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CWA Joins Chorus to Demand All Americans' Right to Organize
The voices of 10,000 American workers - many of them CWA members - were raised the week of June 24 in more than 70 locations in protest against policies that make it either difficult or impossible for workers to join a union.
The day of nationwide protests and rallies was called to let the nearly 50 million Americans who would join a union if they had a chance know that the labor movement cares.
Looking back on the day - billed as "A Day to Make Our Voices Heard, Our Choices Respected" - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the events "a terrific start to the long-term project to restore the right of workers to organize."
"All across the country, the harassment, intimidation and humiliation that employers routinely force on workers was brought into the daylight," Sweeney added. Employers are waging "a secret war in our workplaces," and spend an estimated $300 million a year to thwart organizing efforts, Sweeney said.
Anti-union tactics mounted by employers range from captive-audience brainwashing sessions to outright threats and firings for real or suspected pro-union sympathies, organizers say.
CWA Leads the Way
One of the most poignant events occurred in Goldsboro, N.C., where Peter Bannister - a US Airways passenger service agent represented by CWA - met with immigrant farm workers struggling for union representation.
"It was a very heartwarming experience," said Ed Holmes, president of CWA Local 3676, whose local provided space for the meeting. The farm workers set out from Raleigh on June 23 and marched to Goldsboro, arriving that evening.
Cathy Howell, the AFL-CIO's North Carolina director, said the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is leading the effort to organize the workers. Most are Latinos who pick strawberries or cucumbers in hot, dirty conditions, or who work in pickle canning factories. Their produce is sold to the Mount Olive Pickle Co.
James Andrews, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, in opening the meeting, said, "We are here to shine a light on a war against workers. Last year, in the U.S., ten thousand workers were fired - not for doing something illegal, like stealing from their employers, but simply for exercising their right to organize with their fellow employees to protect their own interests."
"The plight of the farm workers is horrible," Bannister said later. They have been subjected to arrests, attacks with MACE and other indignities, he added.
Recalling the successful CWA campaign that organized 10,000 reservations and passenger service agents at US Airways last year, Bannister said, "We had it tough but they have it much worse." Airline management had tried to block union representation by creating mock unions, he said.
In more and more campaigns, managements are hiring expensive anti-worker, anti-union consultants - usually lawyers - to thwart unions both in the organizing campaigns and later at the bargaining table.
"Still," Bannister said, "we had the laws of the National Mediation Board on our side, whereas these migrant workers have virtually no protections."
These same themes were voiced by farm laborers in other areas, including Tallahassee, Fla., New York City and Watsonville, Calif.
Also in North Carolina, workers and supporters from CWA and other unions packed a United Auto Workers' hall in Charlotte to share their experiences and talk about the changes that are needed.
Rally in Jackson
Dearld Dear, president of CWA Local 3511 in Jackson, Miss., said his local staged a dual-purpose rally - to kickoff bargaining with BellSouth and to publicize the plight of workers trying to organize.
More than 45 persons participated at the rally at the Landmark Center, BellSouth's headquarters building in Jackson, Dear said. Leading the rally was CWA Representative George Powell as local television covered the event.
Many workers who had been frustrated in their efforts to join a union came out and spoke up at rallies, demonstrations and other events, Sweeney said.
One of them was paramedic Doug Coursey of Kingston, N.H., who told about being fired one day after his employer, North Shore Ambulance in Salem, ran an ad in the local paper praising him as a "rising star." He and three other paramedics were fired when management learned they were union supporters in an organizing campaign by the Teamsters, Coursey explained.
In some locations, workers gratefully received support from elected officials, civic leaders and the clergy. The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice released a statement linking the right to organize to the doctrines of most major denominations. "All religions believe in justice," said the committee's president, Bishop Jesse DeWitt, "and a fundamental voice for justice in the workplace is a union."
In Washington, D.C., a dozen members of Congress spoke up for the freedom of workers to organize unions and in many other communities, elected officials pledged their support and stood at workers' sides.
The day of nationwide protests and rallies was called to let the nearly 50 million Americans who would join a union if they had a chance know that the labor movement cares.
Looking back on the day - billed as "A Day to Make Our Voices Heard, Our Choices Respected" - AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the events "a terrific start to the long-term project to restore the right of workers to organize."
"All across the country, the harassment, intimidation and humiliation that employers routinely force on workers was brought into the daylight," Sweeney added. Employers are waging "a secret war in our workplaces," and spend an estimated $300 million a year to thwart organizing efforts, Sweeney said.
Anti-union tactics mounted by employers range from captive-audience brainwashing sessions to outright threats and firings for real or suspected pro-union sympathies, organizers say.
CWA Leads the Way
One of the most poignant events occurred in Goldsboro, N.C., where Peter Bannister - a US Airways passenger service agent represented by CWA - met with immigrant farm workers struggling for union representation.
"It was a very heartwarming experience," said Ed Holmes, president of CWA Local 3676, whose local provided space for the meeting. The farm workers set out from Raleigh on June 23 and marched to Goldsboro, arriving that evening.
Cathy Howell, the AFL-CIO's North Carolina director, said the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is leading the effort to organize the workers. Most are Latinos who pick strawberries or cucumbers in hot, dirty conditions, or who work in pickle canning factories. Their produce is sold to the Mount Olive Pickle Co.
James Andrews, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, in opening the meeting, said, "We are here to shine a light on a war against workers. Last year, in the U.S., ten thousand workers were fired - not for doing something illegal, like stealing from their employers, but simply for exercising their right to organize with their fellow employees to protect their own interests."
"The plight of the farm workers is horrible," Bannister said later. They have been subjected to arrests, attacks with MACE and other indignities, he added.
Recalling the successful CWA campaign that organized 10,000 reservations and passenger service agents at US Airways last year, Bannister said, "We had it tough but they have it much worse." Airline management had tried to block union representation by creating mock unions, he said.
In more and more campaigns, managements are hiring expensive anti-worker, anti-union consultants - usually lawyers - to thwart unions both in the organizing campaigns and later at the bargaining table.
"Still," Bannister said, "we had the laws of the National Mediation Board on our side, whereas these migrant workers have virtually no protections."
These same themes were voiced by farm laborers in other areas, including Tallahassee, Fla., New York City and Watsonville, Calif.
Also in North Carolina, workers and supporters from CWA and other unions packed a United Auto Workers' hall in Charlotte to share their experiences and talk about the changes that are needed.
Rally in Jackson
Dearld Dear, president of CWA Local 3511 in Jackson, Miss., said his local staged a dual-purpose rally - to kickoff bargaining with BellSouth and to publicize the plight of workers trying to organize.
More than 45 persons participated at the rally at the Landmark Center, BellSouth's headquarters building in Jackson, Dear said. Leading the rally was CWA Representative George Powell as local television covered the event.
Many workers who had been frustrated in their efforts to join a union came out and spoke up at rallies, demonstrations and other events, Sweeney said.
One of them was paramedic Doug Coursey of Kingston, N.H., who told about being fired one day after his employer, North Shore Ambulance in Salem, ran an ad in the local paper praising him as a "rising star." He and three other paramedics were fired when management learned they were union supporters in an organizing campaign by the Teamsters, Coursey explained.
In some locations, workers gratefully received support from elected officials, civic leaders and the clergy. The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice released a statement linking the right to organize to the doctrines of most major denominations. "All religions believe in justice," said the committee's president, Bishop Jesse DeWitt, "and a fundamental voice for justice in the workplace is a union."
In Washington, D.C., a dozen members of Congress spoke up for the freedom of workers to organize unions and in many other communities, elected officials pledged their support and stood at workers' sides.