CWA 7250 - Union Update - Winter 2023/2024
Please see attached CWA 7250 Union Update newsletter for information on:
A/R Store Blitz – Local 7250 Elections – MN Sick & Safe Time – Infor Disaster + Save 15 Min Flex! – Rove Bargaining – Sassafras Tech Contract – Organizing – Palestine Solidarity – Mobility WRC – Big WINS –Twin Cities Techs Luncheon – DTV Stewards Meet – Vince Opheim – Martin Luther King Jr.
 Union Update - Winter 2023-2024 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 894 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - Fall 2023
Please see attached CWA 7250 Union Update newsletter for information on:
| Union Update - Fall 2023 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 272 kB |
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CWA Presidential Election -
Last month, CWA International President Chris Shelton announced his retirement from the union after more than 50 years of service. We thank Chris for all of his activity and wish him the best. His departure offers an important opportunity for the members of CWA to take stock of where we are at and where we have to go.
We believe that this election should be about ideas, plans, and program - not personalities. In that spirit, instead of endorsing a candidate, we are putting forward a list of priorities that we feel must be taken up to put our union on the right footing. We can't wait any longer - we have to rebuild our organization so that we can effectively fight for the interests of our members and the whole working-class. Half-measures will not cut it.
We look forward to the candidates' responses to these priorities - we want to hear specifically how they would address them. And just as importantly we want to hear what the Locals and members think - and what they would add to this list. If you would like to sign on to this list - let us know!
Our Urgent Priorities
1. Listen to the Members
Last year at the insistence of our members, our Local organized a campaign to keep the Work from Home (WFM) option at AT&T. Our members found that WFH was safer, saved them money on commuting and childcare, gave them more time with their families and more time for rest, and more control of their work space. With the support of a few other Locals and some stewards and activist members from across the country we were able to organize actions, get major media attention (CBS Morning News, Fortune, The Guardian) and circulate a petition signed by more than 8,000 AT&T workers and their families - we did all of this without the help of our national union. The union has gotten so used to a top-down model where leaders tell the members what's important that it can't be of use when members are telling the leaders what's important. Listen to the Members!
2. Grievances Heard Within 60 Days
Our Locals have grievances that have been waiting for months and months - even more than a year to be heard at the District or Sector level. This lack of movement stalls any momentum and lets management know they can deny at first step and then it will effectively disappear. It's not uncommon for workers to leave the job while waiting for grievances to be resolved. These only breeds frustration, distrust and cynicism among rank & file members towards the union. This must change ASAP or we need to stop pretending that the grievance process is a real way to protect our rights. The expectation should be that all escalated grievances are heard within 60 days at the District or Sector level.
3. Mass Organizing Campaign
AT&T has whittled down its unionized stores to around 20% of its retail presence - the other big wireless telecom companies' stores are nearly entirely non-union. This can't go on. CWA 7250 sounded the alarm that AT&T was attacking our membership with impunity and got the first CWA National Day of Action against AT&T's non-union authorized retailer (A/R) stores - but we need much more. The CWA-organized stores at AT&T were an important foothold for unions in retail - but instead of using that as a springboard to further organize retail – we have allowed AT&T to attack the union presence by setting up "authorized retailers" run by ex-AT&T management and directly answerable to AT&T. We need to take them on with money, staffing, resources, and a strategy - we need to organize AT&T's non-union "authorized retailers" and then organize Verizon, T-Mobile, Boost and every other wireless retail operation. We also have to start taking on and organizing the non-union sub-contracting of tech work happening all across the telecom industry. Organize all of Retail! Organize all the Techs!
4. Open Bargaining
Open bargaining means that contracts are negotiated with transparency for the membership that will have to live under them. Instead of being scared of open bargaining, the union should embrace it as a powerful mobilizing tool. Let the members see what we are fighting for at the bargaining table and what the companies are trying to low-ball or take away. Last year in Minnesota, the powerful nurses’ union won significant gains for 15,000 members across a dozen hospitals using open bargaining. Nurses were able to directly follow the negotiations, there was tremendous trust between the members and the bargaining teams, and rank & file nurses mobilized at key times to put pressure on management at the table. Open Bargaining ensures transparency, builds trust, and exposes the companies.
5. Build Our Independent Power
CWA brags about its political work and influence, but much of it is just a blank check to the politicians. Both political parties are beholden to the corporations and the billionaires - neither one of them are loyal to working-class communities. Instead of tailing after politicians, giving them our money and energy, let's use our strength - combined with other unions and community groups, to fight for our interests. Look at what's happening in France where the government is trying to raise the retirement age - Unions aren't begging and lobbying - they are taking to the streets saying "No Business as Usual", and threatening a general strike. While here in the U.S., when the President attacked railroad workers' right to strike, CWA was silent. Let's use OUR power, not rely on the politicians.
