NABET-CWA at the 74th Convention in Pittsburgh, PA.
CWA's 74th Convention - April 22-23, 2013 in Pittsburgh, PA
NABET-CWA Local 31 Executive Board Meeting 4-6-2013
“What do ex-cons and trade unions in California have in common?”
With those words, KTTV Fox 11 Vice-President and General Manager Kevin Hale begins his latest editorial criticizing California’s High Speed Rail Project, specifically a hiring policy that gives preferential treatment to disadvantaged workers.
Perhaps Mr. Hale is not feeling too kindly towards organized labor because engineers, editors, producers and other members of NABET-CWA Local 53 have refused to accept substantial cuts in wages and benefits that he’s been demanding during contract negotiations over the last two years.
Perhaps he’s upset the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor voted for a strike sanction against Fox 11 and sister station KCOP if NABET-CWA Local 53 members are locked out or go on strike.
Perhaps he doesn’t like getting hundreds of postcards from NABET-CWA supporters telling him they will boycott Fox 11and its advertisers until he negotiates a fair and equitable contract with his employees.
What exactly is Mr. Hale trying to tell us? You can see his editorial and decide for yourself.
“I'd like to hear your Point of View,” says Hale. “Send me an email at POV@ FOX11.com.”
Take Mr. Hale up on his offer! Send him an email and let him know what you think about associating union workers with criminals. You can also join the NABET-CWA Local 53 “Turn Off Fox 11” campaign by visiting Facebook. “Like” our page and share our story with your Facebook friends.
You can read the full story by clicking here Tell FOX TV management, "Union Workers Are Not Criminals!"
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NABET-CWA • 501 3rd Street NW • Washington, DC 20001 • 202-434-1100
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As Dwight Siemiaczko, a coal miner at the Cannelton mine near Smithers, W.Va., put it, “It’s ruined me, plain and simple.”
You might think he’s talking about the long hours or the life-threatening workplace diseases he is exposed to in the mines. But he’s actually talking about the assault on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by extreme, anti-worker members of Congress and their corporate donors.1
In the case of the Cannelton miners, the attacks on the NLRB mean that workers are not getting backpay or reinstatement, even though the NLRB ruled they were discriminated against for being union members.
Workers face retaliation all the time for simply supporting a union, and the NLRB provides one of the few means for workers to hold corporations legally accountable. It’s no wonder right-wing extremists in the House are trying to shut down the agency.
Republican House leadership is forcing a vote on a bill this week to grind the NLRB to a halt and put the rights of hundreds of thousands of workers at risk. Tell Rep. Donna Edwards to stand up for workers, not corporate interests, and oppose this bill.
I come from generations of coal miners and the story of Cannelton mine hits really close to home for me. I remember the dirty tactics mining company executives would use to squeeze every ounce of profit from workers, at the expense of our safety, wages and benefits.
It was our ability to work together, through our union, that allowed us to stand up to management.
But the corporate assault on workers doesn’t just happen in the workplace. CEOs and their lobbyists have learned they can get politicians in the halls of Washington to do their bidding, too.
And that’s exactly what these politicians are doing by attacking the NLRB. These politicians have been on a Big Business-financed tirade over the past few years to destroy the NLRB, so they can rig the system against workers.
They’ve held multiple hearings attacking the NLRB for doing its job. In 2011 alone, they introduced 25 bills and amendments to defund the board, weaken workers’ rights to free and fair union elections and undermine the board’s enforcement authority.2
Now they want to capitalize on the controversy over President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB. Radical tea party legislators in the House are trying to pass a bill that would stop the NLRB from acting unless the NLRB nominees in the Senate are confirmed.
This attempt to score cheap political points with deep-pocketed special interests has real consequences for all of us.
Working families have suffered enough and this will kill one of the few protections they have left.
The NLRB has been critical in standing up for the rights of all working families. Corporate CEOs have too much power as it is. Let’s not let them grab anymore.
Tell your representative: Oppose anti-worker legislators’ attempt to shut down the NLRB:
go.aflcio.org/NLRB
In Solidarity,
Richard Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
1 www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/It-s-Ruined-Me
2 www.americanrightsatwork.org/dmdocuments/NLRB/attacksonthenlrb.pdf
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