Communications Workers Of America Local 6508 AFL-CIO, CLC

• Moving Forward on 'Ready for the Future'
• Union Fights to Keep 1,100 Jobs in the U.S.
• Texas Dish Workers Vote CWA in Two Elections
• Union Members Celebrate Election Victories in New Mexico, Texas
• How High Speed Broadband Can Build a Green Future

Moving Forward on 'Ready for the Future'

CWA's union-wide campaign to improve our union's effectiveness, "Ready for the Future," is moving forward.

We started this dialogue at the 2005 Convention, with the convention mandating an 11-point Ready for the Future plan. Working together, we've accomplished a lot, including a hugely successful strategic industry fund (SIF) program that has financed bold campaigns, like Speed Matters, telecom, and health care and bargaining rights. We've expanded local leader perspective on the Executive Board and built an active Stewards Army that has made a real difference.

CWA's Executive Board met February 15-16, discussed next steps and adopted recommendations tat continue the work begun at our 2005 convention and address the convention mandate of the Ready for the Future resolution regarding the "right-sizing" of the Board by 2011 and the effective use of resources. These recommendations need to be acted on at the 2010 convention in order to be implemented in 2011.

The recommendations are available here.

Nearly 16 million Americans are unemployed and millions more are worried about losing their jobs. In 2009, 30,000 CWA union jobs were lost, the highest number ever in a single year, and the labor movement lost 800,000 members in 2009. Across CWA and across every sector, we need to put our resources to work where they will be most effective. We don't have the option of doing nothing, and waiting for another day. We need to work strategically and effectively now to keep our union strong.

Union Fights to Keep 1,100 Jobs in the U.S.

Some 5,500 union members and supporters rallied in Evansville, Ind., to protest Whirlpool's plans to close the plant and move 1,100 jobs to Mexico.

About 5,500 union members, leaders and supporters rallied in Evansville, Ind., to fight to keep the Whirlpool plant there open.

Whirlpool wants to close the plant so it can spend $110 million on a new facility in Mexico. Refrigerators manufactured at the Mexican plant mainly will be sold in the U.S. market. If the Indiana plant closes, about 900 members of IUE-CWA Local 84808 and 200 managers will lose their jobs.

IUE-CWA President Jim Clark said "Whirlpool's decision to shut down and move our work to Mexico is greed-driven and an atrocity. We know companies need to make money, but moving jobs out of the country during this economic crisis is shameful."

CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said that it's time that corporations in the United States take some responsibility for helping to reverse the economic downturn. "It's time for our government at all levels to hold corporations accountable for their behavior, especially when they have received millions in taxpayer dollars."

AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, community leaders and activists and supporters across the region joined the rally. Clark and Rosen and about 40 demonstrators delivered petitions to the front door of the factory.

Whirlpool told workers not to participate in the rally, threatening them that "these negative activities will only hamper employees when they look for future jobs." IUE-CWA has filed an unfair labor practice charge.

Union leaders have been reaching out to state and local elected officials to find ways to keep the plant open. A petition campaign by IUE-CWA asks activists to send a message to Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig that calls on Whirlpool to "be a good corporate citizen and keep the Evansville plant open." Go to www.unionvoice.org/campaign/whirlpool.

Cohen to LA Fed Delegates: Keep Focused on Four Key Goals

CWA Pres. Larry Cohen with CWAers at LA County Fed Congress. On screen is T-Mobile worker in disguise for fear of company retaliation.

The union movement needs to stay focused on our four key goals and keep building, despite the political and legislative setbacks we're facing, CWA President Larry Cohen told 1,000 activists at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor Congress.

Those goals: bargaining rights, health care reform, jobs and fair trade and retirement security, are the foundation of our movement and are the way we will keep our movement going in tough times, he said.

Cohen was the keynote speaker at the meeting held at the LA Convention Center. During his remarks he was surrounded by CWAers from nearly every sector of our union. Cohen talked about the bargaining challenges that CWAers and other union members are facing, from the fight for fair contracts at AT&T, to holding on to union jobs at NBC Universal, to the campaign by Northwest Airlines flight attendants to keep their union, to the attack on organizing rights for TSA agents, to the campaign by car wash workers and more.

Cohen stressed that the setbacks we face are real, but that we can't give up. The Massachusetts election now has made it possible for Senate Republicans to block any legislative effort or appointment, and that has serious consequences for Employee Free Choice, real health care reform, even appointments to the National Labor Relations Board who are critical to getting some justice for workers on the job.

"Our work is making a difference, but we have to continue to build our base, build our effectiveness and figure out a new path to get these things done," he said.

The Los Angeles County Federation represents workers from throughout the labor movement – it has Change to Win and AFL-CIO members – and has been a strong supporter of CWA campaigns. Extremely effective in community and union organizing, LA Union has turned that effectiveness into political clout and is a model for the labor movement.