferred action orders stand in jeopardy at the Supreme Court. So, where do we go from here?
This workshop will include a discussion on the current state of play of immigration legislation, as well as a legal analysis of the Supreme Court case challenging the 2014 executive orders and its potential impact on families. Labor, immigrant and community groups are continuing the effort to block anti-immigrant legislation and prevent employer abuses of undocumented workers. Panelists will also discuss how and where activists can continue the fight to keep immigration reform a priority. This workshop will highlight some of those organizations, programs and cities where CWA members can be active in the fight for immigrant rights.
Runaway Inequality: The Financial Strip-Mining of The Economy
2:15pm-3:30pm, repeated at 3:45pm-5:00pm
What happened to American working class prosperity? Why can't the richest country in history afford a decent public sector and infrastructure? Why is it so hard for us to bargain for just about anything? This workshop will explore why worker wages stalled in the U.S. and why the richer have become super-rich. We'll see how Wall Street is financially strip-mining every part of our economy at our expense. We'll learn why 95% of all new income generated in the current recovery has gone to the top 1% and why so little has gone to us. And we'll look at what must do to reverse runaway inequality.
Stopping the Attack on Public Sector Pensions
3:45pm-5:00pm
This workshop will explore the roots of the attacks on defined-benefit pensions for public employees. We will focus on the crucial role of former Enron trader John Arnold in the attack, as well as key Washington think tanks that our pension funds indirectly finance. We will show how locals can analyze their pension effectively so as to fight back, using New Jersey and New York City as examples.