(85,000 CWA work @ AT&T without contract) Communication workers rally

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20090421/UPDATES01/90421023/1002/NEWS01

By BRIAN GADD • Staff Writer • April 21, 2009

ZANESVILLE — More than 85,000 members of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) across the country have been working for AT & T without a contract since April 4, and the two sides are “still really far apart,” Local 4321 President Frank Matthews said. Key issues include health care costs, pensions and work rules, among others.

Matthews rallied about a dozen members of the union Tuesday evening in front of the Muskingum County Courthouse, carrying signs and decrying the company's excess in the midst of contract negotiations.

“What they are trying to do is to destroy our contract and take everything away from us,” said Matthews, who lives in West Lafayette. “They came to the table with the intention to strip our contract of everything we’ve worked hard for all of these years.”

He said the larger issue is that the “middle class is clearly under attack in this country ...every union member is in the fight of their lives right now.”

Matthews told the crowd, many decked out in red CWA T-shirts, that the company wants to eliminate a lump sum pension option, eliminate paid time off and cut 40 percent of the base wage rate for employees, in addition to a “laundry list” of items.

FULL story at link.

[dcsmart]

1. K & R...The working class

and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

from Preamble to the IWW Constitution