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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 2006)
CWA embarks on program to boost organizing activity LAS VEGAS (PAI) — In a move to boost its organizing and political drives, the Communications Workers of Amer- ica created a new $24 million-per-year Strategic Industry Fund. The fund is part of the 700,000-plus member union’s “Ready for the Future” revamp plan adopted by the CWA con- vention, which met here July 10-11. The plan came after a year of work and consultation with rank-and-file mem- bers and locals. The fund will be used for a wide range of industries and issues, reflect- ing the fact that CWA, once an union of telecommunications workers, is now split virtually 50-50 between telecom workers and other workers. The others include The Newspaper Guild, broad- cast workers, the former International Union of Electronic Workers, the Asso- ciation of Flight Attendants, some gov- ernment workers and others. “Offense, not defense, is the point of the Strategic Industry Fund. It will give us the means for major, long-range ac- tion programs to change the terms of engagement with our employers and re- shape the economic landscape in which we bargain. This proposal lets us take charge of our future and build our bar- gaining power in every major industry T HE M ARCO C ONSULTING G ROUP T HE M ARCO C ONSULTING G ROUP INVESTMENT CONSULTANTS TO MULTI - EMPLOYER BENEFIT FUNDS P LEASE CALL J ASON Z ENK IN T ACOMA , WA AT (253) 759-6768 W EST C OAST O FFICE M IDWEST O FFICE E AST C OAST O FFICE 2912 N ORTH 26 TH S TREET T ACOMA , WA 98407 P: 253-759-6768 F: 312-575-9840 550 W EST W ASHINGTON B LVD . N INTH F LOOR C HICAGO , IL 60661 P: 312 575-9000 F: 312 575-9840 1220 A DAMS S TREET F IRST F LOOR B OSTON , MA 02124 P: 617 298-0967 F: 617 298-0966 group,” said CWA President Larry Co- hen. CWA said the new fund would “sup- port campaigns to change employers’ anti-union behavior and changes in pub- lic policy on issues such as trade and health care that affect working families.” It will be spent on campaigns in dif- ferent industries, “based on the percent- age of member contributions.” Those contributions now go to CWA’s strike fund, which has $380 million and will continue to grow through investments. The “Ready for the Future” plan also endorsed a key Cohen goal, which he took to the entire AFL-CIO as its new Organizing Committee chairman, of making union stewards “soldiers for democracy.” At CWA, that means cre- ating “a trained, motivated army of 50,000 stewards and activists ... to de- fend workers’ workplace interests and join with activists in other unions to build a movement for fundamental change.” CWA also wants to build a new po- litical program to take on local commu- nity fights for good jobs, health care, and the right to organize, among other causes. And it said it would “increase resources for political campaigns through stepped-up, voluntary contri- butions from members,” and set a $5 million fundraising goal. “We face economic trends that pose greater threats ... including far more globalization, a more belligerent private sector that has relentlessly eroded gov- ernment’s power to regulate it, levels of greed that make the 1980s look like an era of altruism, and rampant outsourc- ing in industries once considered im- mune to this pandemic,” said CWA Sec- retary-Treasurer Barbara Easterling . That landscape, combined with shrinking union density in many indus- tries, and what she called the “wrong- headed” split between the AFL-CIO and Change to Win’s unions produces “a threat to our very survival,” Easter- ling added. The good news, she stated, is that the country is finally awakening to the ex- Federal judge kills Maryland’s Fair Share Health Care plan BALTIMORE (PAI) — In a ruling that left business chortling and workers and their allies determined to fight on, a federal district judge in Maryland tossed out the state’s new Fair Share Health Care Act on July 19, saying it vi- olated federal law. Fair Share said private for-profit Maryland employers who hit that 10,000-worker figure had to spend the equivalent of 8 percent of their payroll costs in the state on health care for their workers there, or contribute an equiva- lent amount to a state fund for the unin- sured. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz, a Reagan appointee, said the Maryland law, which the Democratic- run Legislature passed this year over Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s veto, was invalid under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Motz explained that ERISA’s “pre- emption clause” trumped the Fair Share law because otherwise companies would be subject to many different state and local laws on health care coverage. “The main objective of ERISA’s pre- emption clause is ‘to avoid a multiplic- 7LUHG RI :RUNLQJ LQ 3$,1" 0RVW,QVXUDQFH 3ODQV$FFHSWHG 3 528'/< 6 (59,1* 3 257/$1' : 25.(56 ) 25 2 9(5 < ($56 PAGE 8 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS cesses and incompetence of the Repub- lican-controlled Senate, House and White House. But, she warned, that “anyone who sits back and waits for the Democrats to run a dynamic, competent campaign would be making a huge mis- take.” That leaves the fight up to the union movement, Easterling declared. “We have no choice but to fight. Politics is not a spectator sport. Whether we like it or not, we are all par- ticipants in our democracy.” ity of regulation in order to permit the nationally uniform administration of employee benefit plans,’” Motz wrote. “Uniformity is impossible if plans are subject to different legal obligations in different states.” Maryland’s law was to start Jan. 1, 2007 and apply to all employers in the state with more than 10,000 workers. But the Retail Industry Leaders Associ- ation, a Wal-Mart-established front group, sued. “The reason for the suit against the Fair Share law wasn’t legal, but politi- cal,” said Mark Frederici of UFCW Lo- cal 400. “This decision was to spike the political momentum that Fair Share was gaining around the country. I’m disap- pointed the other side is crowing, be- cause the decision still doesn’t solve the problem of the uninsured in Maryland or elsewhere.” The Maryland law was the first in a national movement, pushed by the AFL-CIO and its allies, to get large cor- porations, with Wal-Mart in the lead, who do not pay for their workers’health care costs to do so. %HHVRQ &KLURSUDFWLF KHOSVEULQJWKH UHOLHI\RXQHHG 7UHDWPHQWIRUSDLQGXHWR RYHUXVHDQGUHSHWLWLYHPRWLRQ &KLURSUDFWLFDGMXVWPHQWV 7UHDWPHQWIRUDFFLGHQWDQG VSRUWVUHODWHGLQMXULHV 5HKDELOLWDWLRQH[HUFLVHV 7KHUDSHXWLFPDVVDJH ,QWHUQDOGLDJQRVLVDQGWUHDWPHQW /DEWHVWVDQG[UD\V 'U'DQ%HHVRQ&KLURSUDFWRU 6(7KLUWHHQWK$YHLQ6HOOZRRG &$// AUGUST 4, 2006
