Unions Join Together To Keep 1,100 Whirlpool Jobs Here In The U.S.

About 5,500 Union members, leaders - including National AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka - and supporters rallied in Evansville, Indiana, last week to fight to keep the Whirlpool plant open.  Whirlpool wants to close the facility so it can spend $110 million on a new plant in Mexico, with refrigerators manufactured at the Mexican plant would be sold in the U.S. market.  If the Indiana plant does close, 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 it is time 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," he said.  AFL-CIO President 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.  Unbelievably, Union representatives said 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."  As a result, 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."

Texas Dish Workers Vote CWA In Two Elections

Workers at two Dish Network locations in Texas have won CWA Local 6171 representation in spite of management's illegal efforts to intimidate them.  The 103 network technicians and warehouse employees in Farmers Branch and North Richland Hills have voted for CWA in separate elections.  CWA District 6 Vice President Andy Milburn said local organizers helped workers build strong inside committees and stay united.  The Farmers Branch Campaign got underway when Dish cut hourly pay for some workers by $13 an hour and changed the pay system for all workers.  Three-quarters of the workers signed a public statement supporting Union Representation, and workers voted 25-to-19 for CWA Local 6171. Trying to intimidate the workers, management challenged every vote during the election.  Local organizer Tony Shaffer helped workers stick together and face down management's threats.  Shaffer is a cable tech who helped organize co-workers when he worked at AT&T Broadband and Comcast.  The 53 workers at the North Richland Hills office voted 33-to-16 for CWA, hours after the first election.  Key to the victory was workers' unity and that three-quarters of the workers signed the public support statement.  

Union Members Celebrate Election Victories In New Mexico & Texas

A month of solid campaigning by CWA members in New Mexico and an intense get-out-the-vote effort last week gave a former CWA local president a decisive second term win as Santa Fe's mayor.  David Coss won 58% of the vote and beat two challengers.  He was president of CWA Local 7037 when it began organizing public workers in the 80s.  "David tells people, 'I come from Labor.  I am Labor.  I don't forget Labor,'" said New Mexico State Employee Alliance-CWA President Robin Gould.  As a city councilor before first being elected mayor in 2006, Coss supported public workers in the successful campaign for bargaining rights and continues to champion worker issues.  In another election victory, former AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson won the Democrat primary for lieutenant governor in Texas.  She will face Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst November 2nd.  "I'm humbled to have won the Democratic primary without a runoff," Chavez-Thompson said. "Our job is just beginning as we take our message to independent voters, frustrated voters, and Working Families."

How High Speed Broadband Can Build A Green Future

There's a real connection between high speed broadband and building a greener economic future. A new report released by CWA and its green partners shows how improving broadband technology can revolutionize energy use and management in the United States, boosting our economy.  "Networking the Green Economy: How Broadband and Related Technologies Can Build a Green Economic Future" shows how smart buildings, smart grids, telemedicine and other applications of high speed broadband and a connected economy, will conserve energy resources and promote good, green jobs.   The report was released at a Capitol Hill briefing with Representative Ed Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts), who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming; Nick Sinai, Energy and Environment Director, Federal Communications Commission; CWA Executive Vice President Annie Hill, and others.  Hill said: "Expanding broadband and the smart grid will create good jobs.  Investments in the 'Green Economy,' including more efficient use of resources and energy, are the job creators of the 21st century.  That's why any national broadband plan must be focused on job creation."  The report is a project of the Progressive States Network, the Sierra Club, the Blue Green Alliance and CWA.