In 2021 our Local presented a motion to the CWA Convention for the union to create a committee that would study, plan, and prepare for a strike across AT&T. It was wrongly ruled our resolution out of order for being unconstitutional (it wasn't). Right now, the union has NO plan to overcome the division and legal obstacles that AT&T's dozen different contracts with CWA create. If we are not to be forever divided (and weak) we need to be able to strike across contracts and expiration dates - we need to be able to shut down AT&T - and that takes organizing, planning and preparing. The Civil Rights movement in the U.S. took on legal injustice - we need to do so as well. It is the absolute responsibility of any union to be able to make plans and preparations to lead successful strikes if necessary.
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CWA 7250 Union Update - June 2023
Happy Fathers' Day - Happy Juneteenth - Happy Pride!
See below for Notes and/or Links on . . .
CWA Presidential Candidates Forum - What CWA 7250 is Looking for from the Candidates - Tower Bleeding Members, AT&T Wants More to Go - AT&T Call Center Move to Bloomington - Local Organizing Committee Gears Up - GoodStock Workers Close in on Contract - Reports from National Health & Safety and Wireless Conferences - Mayday March - Standing Up to Anti-Union Discrimination at the MN DOLI - Wins & Losses at the Capitol - Standing Up for Ukraine - Updates for DirecTV, AT&T Techs, AT&T Retail, and the AT&T Call Center . . .
| Union Update - June 2023 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 336 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - March 2023
Happy International Women's Day! Happy St. Patrick's Day! Ramadan Mubarak!
See attached for Notes and/or Links on . . .
March Membership Meeting - Power Struggle in CWA? No Business As Usual - Candidates for CWA National Office Statements - New Units Join CWA 7250 - AT&T Union Store Closes in Fairmont, MN - AT&T Refuses to Bargain Weather Days - Mass Organizing Campaign Needed - Solidarity with Trans Community - Grievance Updates - Scholarship Deadline - RED Thursday
| Union Update - March 2023 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 459 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - January 2023
Happy New Year! Remember Martin Luther King!
2023 & the Challenges Ahead - New Unit Joins CWA 7250! & More Organizing Updates - OSHA Snap Invespection - Grievance Report - Local Asks for Bargaining on Weather Days - Martin Luther King, Jr.: Labor Martyr - NFL Players' Work-Action Ends Game - Solidarity vs In-Fighting - RED Thursday - January Membership Meeting
| CWA 7250 Union Update - January 2023 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 783 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - December 2022
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanzaa!
The Big Picture: What the Elections Mean - OSHA & NLRB Look at AT&T Call Center - Layoffs Hit AT&T Workers"Red Wedding" for AT&T Retail Management - DirecTV Takes Away Life Happens - Techs Push Back Against Automation - Tech Workers Organize - Michelle Richardson Takes Over as Tower AVP - 7250 Pushes CWA T&T for Changes - AT&T Corruption Exposed - Nurses Win - Marcia Spring - Self-Defense Classes - Next Membership Meeting
| Union Update - December 2022 | [CWA 7250 e-Newsletter] | 999 kB |
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CWA 7250 'Zine distributed at the AT&T Tower Call Center upon the forced Return to Office in September 2022
Cover: Photos from Keep WFH Actions
p. 2: List of CWA 7250 Stewards & Officers in the Tower
p. 3: "From WFH to WTF", by Charli Haataja
p. 4: "Strength in Numbers", by Angela Bates
p. 5: "AT&T's Job Accommodation Scam"
p. 6: "Drawing Lessons from Our Fight", by Kieran Knutson
p. 7: List of Media Coverage of the Union Fight to Save WFH
p. 8: R - E - S - P - E - C - T
| From WFH to WTF | [RTO \'zine by CWA 7250] | 3196 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - November 2022
AppFolio Opens Bargaining with Threats of Outsourcing - AT&T Tower Workers Rage Boils Over - Organizing at Activision Update - the 2022 Elections - Expert Gives Talk to CWA 7250 on Big AT&T Pension Changes - Rounding the Bases: DirecTV, AT&T Technicians, AT&T Retail, AT&T Tower Call Center - Scholarships - "Red November, Black November"
| Union Update - October 2022 | [ ] | 1174 kB |
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CWA 7250 Union Update - Oct 2022
New AVP for AT&T Call Center - The Struggle Continues Over RTO/WFH at the Tower - Newly affiliated LOU/AppFolio workers fight for first contract - Rounding the bases: Updates DTV, Retail, Techs/VCC, & the Tower - ORGANIZE! - Solidarity Forever: CWA 7250 on the picket line with MNA Nurses - Local members at CWA District 7 Leadership School at the University of Iowa Labor Center - CWA 7250 at the Labor Notes' Troublemakers' School - MN Frontline workers pay - RIP Lorraine Bellanger, Marc Powell, and Elbert Branch - Native American Labor Heroes - Union-made Halloween
| Union Update - October 2022.pdf | [ ] | 1406 kB |
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