President's Perspective
Showing Support and Solidarity

(April 26, 2010) We don’t have the blue faces to prove it, but we talk an awful lot about solidarity. We help our union brothers and sisters when they ask for it, and, when we need help, we expect a positive response in kind. We’ve lent support to the New York Guild local during its contract struggle with Thomson Reuters, as management has been downright ornery at the  bargaining table. And when the Reuters D.C. bureau needs support, we’re happy to spread the word among our own leaders and activists.

At the recent CWA District 2 conference in Baltimore, we relearned some needed lessons in solidarity. Part of it was an internship of sorts!

Before lunch on the first day of the meeting, the 125 or so District 2 delegates walked a few blocks from the unionized Hilton Hotel in downtown Baltimore to Verizon’s office. There were several lively chants, lots of pointed placards, and a Washington-Baltimore Guild member from our AFL-CIO unit helping direct traffic for the informational picket line. The reason why: Despite sizable profits and growth, Verizon has sent layoff notices to more than 10,000 of its workers – including more than 1,000 CWA members in District 2 (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and D.C.).

Verizon also wants to get out of the land-line business, and has sought the okay from state officials to sell its land-line business in West Virginia to Frontier Communications. Nothing personal against Frontier, but it simply doesn’t have a track record with land lines. For a state with plenty of difficult terrain and cellphone usage well below national averages – West Virginia is one of just a few states that’s never needed any additional areas codes – such a transfer could prove chaotic in the short term and damaging in the long term. We think we’re getting traction in West Virginia, the source of close to half of all District 2 delegates (maybe this is an indication of how deeply this issue resonates with them).

Closer to home, CWA’s NABET sector has been picketing every Sunday outside the headquarters of WRC (Channel 4) the NBC Universal-owned Washington affiliate, during the taping of “Meet the Press.”

“Our members at NBCU/ WRC-TV have been without a contract for over a year,” writes J. Carl Mayers, president of the NABET local. “Each Sunday we have a informational picket at 4001 Nebraska Avenue NW, and I would like to invite you and your members to join us on Sunday, May 2 ( 7:30 to 11 a.m.), as we picket ‘Meet the Press.’ This is the date that WRC-TV will roll out its new ‘Control Room,’ which will use fewer employees to operate. There is reported to be a large contingent of upper-level management invited to attend and  I would like to have a show of force to let these managers from NBCU and Comcast know that the UNION will stand up for the rights of its members to negotiate a fair contract.”

Our support has been asked for. How will we respond?